I would like to add to this:
I have recently collected some sphagnum from a bog that has
_Sarraciena_purpurea_ growing in it. (I didn't collect the Sarr!!) This
was the first I've seen them in the wild, up close and personal!
Awesome. BTW wear snow shoes when walking in bogs!
Anyway... the bog's surface was free of grasses, and broadleaf plants in
the area that the Sarr's were growing, plus a few dead trees. I cut out
block of moss to fit the container that I was to repot my Sarr into. (it
was growing in peat when I got it and had out grown its pot.)
I water it with rain water or distilled. Now growing in the pot are
broadleaf weeds and grasses. I wanted a more natural growing environment.
This is says to me that the pH has risen so that these other plants can
survive. I do have access to a pH meter so I could test the pH of the
distilled and rain water, and the water that runs out the bottom of the pot
when I water it. I have a CP book by Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx but it doesn't
mention soil pH's.
What should the pH be and how should I lower it so that weeds will not
continue to grow. The Sarr is doing marvelously since I transplanted it.
I've counted five new plants coming up. This is not a crisis but I find
it strange.
TTYL, ''' Plant Science Computer Technician
Patrick Cox (o o) Nova Scotia Agricultural College
---------------oOO--(_)--OOo------------------------------------------
Sweer's Impossibility Theorem:
Nothing can be both completely general and internally consistent at the
same time.