FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all, I've just joined the board as I have recently acquired a VFT and I want to look after it properly. I have bought some perlite and ordered some spaghnum moss peat from a seller on ebay (as any type of peat seems difficult to get around here in the UK), as I intend to re-pot it in a peat:perlite:sand 70:15:15 mix. My question is -I have some bird sand, will this be OK to use for the sand part? It has oyster shell added to it. If not, I saw some, I think it was called "sharp sand" in a garden centre, would that be better?
Thanks

Hello Jack and welcome to flytrapcare!

I don't think I'd use the bird sand for your VFT potting soil. I honestly have never used sand in my soil, and I don't really know what bird sand is but I doubt that it would be OK to use since it has oyster shell in it. I could easily be wrong though.

I don't know what "sharp sand" is, but if it's silica sand, then that's what you want. The sand crystals should look clear, like quarts, when you look at them closely. That's the kind of sand you want.

I agree with Matt. I wouldn't use bird sand because there's a good chance it could be river sand or some other sand that is not almost pure silica (quartz) and the oyster shell is soluble and may harm the plants. The "sharp sand" you mentioned (also known as horticultural sand) may very well be almost pure silica. The way to determine, as Matt mentioned, is to see whether the grains are opaque or translucent. If translucent, it's very probably silica sand and it's OK. If opaque or nearly so, those are other (non-silica) types of rock.

Blasting sand (for industrial or artistic sandblasting applications) is often natural, pure mined silica sand, so you might want to see if you can find a source for that in home improvement or garden or building centers.

Regarding limited availability of sphagnum peat moss, I'm trying an experiment right now with coir (coconut husk pith) as an alternative or substitute for sphagnum peat moss, and so far the results are promising. So you might want to keep track of that discussion thread (Evil Coir Experiment) as it develops, in the "Venus Fly Trap Discussions" area of the forum.

Best wishes,
Steve

Matt wrote:Hello Jack and welcome to flytrapcare!

I don't think I'd use the bird sand for your VFT potting soil. I honestly have never used sand in my soil, and I don't really know what bird sand is but I doubt that it would be OK to use since it has oyster shell in it. I could easily be wrong though.

I don't know what "sharp sand" is, but if it's silica sand, then that's what you want. The sand crystals should look clear, like quarts, when you look at them closely. That's the kind of sand you want.

Thanks for the welcome, Matt Great site and forum btw, just what I was looking for! Just FYI, bird sand is used to line the bottom of bird cages to keep them clean. There is no info about the type of sand in there as such, it's just that we had a big unused bag of it lying around..Anyway, as you and Steve are both suspecting the oyster shell is probably not good, I will knock that idea on the head. Think I'll look more closely at the sand in the garden centre, as that seems more promising.

Steve_D wrote:I agree with Matt. I wouldn't use bird sand because there's a good chance it could be river sand or some other sand that is not almost pure silica (quartz) and the oyster shell is soluble and may harm the plants. The "sharp sand" you mentioned (also known as horticultural sand) may very well be almost pure silica. The way to determine, as Matt mentioned, is to see whether the grains are opaque or translucent. If translucent, it's very probably silica sand and it's OK. If opaque or nearly so, those are other (non-silica) types of rock.

Blasting sand (for industrial or artistic sandblasting applications) is often natural, pure mined silica sand, so you might want to see if you can find a source for that in home improvement or garden or building centers.

Regarding limited availability of sphagnum peat moss, I'm trying an experiment right now with coir (coconut husk pith) as an alternative or substitute for sphagnum peat moss, and so far the results are promising. So you might want to keep track of that discussion thread (Evil Coir Experiment) as it develops, in the "Venus Fly Trap Discussions" area of the forum.

Best wishes,
Steve

Thanks Steve, I will look more closely at that other sand I saw. I will watch with interest your coir trials, as moss peat is apparently endangered, so I don't really want to add to the world's problems by using that long-term (plus coir is much more readlily available over here)! I'm hearing that another alternative to peat may be to use fresh spaghnum moss, which again, is much more readily available, and (to my knowledge) not endangered.