All of these plants will do fine in 50/50 sphagnum peat moss & perlite with or without some sand. All will do best in containers with drainage holes that are kept constantly wet, with water always sitting in the tray below the pot. They also need distilled or rain water, and lots of sunlight. Note that all of these plants have a winter dormancy as well.

I would recommend going to the International Carnivorous Plant Society web page - they have a "How To" section with a growing guide and a link to some FAQs, etc.;

www.carnivorousplants.org

Yes, 50/50 peat moss or spaghnum moss with perlite or orchid bark. They cannot handle tap water, and they need a winter dormancy, which means you should be able to plant them outside and leave them there year round. If you live in an area where it gets way too cold or it doesn't get cold enough, then they can go in your refrigerator for three months. They grow naturally in the southern part of the United States.

For the most part, CP's will do well in a combination of all three. People have prefernces and there isn't necessarily a perfect mix for them. With CP's, they are primarily living in nutrient poor soil media. So it comes down what qualities each plant need and what each media type offers. Sand and perlite are good for drainage and sphagnum peat is good for water retention. Peat is also good for mainatining a slightly acidic soil.

What back2eight and montego wrote is great guidance. Another thing you could purchase, that will come in handy is Long fibred Sphagnum (LFS) and that can be found at Home Depot and Lowes, in snall, rectngular bags. This is the dead / dried media in which many cp's naturally reside. given enough light, water, and time, the spores do their thing and it becomes alive. The live LFS has antisceptic qualities.

not allways petiolaris, ive purchased some from Lowes, never grew just turned into algae, then i put my other sphagnum in the same conditions (compressed dried cards of it) and they came to life with in 3 weeks... where as the other one started to show signs of algae...

Otherwise i agree

cheers

Perhaps our respective conditions were different enough as to have differing results or the product quality. Mine would start out looking like I had algae slime covering the contours of the LFS (weeks later), but eventually (months later) I would see living LFS. Hard to say with the variety of variables.

Thank you all so much for the info,
Monte A BIG THANK YOU for the link, Just crammed full of info,

Do any of you use the SUPERTHRIVE?
Again Thank you all, :)Anita

People use them on tropical's like neps... and thats about it, every thing ealse is preaty efective in its own way at catching them. youre plants SHOULD be outside when they are grown sot hey will catch more than enough I allways found most of my VFT traps closed! But we still have some time to wait in z5 to put them out and see signs of spring (like another month?! hopefully spring springs sooner so plants can go out sooner! They are allready getting buds in europe!)

Cheers

From what I have read, but not experienced, the results are mixed with the use of S.T. I tried it with a D. adelae that all of a sudden went downhill. But it had no effect. Some people swear by it and others haven't had any appreciable effects. For what would you like to use it?

The ST bottle indicates it can be used on many plant's, I am going to try it all on 4, Good or Bad idea?
I put 1 drop in a 24oz spray bottle of distilled water, for misting, I also plan on using ST on some of my other plants, I just re-potted some Strptocarpus & African Violet's, I know, not to mist them, but I want to see if it really makes any difference, I also plan on trying the soaking method indicated on the bottle when I start getting my Daylily orders in. i guess only time will tell if this is really as good as the bottle say's, I do know it really does smell of vitamin's.
Thanks again for the help. :)Anita

It DOES have a bit of an aroma, doesn't it! This may seem like a dumb question, but why do you want to use it? Is it for prevention, cure, or experimental purposes? You could always pick some "expendible" species and do one with and one without, all other things being equal, and see how that goes.

I have a, "If it aint broke, don't fix it" approach when it comes to chemical usage. However, all chemicals aside, as my family and other CP growers would attest, I'm always up for an (think outside the box) experiment. I also lose a lot of plants that way....

I would not use it on youre Sarr's or VFT if you do dilute it in water and put it on the VFT leaves via ear swab not on the traps just the leaf parts, BE CAREFUL NOT OT GET IT ON The soiL! thats like adding nutrience to the soil, not good. and it is good to use on Neps as i said, Sundews are picky dont like many sprays, and they dont like many fertalizers...

Cheers

Pet,
Now that I have had more time to read, what I thought was a great right up about ST, I see this person DOES NOT us it & now nor will I on my new babies anyway,
I agree if it aint broke leave it alone, I was in a hurry reading & should have read the entire page:(

I however will try a bit of experimenting for all the above reasons you listed on other plants with it, I had never heard of ST before I got my new baby's.
Thanks for the help, :)Anita

Glad you have resolution to the S.T. issue.

I wouldn't toss your SuperThrive out just yet...

Personally, it's done me a world of wonders in saving some of the worst cases of dying plants (carnivorous and non) I've ever been through. I bought a rather healthy looking mongrel of a nepenthe about a year and a half ago and it was doing really well. Then it almost overnight was invaded with a dark reddish-orange blotching. Rust. Extremely common with nepenthe purchased from your average large supermarket or garden centre type stores.

I'd been given conflicting answers and a lot of people didn't know how to diagnose or treat it. I'd lost two plants to it already, so I went on what I could and actually contacted the owners of several large greenhouses, a biologist and a few semi-famous (in our circles) authors on the matter. Using a combination of neem oil and powered sulfur, I managed to stop the infection in all of them. I'll get a shot of my worst victim; it's literally a stick, and I am not kidding you.

Using superthrive, I was able to entice tiny green and healthy buds out of this 'stick' and I'm seeing the beginnings of recovery. Granted, I used many different natural chemicals and remedies, but I fully believe all working together caused this complete turnaround.

I fully agree with what you are saying about your 'working' plants, if they're doing 100% there is not really a need to go mucking about their surroundings and possibly harming one of them.

And yes, S.T. does smell like a malty, yeasty mixture. Like something you'd use to start fermenting your own beer. :)

I was in no way saying their was nothing wrong, but that is for Nepenthes, as ive stated above, its a great survival story of a nep, and its all good, but we are talking superthrive on VFT's Sarr's and DRosera's none of wich need any, If grown corectly Sarr's will catch more than enough outside, they shouldnt be growin indoors, VFT's are the same they will catch many bugs out side, and even if you dont put them out side (its easyer to give them light than a Sarr not to mention cheeper) you can catch them bugs and give them one. Most sundews will react badly to fertalizers, preaty much only the Neps will apreciate the Fertalizers more than any, MAybe Ceph's and Heli's but ive never looked into super thrive on them.

YEt i am not saying not to use them, i am saying its easyer to let them catch their own or give them a bug or two, Some people even use a certain kind of beta food on their neps... drop one in a few pitchers each month, easyer than risking getting to many fertaliziers in youre soil.

Cheers