A month ago, after having my cape tugged by my Exotic Plant Dealerman, I picked up a VFT and Drosera plant. I also bought a small bag of Carni Mix potting soil, which contains perlite.
I bought a small bowl, augered a 1/2" diameter hole near the level of the 2 pots the plants came in. Filled it with water, and all was good for about a week, when I thought it would be cool to set this up with the plants out of their pots.
So I dumped in some 'carne mix' to the water, and planted the plants. A week later, I realized that the plants were floating on a thin layer of soil floating on the water. So I popped the plants out, drained the water off, filled the pot with soil, and replanted the pot with the two plants.
Then comes the rain, and the hole plugs when a lump of peat moss stops it up. The plants get drowned. I unplug the bog, and drain it off. Its been in a sheltered place for about a week.
The plants look pretty bad, but are not totally rotten. But I want to quit goofing around, and get something that will work well. I would love suggestions for a bog pot that will work. And a soil mixture without perlite.
Probably time for Plan B
Sounds like you just have the water level too high. These are not aquatic plants. They should be growing with 2 inches or more of soil above the water table. When you grow in pots, you generally place the pot in 1/2" to 1" of water. Do the same in your bowl. Put another 2 inches of material above the drain hole. Perlite in the mix is not a bad thing if you don't have everything swimming in water. You will have to fix the drain hole somehow, however.
Now, why do you want to plant these in a bowl anyway?
Yes too much water. Sit the bowl in a shallow tray and keep an inch or so of water in it. The VFT is outside in full sun right? The VFT needs full sun all day.
Yes the VFT and the Drosera are both in full sun,
All I am wanting to do is create a mini-bog like I have seen in pictures. Based on the size of the plants I have gotten, I would expect I could get 4 or 6 plants growing happily in it, but I thought I would learn about it all with two plants before I killed more.
I am not interested in placing the bowl in a tray of water, is there no way to keep water directly in the bowl?
My problem with the perlite is that it floats and is everywhere, on the plants, all over the surface, everywhere. Pfft.
Rob
The drain hole should not be at the level of the plants, but 2 or 3 inches below the level of the plants. The purpose of the drain hole is to prevent water from covering the plants. If the soil and plants become submerged, you are going to have a problem with your mix, especially the perlite, floating. Depending on the shape and size of the bowl, you might just want to drill another hole closer to the bottom.
Next, you need to figure out a way to be sure the drain hole works. Without seeing your bowl, I'm not sure how best to do that, but if the hole plugged up with a lump of peat moss, you need to be sure to break up all lumps in the mix. Perhaps you can also cover the hole with some kind of landscape cloth to allow water to drain while holding in soil.
What is the size of your bowl, and what is it made of?
Now I have a Plan B, I will allow the hole I made to remain to be the drain, but I will screen it and I will add 2 or 3 more of the same size at the same level.. I will build a filler tube as discussed in Tommy's link. I will then remix the soil while setting aside the plants, allowing it to be 2" above the drain holes, replant the plants and maintain the water levels as discussed.
I am tempted to use hard PVC pipe instead of the flexable, and use 2 pieces, one along the bottom and one as a standpipe.