FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

is it possible to use pure peat moss for my CPs? what does perlite (which i cant find) even do? will using pure spagum peat moss affect my plant at all? Please help!!!1!

Perlite helps aerate the peat, some people do use just use peat moss.

Hi flytrapguy .
you can use just sphag peat , but its best we have found to mix it with sand , not beach sand but crushed rock sand, some can call it silica sand , this assist in stopping the peat from forming clumps and going hard by breaking the peat up in the mix , you can add perlte , this and the sand should be able to be obtained at the larger retail nursery or Garden centres , or I am sure that some very helpful people on this forum closer to you can tell you where to buy them , personally I have found the sphagnum peats from Canada TE-EM peat to be the best so far and mixed with even washed river sand fine to medium grade works well, in a 60 40 mix that is 60% peat and 40 % sand more or less of either is fine but more sand is better I find than less !!
other may have different mixes and ideas.
J

I'm just going to suggest that beach or river sand are probably ok for a short time, but they are not suitable for long term potting. Silica sand is completely inert because it's very small quartz rock (SiO2), which is not chemically reactive and does not easily dissolve in water. On the other hand, beach or river sand can often have other minerals and soft rocks in it (such as sand stone) that readily dissolves in water and can leach minerals in to the soil that will eventually be detrimental to the plant's health...

Peat moss is the organic component that holds water, sets the pH of the media, and provides carbon and salts to the media. Perlite is inert and doesn't contribute anything, it's just porous rock (basically super-expanded pumice, if I understand correctly). Perlite provides aeration (which the roots of the plant needs) by preventing the soil from holding too much water. If you're just watering every few days, so long as you're not overwatering (you should wait between waterings until the top just barely starts turning a lighter color), you shouldn't have any problem growing in pure peat.

When I first started I used pure peat and the tray method. When using the tray method, the taller the pot, the dryer the top of the soil. Capillary action or "wicking" of water by peat can only fight gravity so far. With a short 5 inch tall pot the top of the soil was always wet, but with a 9 inch tall pot it was always moist, never wet (which is an ideal mix of wet and aerated). Adding perlite or sand to the mix just drys things out by decreasing the amount of peat that's doing the wicking, you can get roughly the same effect by using a taller pot.

Everybody's already helped out, but I don't think you should use 100% peat unless absolutely necessary.
1. Using pure peat makes it hard to water your plants. You have to check it constantly to make sure it's not too wet or too dry. It's kind of a pain
2. Using pure peat promotes mold and fungal growth. If you have some perlite in the mix (or even better, Silica sand), it will be harder for fungus to grow on the top of the media.
If you can't access perlite or silica sand, you can always order it on FTS. Also, on Amazon.com you can buy a 50 lb bag of silica sand for 35 bucks with shipping and that will last for a loooooong time! Here's a link to some safe sand: http://www.amazon.com/Quikrete-Pool-Fil ... 626&sr=8-6
Good luck finding some perlite or silica!