Dirt is a no-no. They live in acidic nutrient poor soil. Do a search toward the bottom of the previous page which has a "this forum" selection for soil or media. Then search vft dormancy.

Long Fibered Sphagnum (LFS) is what you need. It's also called orchid moss and can be found at Lowes for $4.24.

Hey guys I am using sphagnum peat moss and perlite, a 70/30 mix. Do you think it will make it? Today I saw its trap was closed so I hope it will any more advice would be awesome.

Normal soil mix is 50/50 but that should be o.k. Time will tell if it makes it....

I wouldn't keep the water level very high with that mix, in fact I would let the tray go dry for a couple days between watering.

I got my Venus flytraps in and they were potted in perlite and sand and some vermiculite and other junk- probably sphagnum peat moss. I pulled media away from the roots and found that every plant had some really bad roots in that mix, so I put them all in the re-wetted sphagnum moss I used to grow my orchids in and all the venus flytraps are growing new roots and they look SO much better. The roots were all black and rotted looking, but each flytrap had a new root or 2 that were coming out when I saw the corms after rinsing them off. I figured the sphagnum moss would keep the roots moist but give good air flow and it seems to be the best thing for them so far as each plant has grown very well despite getting sunburned badly. I guess I lucked out since it was so close to dormancy the plants recovered leaves quickly and new traps also. Even the tiny VFT 'pink ' is starting to grow new trap leaves but all of them are going dormant and I can tell as the leaves take minutes to close instead of seconds now. The traps are large, but the leaves are small and very full and the color on most is still green as we have had snow here now for the past 3 days and all the new growth has missed the full sun since I was afraid to burn them again. I recommend potting in the re-wetted sphagnum moss or long fiber sphagnum moss that lowes or home depot sell- just make sure it is all fertilizer free with no additives as that can kill carnivorous plants. Also, I use rain water to water my carnivorous plants and they do better from rain water than distilled. You can re-wet the dried out sphagnum moss by soaking strands in a bin or bucket of rain water then layering them on top of each other in the pot. Once you have wet moss about half way up the pot, I put the corm or bulb in the middle with roots draped in a circle to keep from damaging them and then trying to stick the new roots right into the wet moss so they grow better. I drape more moss around the sides of the bulb in a circular motion so it is nested in the middle of the pot and so far, that has worked well for me. Last thing- you can sometimes get sphagnum moss to start growing if you let the pot sit in rain water when the plant is actively growing- they normally grow nested in a nice sphagnum moss bog which will keep the environment more close to what they are used to. I have new sphagnum moss growing in the wet dead stuff in the pots and I hope it grows big enough to keep the cp's roots moist and help them grow vigorously.

Thanks very much everyones help Ill do what you suggested. :)

The only problem I've found with using dried sphagnum moss for plants I grow outside (e.g. venus flytraps) is that birds can't resist it during nesting season. I've come home to look at a carnivorous plant I had in sphagnum moss only to find the pot totally empty with bits of moss scattered on the ground.

bm I hate LFS too but not for the same reason. With many carnivorous plants it's hard to distinguish roots from LFS and even harder to separate them when doing a media change which they all need every couple years. I only use LFS for lining pots so the media doesn't rinse out and rooting cuttings other than carnivorous plants.

I have the same issue with birds getting into the LFS. I will likely buy mesh screening to keep them out.