We use and sell Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss. This is the main ingredient in most carnivorous plant soils. Carnivorous Plants call bogs home, and this is where Sphagnum Peat Moss comes from. It's simply partially decomposed Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss. The sphagnum peat moss makes up all but the top layer of the bog. It absorbs high volumes of water (up to 20 times its weight), retaining water like a sponge. It has a PH of 3.6 - 4.5 and is free of bugs, seeds, weeds and is nutrient free. Used alone peat moss will smother most carnivorous plants roots.

Most carnivorous plants will happily grow in a 50/50 peat/perlite mix, so long as both are the right kind.

If you get this from your local lawn and garden center get it in the dry bale form, NOT the small pre-moistened bag. Those bags of peat moss are most often contaminated and can kill your plants. The pre-moistened bags of peat moss are generally "moistened" with tap water. Not good. Pre-moistened bags of peat moss are packaged in factories that add Miracle Grow^TM and other fertilizers to some of their products. The fertilizers can [and do] make it into the peat moss. Extremely not good. Use Bales!

You have to be careful with bales of peat too. Sphagnum Peat Moss comes from bogs. Some companies build man made bogs to produce peat moss. Some of these bogs reside next to cow farms. The water run off contaminates the peat, but that doesn't matter for the majority of non carnivorous plant growers. Different companies handle drying and collecting peat in different ways. If they are not careful and they don't package it on site contamination can occur for various reasons. Some companies over harvest natural bogs and put the habitat at risk.

That being said, the bales (3.8 cu. ft.) should be easy to find locally if you want to store that much. Bales should say "Sphagnum Peat Moss" and should be from Premier, a Canadian Company. It's best to purchase peat moss from reputable carnivorous plant dealers/nurseries to ensure contamination is not a problem. Half bales from Farm & Fleet (farm store) are NOT recommended. The bales are compressed and have sticks/twigs mixed in with it. You need to break the peat up and remove the majority of the sticks. It needs to be clod free.

I have heard several horror stories, especially in the last couple years, about someone getting contaminated peat moss. Some people have lost entire collections before they figured out the problem was the peat. Make sure you are getting good "Sphagnum Peat Moss".

As mentioned, we get ours from a company called Premier out of Canada. Their sphagnum peat moss bales are safe to use. They are a member of the Canadian Peat Moss Association ( http://www.peatmoss.com/ ). The association has the environment in mind and only lets in those that are harvesting peat moss responsibly to become members. Premiers web site is at http://www.premierhort.com. We are very conscientious of the environment and we try very hard to only deal with companies that are too.