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Confused what to use for repotting/propagating VFTs


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OK, I'm back with another question on soil/whatever for CPs.

 

On a recommendation in another thread here, I bought Carnivorous Plants by Adrian Slack (cost me a whole £3.44 inc P+P from abebooks.co.uk!).

 

In the section on cultivation, he says that they should be gown in moss peat and sand in equal proportions.

 

I just received a VFT from Hants, and it looks like it's planted in live moss. Can't see anything else in there, although there could be some peat underneath. Hard to tell.

 

However, on the VFT page on Hant's web site, they say "Plants can be repotted in our com 1..." I bought some of this at the same time as the VFT, and it doesn't have any live moss in at all. It's a very dry mixture of what looks like fine brown soil and some white stuff that looks like little bits of polystyrene. I'm sure it's not soil or polystyrene, but I'm equally sure it's not live moss either.

 

So what do I do? If it should be repotted in this mixture, why does he sell them in live moss, and if they should grow in live moss, why does he recommend the brown mixture for repotting? I'm confused!

 

Thanks for any help.

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OK, I'm back with another question on soil/whatever for CPs.

On a recommendation in another thread here, I bought Carnivorous Plants by Adrian Slack (cost me a whole £3.44 inc P+P from abebooks.co.uk!).

In the section on cultivation, he says that they should be gown in moss peat and sand in equal proportions.

I just received a VFT from Hants, and it looks like it's planted in live moss. Can't see anything else in there, although there could be some peat underneath. Hard to tell.

However, on the VFT page on Hant's web site, they say "Plants can be repotted in our com 1..." I bought some of this at the same time as the VFT, and it doesn't have any live moss in at all. It's a very dry mixture of what looks like fine brown soil and some white stuff that looks like little bits of polystyrene. I'm sure it's not soil or polystyrene, but I'm equally sure it's not live moss either.

So what do I do? If it should be repotted in this mixture, why does he sell them in live moss, and if they should grow in live moss, why does he recommend the brown mixture for repotting? I'm confused!

Thanks for any help.

Im sure they can be grown in moss also, soak the soil in rainwater or similar, when it is wet plant your plant, happy days. I have used sand in some of my vft they seem to do ok. From what ive read people use all kinds of soils it just depends which works best for you.

Dan

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They can be grown in both. His com1 compost is probably peat and perlite (the polystyrene bits) with maybe some horticultural sand. If you look in the "In Cultivation" threads you'll see vfts growing in both live sphagnum moss and all sorts of peat mixtures. BTW if you do repot in the com1 stuff make sure you give it a real good watering so the compost is well soaked. When I transplant things I generally stand the pot in a bucket with water almost to the top of the pot until the compost goes damp.

 

Best of luck.

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I grow all my vfts in a moss peat and perlite mixture.

Like linuxman says it needs to be well watered (with rain water) before re potting. also you will find that mosses will grow on the surface of the peat moss after a while. this might be what you can see on your already potted plant.

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If Adrian Slack says this is how you can grow it, you can rest assured it's correct. However it's not necessarily the only way. That also applies to any other growing advice you will receive. There are almost as many growing medium variations as growers and every one of them is right (almost). 

 

I've been threatening to incorporate brick dust into a mixture for a long time and I have a feeling the day is nigh.

Edited by FredG
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Thanks, that's good advice. As he recommended repotting in his own mix, I'll stick with that. I might see if I can pull a little moss off the top of the existing pot and transfer it. From what I've seen of moss, it should be fairly easy to transfer. I actually think it looks much nicer than the brown mixture anyway!

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VFT.s can be quite easy going sometimes. I am going to repot mine next year in 2 parts coir to 1 part lime-free sharp sand. I've used this mix before and it works for me. Peat according to some growers is getting hard to buy in some places. I get my unfertilized coir from gardendirect, just do a search on Google, they are based in Hoddesdon, Herts. Yes, I do know that Tim Bailey gets his from somewhere else.

The only thing about coir  is that you do need to repot regularly, every three years at most. This is what a lot of growers using peat do anyway.

Composted pine bark has been used recently with very good results.Can't remember the supplier but it is easy to get hold of. Perhaps someone can name the supplier. Annette did a talk at the AGM about this.

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