The Best Medium for Sarracenia

Sphagnum moss is generally recommended as the best medium for Sarracenia. Sphagnum moss is hard to find, very expensive, not harvested in a sustainable manner. Quite often moss sold as sphagnum is actually a sheet moss that can be toxic to Sarracenia.

Soil mixes with peat are quite adequate for Sarracenia. In fact S. rubra, S. psittacina, S. rosea and most hybrids prefer being in a peat mix. I grow S. psittacina in pure peat. Keep in mind though, with a peat mix you need to top water the plants and change the water in the trays frequently. How often depends on your water quality, how often you water your plants, and exactly which mix you use.

The most common peat mix is equal parts peat and silica sand. The peat needs to be sphagnum peat which is decomposed sphagnum moss. The sand should be fairly coarse and about the same size grains. Coarse, washed "play sand" can work but it has a lot of small particles. Horticultural sand and 16 mesh silica sand blasting sand are best. Sand may need to be soaked for a while in purified water to remove the salts in them. The salt gets into the sand during processing because water is sprayed on the material to reduce the dust. Breathing silica dust from sand is dangerous to your health.

Some members have great success using perlite instead of sand in their soil mixes. For me it has been nothing but disastrous. The difference seems to be their domestic water is low enough in dissolved solids they can top water their plants regularly from a garden hose. Breathing perlite dust is very dangerous to your health. (©International Carnivorous Plant Society)