Perfect Plants Carnivorous Plant Soil, 4 qt, Venus Fly Trap Potting Mix

Perfect Plants Nursery is a family owned business with roots in the garden industry starting in 1980. For over 40 years, the core of our operation is to provide the gardeners of America with high quality trees, shrubs, houseplants, and professional level gardening supplies to meet every garden need! Our collection of liquid fertilizers are trusted by gardeners across the US Grow brighter blooms and more vibrant indoor orchids with our Orchid Gardening Products Carnivorous plants are quite fascinated and are becoming an increasingly popular addition to house plant collections across the country. These plant types are characterized by their ability to attract and lure live prey (insects) into their various traps before digesting them for food! Like other plants, carnivorous plants photosynthesize to create sugars. However, the eating of insects is how these interesting specimen get their various other nutrients such as phosphorus or nitrogen! Carnivorous plants are also unique in their soil needs, which often lacks the common soil ingredients most potting soils incorporate. Carnivorous Plant Soil by Perfect Plants Nursery is the perfect blend of peat moss and perlite. This basic blend creates the ideal soil environment for almost all carnivorous plants! Carnivorous plants such as the Venus Flytrap and the Money Cup are native to tropical or subtropical climates where they grow in often very saturated soil. It is because of this that our carnivorous planting mix makes it quite easy to absorb and, most importantly, retain water. Venus Flytraps are often watered by placing them into a watering saucer and filling the saucer itself with water. This allows moisture to soak up from the bottom of the pot holes. The simple blend of peat moss and perlite makes this medium perfect for any type of carnivorous plant large or small! Many of these plant varieties can get quite large and a soft yet robust planting medium makes building an expansive root system much easier. This means less strain on the plant itself and more growth during the growing seasons! For added growth be sure to plant your carnivorous plants in an area with good sunlight, we suggest indoor plants be placed on a window sill that receives sunlight all or most of the day. Carnivorous plants can go quite a long time between insects that they consume. When they do finally make a catch, the nutrients from a single insect is quite substantial making fertilizing unneeded. In fact fertilizing your carnivorous plants can do much more harm than good. It is for this reason we make sure our Carnivorous potting mix is free of unnatural fertilizers and is sterile from harmful components. Be sure to repot your growing plants every 1-2 years depending on growth rate. Peat Moss is a common amendment in most potting soils, however in Organic Carnivorous Planting Soil it makes up the majority of the soil's composition. This is because peat moss is inherently low in nutrients and high in acidity, making it the ideal medium for nutrient poor and sterile soil that carnivorous plants love. Peat Moss also is great at retaining water and keeping the soil environment humid and saturated. Perlite is used in common potting soils to add texture in the soil and aid in soil retention. Perlite in this Organic Carnivorous Potting Mix helps add just the right amount of drainage of excess soil, that way your carnivorous plants are not sitting in a sopping wet mixture of peat moss and water. In addition, perlite's added texture aids in the growth of a plant's root system and is a way to prevent the soil from compacting. Perlite is a must in carnivorous planting soil and is mixed in just the right ratio for optimal results, regardless of the plant variety. Sand adds a bit of structural strength to the soil to avoid compaction in addition to improved aeration. With consistently moist soil needed for thriving carnivorous plants, sand helps keep the soil from getting too soft and unstable for ideal root growth. Because of this added stability from sand, it also allows more oxygen to get to the roots. When watering the soil of your various carnivorous plants be sure to water them from the bottom of the pot. This is achieved by placing them in a deep watering saucer and filling the saucer up to cover about 1/4 of the pot. Water will soak up from the bottom and maintain a soaked environment. This mimics the bogs and swampland many carnivorous plants are native to. For optimal results when watering carnivorous plants such as Venus Flytraps and Pitcher Plants it is recommended to use mineral free water. You can either purchase distilled water or use rainwater! Because carnivorous plants grow best in nutrient poor soil, mineral free water maintains the lack of nutrients in the soil. Whether planted outside in the garden or kept in a pot inside your home carnivorous plants love lots of sunlight. When kept inside we recommend keeping them potted on a sunny windowsill. Be sure the windowsill is away from air vents which can dry out and kill your plant, and also be sure the window receives sunlight for all or most of the day. Refrain from fertilizing your carnivorous plant as they get all the nutrients they need from the insects they consume. Venus Flytraps, for example, need to only catch about 1 to 2 insects a month to thrive, however the more insects they capture naturally the better. If your carnivorous plant is inside away from bugs, you can supplement their food with freeze dried meal worms!