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Cephalotus in trouble

Hello everybody, I usually look around the forum and I just read all the threads, but this time I think I really do have to make a post to send out an SOS for help. I've purchased a cephalotus and it's in big trouble. This is a mature hummer. It's been with me for about 10 days now. I know that when you first get a cephalotus you should expect a massive amount of dying and after that the plant will kickstart itself and all will be good, but this time a few alarming things have happened.

I was trying to clear out some of the dry and dead foliage and when I pulled some of those dried pitchers, two of the growing tips actually broke off. All four of the growing tips are currently black in color, and two of them broke off leaving behind a black, semi-moist looking stump. The section that broke off was completely brown and dried up, so I don't know now if this is rot or if I just pulled too hard. I didn't really apply that much pressure, the whole thing just decided to come off instead of the dried-up leaf.

Little bit of background information on the substrate: this is a mixture of sand, perlite, and peat. It's more sand and perlite and less peat. The pot is quite big and deep, I think it is over 6 inches in diameter and over 6 inches in depth. I have planted the cephalotus on the Hill in the center of the pot. There is dried sphagnum Moss on the side and a little bit of live sphagnum Moss closer to the cephalotus. Watering is done once a day, I don't water the cephalotus itself, I mist the Moss. Water comes out from the bottom of the pot and I discard the water and I do not let it sit there. I have poked many holes into the bottom of the pot so that there is no water retention whatsoever. I am trying to keep it as dry as possible.

Weather conditions: it's around 85° during the day and 70 at night. During the day the cephalotus is exposed to open air. I keep it indoors, and the humidity is probably in the 70s and the 80s. At night, I cover the cephalotus to retain additional moisture. The cover comes off the following morning again.

I am getting very concerned that I'm going to lose it at this rate. It's been with me for 10 days and I haven't seen any response in terms of growth but the plant continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace. Losing pitchers is one thing, but growing tips turning brown and breaking off is an entirely different topic altogether. Should I start taking damage control measures like breaking up all the different growing tips and planting them separately? The remaining foliage is very soft and if I touch a pitcher, it deflates instantly. It's very limp.

I have successfully purchased juvenile cephalotus in the past but this is my first mature one. I really don't want to lose it considering how much I had to pay for it. Any assistance you can provide me will be thoroughly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

B.T.












And finally, what it looked like when it first arrived

 
I had a simular experience, I dug the plant up.... cut away the infected/rotted parts, soak in trichoderma and repotted the cuttings... took a month or so but came back strong and is still going strong,

when I dug it up it was obviously mushy with rot

curious, are the leaves dying but staying green?

do they get a rough dried appearance?

if so I'd act fast...

Id also get it out of the 85f temps.... for now at least

just based on my experience
 
it looks shrivled up in all of the pictures. over watering perhaps? ive been lucky so far with my cephs.
alex
 
Welcome to TF! I'm looking for any winter leaves so that the clone could be preserved by taking a leaf cutting.... but I don't see any. It doesn't lookk salvageable, but try the advice given above. Good skill.
 
Welcome.

Sounds like too much water to me.... Every day?
I water my cephs twice a week.

They like the soil just damp, not water logged. Sound to me like the plant is starting to rot. When cephs do this they go down hill very fast.

Av8tor1 posted he had a similar situation, I'd try his advice since he got his plant to come around.
 
My .02 is too much water and temps are a bit high. I'd keep it "moist" but not wet and a little less humidity if possible. Leave the cover off entirely. Even if the top dies back the plant should come back from the roots if they don't rot. Just gotta baby it. Good luck !
 
It may not be clear from this picture, but the soil surface is mounded. In a topic from several months ago, this was one approach put forth as being advanatgeous to cultivation. My original plant was one I received from elgecko, 3 years ago. About 15 months ago that plant rotted away (Sudden Death Syndrome?). I salvaged a winter leaf and this is the plant that came from that leaf. I just keep it at a window sill and water from the top, a little bit, about once a week.

IMG_0156.jpg
 
Dude if you paid for this and it looked that way when you got I would send it back and get your money back. Next stop watering it as much.
 
