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Carnivorous Plants

Will an occasional flooding hurt my bog plants?

16 years ago

We had a hard downpour yesterday. The bog normally stays damp....but this time it had standing water in it maybe an inch deep. Some of the VFTs were totally submerged for a while and some of the pitchers on my sarracenias fell over. The excess water had drained off by morning. Will this damage my bog plants? Thanks

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Comments (7)

petiolaris
16 years ago
That's a natural occurrence. They should be able to take the ebb and flow of water and anything else.
ccoombs1
Original Author
16 years ago
OK, thank you.
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Well not to add confusion to this thread but I am currently growing a plant of Sarrencia psittacina in a regular one gallon plastic pot-the common sized pot of plants that you can find in any nursery. It is not sitting in water at all. But I do try to water it once a day sometimes twice. It was one of those bagged plants. As I mistakenly purchased it as a Darlingtonia (which it had been labelled as such!) I decided that I would play around with the culture as I was not all that impressed by this sprawling Sarr. So I bought a regular commercial planting mix for acid loving plants such as azeleas, etc. and I put about one-half inch of this mix into the bottom of the pot for the Sarr. Then I mixed equal parts of the commercial acid mix and regular milled peat moss and filled in the pot with this mixture up to the point where the sarr would be sitting with its growth crown about one-half inch below the lip of the pot. After setting in the sarr I filled in the space between the plant and the pot with plain milled peat moss. I then watered with distilled. I make it a point to spray the plant whenever I spray down my bog and my lycopodiums and mosses which is several times a day and into the night. I water the sarr from the top. I do this intentionally in order to cause the water to percolate downward and in the hopes that the water will dilute the nutrients in the commercial mix washing some out of the pot. (Will have to post an image later) The plant is doing unreal! The leaves tend to be erect and it has produced a single flower stalk. So I am anxiously awaiting to see what it looks like so I can image it. Perhaps in the near future I shall try this same procedure with another species to see what happens.
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mutant_hybrid
16 years ago
I agree with petiolaris, bog plants do go through natural times of flooding and it is an occasional occurance to see Venus Flytraps and Sarracenias partially or completely submerged for a couple of days. So long as this does not result in days or weeks of waterlogged root crowns, it will be fine. I would suggest planting Venus Flytraps on a small hillock farther from the water source in your bog so that they stay a little less moist than the Sarracenias and keep waterlogging roots a less common occurance.
jonocross
16 years ago
One of the advantages to a small man made bog garden is that you can design it with a run off to decrease those times when they get flooded. However, they wouldn't have that in the wild and the rainy season can bring flooding. They survive it in nature, they'll likely take it the same way in your bog.

On a side note, I can't wait till I get out of this appartement so I can get some land and build a bog. :-) The green you see in my post isn't from plants, it's from envy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aracknight's Deadly Delights
ccoombs1
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for that good information. this bog is right up against a koi pond and it is designed to allow water to run off.....away from the pond. I may need to push one edge of the liner down a bit farther so it doesn't hold standing water. I did punch a few holes in the bottom of the liner which seems to work fairly well. The soil mix is banked up against the rock border in a few places. Not high...only maybe 3/4" of an inch or so....but that would keep them out of flooding for the most part.

Anyway...thanks again for the assistance. this is all very new to me. I love this bog...it is so different and interesting looking!!
mutant_hybrid
16 years ago
Just make sure that the water runoff from the Koi pond does not contain too much nitrogen or it will affect the soil Ph of the Carnivorous plants. If too much nitrogen from bacterial activity leeches into the carnivorous bog, it will eventually kill off your plants. Best bet is to reverse the flow so that runoff from the carnivorous plant bog drains into the Koi pond, then out of the Koi pond as needed.
ccoombs1
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks mutant...the water from the pond and the bog can't get to each other at all. I don't like bog filters for koi pond. I am pretty fanatical about keeping a clean pond, free from any organic material that could provide a breeding ground for bacteria or parasites. The pond filter has an overflow on it that will keep it's water out of the bog. The impatiens in that pond sure do appreciate the nitrogen. They get shrub-sized just planted bare-root in the rocks around the top of the pond. Pretty cool!!

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