Growing Darlingtonia in Cat Litter Pans: Light, Soil, and Drip Irrigation

QUESTION: On your web page there is a picture of Darlingtonia sitting in cat litter pans. What are their conditions? How much light do they get? Is it possible to grow Darlingtonia if north-facing building full shade?

ANSWER: Hi Mike,

In that photo the plants are in a peat, perlite, and bark mixture (we don’t use the bark anymore), they only get top-watered with a drip system, and are in full sun. Low, wide pots help aerate and cool the soil. Also notice that they are up off the ground. This is super, super important. Darlingtonia are subject to the fungal diseases Cylindrocarpon and Pythium. They pick it up from ground contact or other infected plants. This is also why we don’t use bark in the medium anymore since it can carry the diseases. Both diseases are spread via water trays too, hence only top-watering. This was only recently discovered, and is probably a big reason that Darlingtonia have a bad reputation for being difficult.

Full shade won’t work. Darlingtonia are more shade tolerant than Sarracenia, but I would estimate you need at least a four-hour exposure. I once had several on the south side of a house in between the house and a fence. They got around 4 hours of sun there, and did quite well. In nature they mostly grow in full sun.

If you haven’t seen this video we made a few years ago, it’s pretty informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebZMWy2SLU

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
https://www.growcarnivorousplants.com

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QUESTION: Does your drip system drip all the time or is it on a timer?

Answer

Hi Mike,

It’s definitely on a timer. We currently do about 5 minutes twice a day, then increasing as the weather gets hotter. You’ll have to gauge in your own situation how much water you can use, the weather, etc. In Ontario you probably get more summer thunderstorms than we do, so that will be a help. We have to purify our water and store it, so water demands during the dry PNW summers put a heavy demand on our water, so we have to be conservative.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
https://www.growcarnivorousplants.com