FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Mostly to do with flytraps, sundews, and pitchers...the little CP world I live in.

Water:
1. If at all possible, do purchase a TDS meter (~$15 on amazon). It makes life nice.
2. Use water that measures under 50ppm of TDS. (Some people's tap water is safe to use. Not mine, though. )
3. Use most any water for a short period of time if #2 isn't available. Flush later with good water.
4. Not following #3 can result in quick plant death. Think "bleached cow skull in Death Valley".
5. Use distilled water, reverse osmosis (RO) water, rainwater, dehumidifier water, possibly AC water.
6. Most of the above water can be used without testing with a TDS meter.
7. Rainwater is the least expensive, the TDS and the pH are usually good.
8. Rainwater TDS measurements will vary...rural lower, city higher, but either should be usable
9. I feel better using distilled water for seed-starting. No plant spores, fungus, etc.,.
10. I feel better using rainwater for growing/grown plants...cheaper, natural, it's cheaper.<g>
11. A 5-gallon bucket is great for catching/storing rainwater. They also are cheap ($5) or can be free.
12. Check bakeries for freebie buckets.
13. A 32-gallon Rubbermaid garbage can holds more, though, but they're $20...but they hold more!
14. Place containers beneath gutter spouts, roof drip lines, etc., to catch rain.
15. Do not catch the first few minutes of rainwater from the roof. It's dirty from roof debris.
16. A few minutes later much of the debris will be rinsed off the roof...then start catching the water.
17. A (very) small 10'x10' roof can produce around 30 gallons of water from a 1/2" rain.
18. No roof? Hang a tarp between supports with a dip in the middle creating a low point that empties into a bucket. Maybe a 10'x12' tarp?
19. The hard-plastic kiddie pools that people use for bog garden containers work well simply set in the yard to collect rain. Heavy rains you get a lot, light rains not so much.
20. There's doggie-pools, too. TSC.
21. Your rain catchment system will not catch rain if it isn't set up when it rains.
22. Plastic cat litter boxes, emptied milk/tea/oj/water/etc jugs, are all good for water storage, too.
23. Do not use empty Round-Up jugs for water storage.
24. Use mosquito bits or dunks if your water storage container is not completely sealed.
25. It might look a little murky, but your flytrap will love it! I prefer it to be clear, but...

Peat Moss:
1. Bales are much cheaper than small multi-quart packages but take up much more room for storage and can be a problem transporting if you don't have a vehicle that will carry them.
2. Small multi-quart packages "seem" to usually be good quality.
3. Quality seems to vary more with bales...it varies between brands and between batches of the same brands.
4. Never buy Greensmix peat moss from Tractor Supply (personal experience, YMMV).
5. I've had to sift the Greensmix, otherwise unusable. I don't know what other brands are like, yet.
6. I usually rinse my peat moss 2 or 3 times, letting it soak for a day or two in between a rinse and the next one. Squeeze the water out good each rinse. You'll never get it perfect.
7. A paint-strainer bag that fits inside a 5-gallon bucket helps keep things neat when rinsing peat moss. (Lowes/HomeDepot/Amazon)
8. Timing a good rain with a kiddie pool laid out to catch lots of water works great when it's peat moss washing time! Washing peat moss takes lots of low-TDS water!
9. It is recommended to wear gloves and a dust-mask when handling peat moss. It does carry some risks with it. Just sayin'....

Perlite:
1. Buy big bags if it is available that way, it's cheaper.
2. Rinse it!
3. Rinse it! I was shocked to see how milky the water became the first time I rinsed it. Very milky looking. The processing plants use whatever nasty water that they have on hand to wet it with during its production to keep dust down. It could be salty, alkaline, yucky water. Rinse it.
4. Wear a mask for this one, too, until you get it wet...it can be *really* dusty.

Sphagnum moss:
1. I don't know enough about it to say much. (I don't know that much about the other things, but that didn't stop me with them, did it! )
2. Some people swear by it, some people curse it. I haven't gained enough knowledge and confidence to use it in great amounts. Peat moss is a bit more "forgiving" in regards to water retention...from what I've seen.
3. There is dried sphagnum and live sphagnum. Both look good and can used for a top dressing. Live sphagnum looks really nice.
4. Live sphagnum can outgrow some CPs. It might need pruning back occasionally.
5. I wish I knew more than I do about sphagnum moss. I'll learn...slowly...maybe surely.