Jim's pic shows a good moisture indicator, at least one I use... see how the tips of the sphagnum are blackened... thats what you want, nice moisture level when you see that... much more water and the sphagnum starts actively growing...

they can handle more, but it comes with risk... where his is at is pretty close to ideal IMHO, mine are a little bit wetter... but just a little

I wouldn't cover them at night, especially if the environment is 70-80%RH

and mature cephs have a nasty reputation for not shipping well

Av
 
  • #10
I guess you guys got yours from the worng place if they don't ship well. When I got mine last year I had no shock with it at all. I even re-potted it after I dropped it and it did not even go into shock or anything. But I guess when you buy from the best you get the best. and it was way cheap.
 
  • #11
Send it back. Whoever it was will send a new one. If they don't, don't buy from them again. Don't give them 100% of the blame because Cephalotus can be tempermental.
 
  • #12
Yeah, I don't have a ton of experience with cephs, but I use a tray to water mine, but I only fill it up about 1/4" of water and then let it dry out for a couple days before watering again. The soil never looks dry on the top, but it is certainly not sopping wet.

xvart.
 
  • #13
Hi everyone. For the sake of the plant I don't think I'd send it back. It will really go off on its way if I send it back. By the time the sender unpacks it nothing will save it.

But, now I've had a few conflicting pieces of advice. The sender himself told me to dig it out of the sandy mix and repot it into peat + perlite. Sand, coral sand seems to be a commonly used mix for cephs although I havent tried any in it until this one.

I'm not sure whether to dig it out and repot it and maybe slice it up at the same time or just leave it and reduce the watering. I havent tried rhizome slicing before and I'm not too sure how to do it. You read everywhere how you can hack a ceph up and plant it but I dont think they recover well especially stressed like this one.

I've also been told to remove all the sphagnum on the top layer although my other cephs seem to thrive with it growing in there.

I think I'll reduce the watering but I dont know if its bad enough to repot and / or hack up the rhizome into cuttings. If I do hack it up, I just split it into 2 or 3 and plant them?
 
  • #14
Coral sand?
 
  • #15
if it is "Ceph Sudden Death Syndrome" (Pythium sp.) research suggest that it can be spread via fungus gnats,
so be on the safe side and isolate it from the rest of your cephs until the situation is resolved

SDS will act fast

(in my experience the key indicator is the leaves/pitchers dying rapidly but remaining green with a rough, grainy dried appearance)

good luck and keep us posted



Av
 
  • #16
if it is "Ceph Sudden Death Syndrome" (Pythium sp.) research suggest that it can be spread via fungus gnats,
so be on the safe side and isolate it from the rest of your cephs until the situation is resolved

SDS will act fast

(in my experience the key indicator is the leaves/pitchers dying rapidly but remaining green with a rough, grainy dried appearance)

good luck and keep us posted



Av

Thanks for the resource, I've checked out the link. This is not what's happening to my ceph. My dood is consistently limp day and night. I tried digging him out to repot. The rhizome is black and hard but some parts of it are soft. All the leaves fell off except for 3. All the fallen leaves have black petioles -- no cutting is likely to strike from here. Shucks, have I lost the ceph? *sobs*
 
  • #17
the symptoms are not specific to cephs.. cephs die of it very quickly

and as far as i Know it is still only assumed to be a Pythium variant or closely related to it, but the same bio-treatments have proven to be successful

I would still plant what I had, cant hurt... they can surprise ya ;)



Av
 
  • #18
I say go ahead and re-pot it, and at the very least take several cuttings. Then if the actual plant dies you have a good chance of getting some healthy youngsters out of the deal.
 
  • #19
Unfortunately I don't think I can take any cuttings, I dug it out, and some of the leaves fell off. There are only three left. With believes that fell off, most of them are turning black at the petiole. Some of the pitchers also starting to turn black and everything is very soft and limp. It feels like the pitcher is made of tissue paper and the minute you touch it will collapse. The same goes for the petiole. Of the three that are remaining attached to the stem of the cephalotus, all three are starting to turn black at the petiole near the region that is stuck to the mainstem. I don't think any of these is going to strike as a viable cutting. Unless you also just thing I take rhizome cuttings. But, the rhizome is not that big to begin with. I don't think I should try and split it further. How long would you wait on a dry stump without any leaves before considering it's time to give up on it? After two weeks I don't see any new growth at all, and things are just continuing to die off. Do I'd continue this until it has passed a month? Or do you wait longer?
 
  • #20
the one I was referring to took about 4-6 weeks, it was a smallish rhizome section with no leaves and no pitchers...

I had just about give up on it, but it was in a pot with another plant.... otherwise I probably would have

that cutting now has 1.5" pitchers
 
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