Walking in the Shadows

Random musings from Warwickshire on life in general... Things that make me laugh, make me cry, things that wind me up beyond all endurance - and everything in between.

Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts

Trying to grow Venus Flytraps from seed

As those who know me well know, I love my carnivorous plants.  But, there's one problem...  The government is looking to ban peat from being used in compost..  And my monsters grow in.... Peat.  

But one nursery Wacks Wicked Plants is offering Venus Flytrap growing kits - in two versions.  Peat (the normal growing media) and peat free (the new variety growing media).

Taking the media out of the boxes (very helpfully labelled so I knew which was which) I placed them in the supplied pots and labelled them, thinking I wouldn't know which was which... But that hasn't been the case.

The media is visibly different. The peat based compost is the dark brown with the usual perlite mixed in.

The peat free? Well I am glad I knew it was compost. It looks nothing like the compost I am used to when repotting my monsters... It looked like someone had emptied a bottle of bleach over the compost.

I’ve labelled the two pots so I know which is which once they are fully hydrated and will plant (ok carefully place) the seeds on the top once the compost is ready... Then let the experiment begin!

Growing media - peat with red lables, peat free with green


The pots are standing in a saucer of rainwater in a minimally heated (frost proofed) south facing conservatory, so light won’t be an issue as these seeds need lots of light to sprout...

I’ll update on a weekly basis and give my honest (and hopefully) unbiased opinion. And no – Wacks *didn’t* ask me to do this – this is my interest in my beloved monsters...

Time to call this quits – got to go and work on my other passion... My car.

Back with updates tomorrow – the planting!

Karen

I gave no thought to wisdom
It all but vanished in the haze
This fragile hand of fortune
Had changed and turned it all to grey