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Cps in their natural habitat

I went to s. va yesterday on Phil Sheridan's rendition of a repopulation effort of s. flava, and s. purpurea. All in all I was very impressed. I learned alot about their habitat, and growing conditions, and most importantly to me, medium. I had NO idea at how sandy their medium is. I just couldn't believe where they were growing, how wet it was and the amount of sun they did or did not get. I always was of the impression that sphagnum was just an inexpensive way to get plants to grow, when in fact it is a HUGE part of at least s. flava, and s. purpureas growing environment. They grow more times then not on what are called sphagnum pillows, large clumps of pure live sphagnum. These often times are located in the middle of standing water or even running water. I was dumbfounded though...really. The sand content was ridiculous. Now I know that alot of people have their own % of sand they use, if at all, but I'd say the sand to 'peat' ratio was probably upwards of 70%-30%. This was a serious eye opener for me. I ofen wonder if a sar could be too wet....well, I don't think that is possible from what I have seen...not to say you want to flood them, but wet is certainly the order of the day. I was also taken back by the size of some of the s. purpurea...wow, I mean the pitchers on this one plant were giant. They must have been upwards of 10". I am not exageratting. The s. flava were about three feet tall. I have pics, but I cannot post them from my cpu. I am going to send them to plantakiss and have her do it for me. Well, I hope to have them up in the next day or two. If you ever get the chance to take a tour of a natural bog in the middle of nothing, go, but remember, take bug spray! The deer flies were indeed the worst part about the entire experience.
 
remember, something that works in the wild may not work in cultivation (ie, neps growing in pure clay)

Sounds like it was pretty fun!
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Deer flies, the WORST part of it? cmon, thats the best of it! bring a net, catch em, and feed em to the plants!
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[I don't know spec, I got bitten right after getting there and no kidding, my left index finger balloned to the size of my thumb. Not a fun experience in that matter.
 
I agree there is nothing like walking into a huge field of S.flavas. It's amazing.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] I had NO idea at how sandy their medium is.
The sand is really sandy. I took a soil sample from the Green Swamp,NC a few years ago. The soil is mostly made up of peat and sand. About a 50/50 mix. When looking at the mix it looks like its more sand than peat, but it's about equal. make the mix yourself and tell me if it looks and feel close to the way it did when you saw it in the field. I know that the soil will vary from site to site, but from the sites I have seen the mix is about 50/50. I have only seen sites in or near the Green Swamp. So my observation may be incorrect on Sarr sites in general. If you do this little experiment let me know the results, because I am very interested how the soils in the two places are different.
 
Out of curiosity, when you say it is a mix, do you mean that it is reasonably homogeneous mix or is it somewhat layered?
 
Most of the places that I have seen has a layer of pine needles or some type of grass or both then the soil is below that. the "mix" is thoroughly mixed together.
 
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