Vft soil

[horticulturist]

I am thinking about getting another vft, but I don't know if the soil I have will work. The one that I have I got from Lowes so I don't know what kind of soil it has. I have Professional Jiffy Mix made of peat moss, lfs, and 2% lime. It has vermiculite instead of perlite. Will this dirt work for plant? Any help will ba appreciated.

 

[HellzDungeon]

im not sure if it would work because of the vermiculite
vermiculite contains some more minerals and stuff than other subtrates, making it ideal for mexican Pings and Neps, but i dont think it would work with VFT, although i might be wrong.
Best Wishes,
Hellz

 

[jimscott]

CP people DO use vermiculite. I believe it is made from inert materials. Lime, I've been told is calcium oxide. Calcium is not good for CP's.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Personally I would avoid vermiculite for Cps except in certain circumstances.
Vermiculite contains some calcium and magnesium in it's composition. Because of this it has a pH between 6-9 when exposed to water.

The jiffy mix probably also has added nutrients besides the lime and vermiculite. What you want is pure sphagnum peat moss with nothing added.
Tony

 

[horticulturist]

Ok. Thanks the help! I'll see if I get some long fibered sphagnum moss. Do I use live or dried? Is it ok to use peat pellets?

 

[jimscott]

A lot of CPers also use Canadian peat. Good sized bags for only a few bucks.

 

[pond boy]

I would go with either a mix of 50\50 washed peat,and perlite or sand blasting sand,optionaly topped with lfs or live sphag(this will help prevent rain from making perlite floating all over). Pure lfs should work well too,definately don`t use the jiffy mix the Lime and added fertilizers will almost certainly kill your plant!

wish you well,
pond-boy.

 

[horticulturist]

Is it OK to use Growcoir mixed with petflytraps' soil mix? They say it's just like peat moss.

 

[Vertigo]

I've used grow-coir before with flytraps, but I prefer to still mix in some peat. It's a great substrate in that it doesn't really compact so much, and never gets water logged. Though you'd definately have to watch the water level as it would dry out faster than peat.

Honestly, i've seen vft's grow better in straight peat or peaterlite than grow-coir or coirerlite.

 

[hokkaido]

what about a sphagnum peat moss mix with some small wood chips? or industrial sand better

 

[Jason Wong]

I've never heard anyone use wood chips before (Well thats me), but give it a try if you wil, just make sure there no minerals present in it (not sure how you could test that though). Use well washed river/lawn sand (And I do mean darn well washed - there mud and all sort of minerals in it), or sandblasting sand like pondboy said. Your best bet would still be 50:50 LFSerlite or Peaterlite/sand though...try it out, and good luck, whatever descision you make. Its all trial and error, these things...well someone's got to do it, I rather it not be me - I've only got 1 VFT!