{"id":219,"date":"2010-08-17T23:51:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T06:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.wordpress.com\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T06:51:11","slug":"care","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/care\/","title":{"rendered":"Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarracenia Care<\/strong>
\n[USDA Zone 4-8]<\/p>\n

Simply put: Full sun. Poor soil. Clean water. Keep em\u2019 wet. Let em\u2019 rest.<\/strong>
\nIn actuality \u2013 they really aren\u2019t that hard to grow, as long as you adhere to the basics.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little background on the Sarracenia:<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s helpful to understand where these things are from for one to grow them successfully.\u00a0 I\u2019ve run into many people who had thought that these magnificent carnivores are tropical plants from the most remote jungles of the world and they needed all sorts of special care like terrarium or something. \u00a0Eh\u2026 Nope.\u00a0 Sarracenias are native to North America and can be found growing in bogs all throughout the South East, eastern seaboard, and up throughout Canada. \u00a0Bogs are wet and nutrient deficient, and they get plenty of sun. Think about where they are from to help you grow them where you’re at.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

FULL SUN. [Need I say more? Give em sun and lots of it.]<\/strong>
\nI give my Sarracenia as much light as I can for as long as I can. They love the direct light and it brings out strong growth and vivid coloration.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t give your Sarracenia full sun all day, try to give them as much as you can.\u00a0 Bright light works too, but your plant will not be as strong and colors will not be as vivid. It is best if you grow your plants outdoors, in full sun.<\/p>\n

Yes. Outdoors. Like, NOT inside, but OUTSIDE! I know there are some photos where you can see that I grow\u00a0 select few plants in a greenhouse but that’s just because of my strong wind issues and raccoons.\u00a0 I do keep the vents and the doors open however they are covered in a screen to prevent raccoons from coming in.\u00a0 I do grow quite a few outdoors too!
\n<\/em>
\nPOOR SOIL. [1:1 ratio of Sphagnum peat moss and perlite]<\/strong>
\nBogs are naturally nutrient deficient, and acidic in nature. These plants have adapted in such a unique way by capturing their nutrients with the leaves.\u00a0 In cultivation, that means you can\u2019t use your average all purpose potting mix and fertilize with wonder-dung. Oh no. That will kill em.\u00a0 It\u2019s best to use sphagnum peat moss as\u00a0 your media. (NOT the brand that uses fertilizer since that will kill them.) \u00a0Don\u2019t use green moss or any other types of moss that these companies put out there, but use good ol\u2019 sphagnum.\u00a0 A general mix for Sarracenia would be a 1:1 ratio of sphagnum peat moss and perlite. You can also use a silica based sand, coarse grit, or pumice and mix it all in with the peat. If you use sand, do NOT use beach sand as it contains salts and it will kill your plant. \u00a0If you use perlite and will be mixing, be sure you wear a mask you don\u2019t breath the dust. That\u2019s no good for ya.<\/p>\n

CLEAN WATER. [Keep it clean. No weird minerally-nutrientiey stuff, k?]<\/strong>
\nCarnivores are sensitive to the mineral content in the water; \u00a0(Keep in mind where they come from. Mineral free, nutrient free soils) so be sure to use pure\/clean water. This can include distilled, rain, reverse osmosis filtered water. \u00a0\u00a0I live in the Bay Area and we draw our water from a water system that is relatively clean. When I do a water test with my handy water meter, the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids)\u00a0 are 100 ppm (Parts Per Million) so I am able to use my tap. I just have to change the media every couple years to prevent any excessive mineral build up in the soil.<\/p>\n

KEEP IT WET. [Like\u2026 not dry.]<\/strong>
\nSo let\u2019s go back to their natural habitat. Bogs are wet. \u00a0That means you\u2019d want to keep your plants wet too.\u00a0 I keep my potted plants in a tray and keep the tray filled up with water for most of the time. I don\u2019t grow allow them to be completely like\u2026 drowning in water, but maybe something like a 3 or four inch pot in an inch of water. I do allow the tray to dry out now and then to allow air circulation to the roots, but I don\u2019t allow the soil to get completely dry. Now when the plants go dormant for the winter, I ease up a bit and just keep the soil slightly moist and I don\u2019t really have them sit in standing water. I just keep it moist during dormancy.<\/p>\n

LET EM REST. [They need sleep too,\u00a0 ya know!]<\/strong>
\nSarracenias will go through a dormant period. Think of it like a period of rest. In the fall\/late fall pitcher production will slow down\/cease and the existing pitchers will start to brown and get dry. Nothing to be alarmed over, this is completely natural.\u00a0 The plant is entering a period of rest.\u00a0 It goes through a dormancy period during the winter months and comes back in the spring.\u00a0 During this time period you can let the plant rest and cut off any dead pitchers.\u00a0 Some pitchers will produce non carnivorous leaves that it uses for photosynthesis.\u00a0 While dormant, you don\u2019t have to worry about overnight frosts as they can take that with minimal protection. I just would be cautious say, if there was a deep freeze or something and would take precaution by moving the plants to an unheated garage\/indoor area and or heavy mulching\/covering.\u00a0 They will be dormant form about 2-3 month or more depending on your area.<\/p>\n

Hope these few general guidelines help. If you have any other questions, concerns, jokes, or metaphors you want to share, you can always feel free to drop me a line at sarraceniadude [at] gmail dot com. Happy Growing!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarracenia Care [USDA Zone 4-8] Simply put: Full sun. Poor soil. Clean water. Keep em\u2019 wet. Let em\u2019 rest. In actuality \u2013 they really aren\u2019t that hard to grow, as long as you adhere to the basics. A little background … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-219","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}