Sand - Coarse, #12, pure silica:
1. This is like...a chicken with teeth, a unicorn, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, an honest politician. From my experience...these things and coarse #12 sand do not exist.

Sand - "Other"
1. The key is to use *SILICA" sand. Other non-silica, non-quartz sands can leach minerals into the grow-mix which can harm your plants.
2. Finer grained sand is much more available, not as good as the coarser grade but usuable.
3. Pool filter sand is often recommended. It is usually stated as #20 grade. I have heard mention of a "coarse" pool filter sand.
3. General "play sand" and "builders sand" are usually not recommended but sometimes they are found to be acceptable. It takes testing.
4. Put some sand in a glass and pour a depth (couple of inches?) of 5% vinegar over it. Let it sit for an amount of time (10 minutes?, a half hour?, 24 hours?) and then look for any fizzing, bubbling, foaming, big bubbles, little bubbles, etc., happening. The vinegar is reacting with non-silica grains in the sand being tested. If you see the fizzing and bubbling...don't use it.
5. Silica sand is quartz sand. The grains will be translucent to transparent...light will pass through them. They will not be opaque (no light passes through). The grains may be different colors, other than clear. But, mostly clear.
6. Sand helps increase drainage but really fine-grained sand can lead to soil compaction...not good.
7. Sand can be used as a top dressing to hinder algae growth, stop peat and perlite from getting splashed onto the plants from rain, etc.,. I haven't used sand much...but plan on using more in the future.

Pots:
1. Use *rigid* plastic pots. Soft-sided pots flex too much when handled, shifting the grow-mix and disturbing the plant roots.
2. Do not use regular clay pots...they leach minerals into your grow-mix. Bad.
3. Glazed, ceramic pots can be ok...but they need to be sealed very well.
4. Full-sized (grown) plants...5" deep minimum....7" and deeper are even better.
5. Seed germination and small seedlings...3" deep pots seem to be fine.
6. Pots need plenty of drainage holes. An electric drill is your friend.
7. Pots without holes can be transformed into a thing of beauty with the help from your "friend".
8. White pots are cooler than dark-colored pots.
9. Large Styrofoam cups are good pots...punch holes in the *sides* of the bottom. Flat-bottomed cups can have bottom-drilled drainage holes blocked by the surface they sit on.

Fertilizing:
1. I don't know enough to talk about it, but extreme caution is usually recommended.

Feeding:
1. Same as fertilizing. I've tried it once so far with re-hydrated bloodworms. Not a memorable experience. I don't think I killed anything, though.

Light and Temperature:
1. Plants need light and they enjoy temperatures that you enjoy...maybe a tad warmer for flytraps and pitchers.
2. Flytraps and pitcher plants need full sun and enjoy it on the warm side. Windowsills don't cut it for them.
3. Sundews enjoy a little relief from the blistering sun and heat. Lots of them are happy on windowsills.
4. The other CPs...I really don't have a clue.

Ok, that's my psychotic ramblings for this morning. Actually, I'm just tired of thinking and writing.
All points are subject to change without notice. Vote early and vote often. Never miss an opportunity to visit the john. Things in your rear view mirror are closer than they appear. Side effects are: I *think* it's done. Check's in the mail. Etc.,.

Why? I wondered this myself. At first I thought it was simply a troll seeking responses or a spammer trying to build up post counts. I'm beginning to think it is someone testing out an app that rephrases or rewords already written documents to see if readers easily detect it as being a reworded recent post. Possibly someone is trying to use, or is creating an an app to plagiarize someone else's work so that a search algorithm won't turn up a match to an existing document. They're using forum members as guinea pigs for their testing. It seems many kids these days are walking away from universities and colleges with participation trophies.

Just my redneck thoughts.

I agree, but we're living in a changing world that some of the change isn't for the best. But, that was just a thought I had after doing a google search for rewording posts, etc.,. I didn't even know those apps were out there. Uncharted waters civilization is heading into...

It does seem like bots come in swarms, and just not here. Maybe Musk flushed the mosquitoes out of the Facebook bush and they needed somewhere to land.