Question
my carnivorous plants
Hello, I got some carnivorous plants at lowes(a venus fly trap, a sundew, a nepenthes, and a sarricinia purperia) they where in little cubes and growing in just sphagnum moss i thought this was wrong and i transplanted them into bigger pots and different soil the soil i made for them is i half sphagnum peat moss and i half vermiculite and now im growing them outside under some bug attaraching plants(they get 5 hours of dazzled afternoon sun) is this right? I live in California.p.s some aphids got to the venus fly trap and messed up the new growth.
AnswerHi Kasen,
The recommended soil mix for flytraps and Sarracenia is equal parts peat moss and perlite. Vermiculite is not suitable for these plants, though it is OK to use with Nepenthes. However, your current mix is still inappropriate for Nepenthes.
For Nepenthes, use 1 part peat moss and 2 parts perlite. This is a good general mix for tropical pitcher plants. There are also other appropriate soil mixes, and you can find them on our website:
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets
I also recommend watching our DVD series, Grow Carnivorous Plants. We show you how to grow these plants, how to repot and propagate them and avoid common mistakes:
http://www.cobraplant.com/DVD
Good growing!
Jacob Farin
