Choosing the right soil or planting media for carnivorous plants


What kind of planting media should you use for your carnivorous plant?If you’ve tried searching for the right soil, potting mix or planting media for carnivorous plants, you’ll see a wide variety of suggestions. Coco peat, perlite, peat moss, sphagnum moss, and silica sand are just a few of the options in different guides.

However, it can be challenging to find the right planting media if you’re new to the hobby, especially in the Philippines. Many local gardening shops aren’t familiar with carnivorous plants, leading to using the wrong media—which very likely kills your plant.

This guide aims to help you understand the kinds of planting media most local growers use and identify the kinds you shouldn’t ever use. Hopefully this lets you grow your bug-eating plant babies with peace of mind. This guide also has affiliate links to my own suppliers of media on Shopee, since I don’t sell growing media myself anymore.

Please note though: this is not an exhaustive guide on planting media. This is to help newbies understand the basics and allow them to experiment on what works for them, based on my own experience and research. Everyone’s garden is different and many factors are involved when it comes to getting the best growing results, including the kind of plant you’re growing.


These byblis are in coco peat with perlite

Venus flytraps, pinguiculas (butterworts), drosera (sundews) and nepenthes (pitcher plants) all have varying needs, and even different varieties of the same plant can have opposite needs (like Mexican vs. tropical pings). There is no universal “best media for carnivorous plants” or special formula. To really know what the best is, nothing can beat research and your own observation.

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