50/50 sphagnum peat/perlite or silica sand. You can also use LFS (long fiber sphagnum) by itself but IMO the roots will intertwine in it and make it harder to separate them if you ever do a complete media change which is recommended every 2-3 years due to mineral buildup. Yes you're going to have to use distilled or RO water if you don't save rain water. I now save water via a 55 gallon drum. It is possible to distill your tap water but hardly worth it. It will cost more in gas/electricity than just buying the water.

Most definitely NOT a VFT. I think you've got some kind of herb (maybe pineapple sage???) Did you end up with little red flowers? I want to try my hand at growing VFTs as well and have been reading up on how to germinate and grow these fascinating plants. Here's a link I found very helpful about how to grow these guys. I just ordered some seeds on eBay, so we'll have to wait and see what comes up. BTW, you should be able to find photos of actual VFT seedlings online. They look just like mini VFT. Here is a link that might be useful: Venus Flytrap Info

My baby traps rock. Everytime I see it, I discover another small plant and say "Wow, I don't remember putting that one in.." I just think that's my memory slipping on me, haha. I wish I had a secret. I just did the whole 50-50 with the sphagnum peat moss and sand with just a few small pieces of drying sphagnum. Maybe a little less sand then you tend to see in many pictures (I doubt you would ever see a VFT on the beach). Let the algea grow or something. Then springtails showed up and started eating the algea and before I knew it, moss sprouted. I doubt that's anything of a technique. It was completely un-called for. But yes, it's sphagnum. In a extreme small form. I don't know what to do if it gets too tall, so I guess I'm going to have to buy a tiny set of scissors to keep it nice. But it's extremely fragile. gently glide your finger over the top of the moss and your finger is all green and green powder (the tiny leaves) fly everywhere. Usually landing in the water dish. And before I know it, algea starts growing in the water (not thick, but all web-like). I got to repot it soon. The roots of some split at the bottom and now I got 2 or more plants next to eachother instead of the original one that I planted. These plants are hell. But I love 'em.

I would suggest either putting it in the fridge where temperatures are cooler, or just setting it outdoors if temperatures reach the 40-50F temperature range because venus fly traps and some other carnivorous plants need a dormancy cycle in order to thrive and put out more traps. I think the chilling requirement is 8 weeks for VFTs, but you should check the internet to find out. I'm in a cool climate so I put mine under tarps where they get near 20 weeks of chilling hours, but they need the rest at this time of the year in order to restore their growth hormones required for further production. Here is a link that might be useful: