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Hello everyone! This is my first post :blush:
I'm from Istanbul and I've been growing CPs for about 2-3 years now. Over the years I've kept many different species, tried my hand at a terrarium and finally decided to stick to plants that can grow on my balcony without the need of a terrarium.

Cephalotus is one of those and my most favorite, too. I've always heard about the troubles of keeping one, how sensitive and what a slow-grower it is.
My experience has been very different, so I wanted to share it.


This is a photo of them taken in June, 2010.

2eeimhl.jpg



And this is from January, 2011.

cephaocak.jpg



Compared to my other CPs (a few Nepenthes, Sarracenia, a vft, a few Drosera), I wouldn't say their growth is slow at all. Hard to see in this photo but there's also a big pitcher on the left.

I may be a radical grower, I'm not sure, you tell me. Here's how I treat them: In summer, I watered often and in little amounts; I sprayed them every evening with soapy + oily water to keep off the bugs. A few of my Sarracenia had bug problem (I don't spray those) but Cephalotus never did.
Starting from fall I reduced my watering. I've been watering them once every 2-3 weeks. Is this extreme? They didn't seem to mind.
Last but not least, I'm using Charles Brewer's mix; %45 LFS, %45 perlite and %10 other stuff.
They're in a little fish tank with no top (the top was there when I first put them out on the balcony, opened it slowly over the month and finally discarded it); they've seen some frost and the winter temperature has ranged from 0C - 10C; dropping below 0 once or so.
I never shielded them or took precautions.

I'd say, so far, Cephalotus has been my most trouble-free CP. However, I have to note that this is our 9th month together and in Cephalotus years, I guess it's only a beginning :)
 
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I find cepholotus to be rather easy....I just keep the light bright, the temps cool, and the soil damp and it grows like mad....I think people try to treat them like they are made of glass and they die from over-attention...keeping them in places without much airflow and super high humidity don't help either....
 
Right Exo and Maxima all these people are keeping these poor things in terrariums when they don't need it i mean are they in terrariums in the wild NO! Tthese are easyier to grow than most people think so you out there that think you can't grow try it you prob. can try it!
 
The closer to the optimal conditions that plants are adapted/evolved to that you cultivate your plants in the easier they are to grow. Cephalotus are naturally adapted to a so-called Mediterranean Climate so I would imagine it much less difficult to grow them in another Mediterranean climate.

In general I don't even start to consider any meaningful success until I've grown a mature plant at least 3 complete seasonal cycles or generations (in the case of annual/semi-annual plants).
 
Cephalotus are one of those plants that either do well or they dont IMO...
looks like you found the spot they like right off the bat, and thats no easy accomplishment by any means.
Congratulations on your mature trap on that plant, the first mature trap is always a milestone when cultivating these plants from immature clones/seedlings and many people who up right and buy mature plants never get to experience it unless they get a small plant later, and thats just not the same feeling haha.

if your plants are doing fine with your watering schedule then i see no reason to change it, i water once or twice a week but thats only because my lights dry the media relatively fast.

Cephalotus are difficult plants until you find that spot that the particular plant likes (though that goes to say with just about anything except capensis ;P )
but once you find that spot that they love, man do they take off... i still find it silly that you could have two plants of the exact same clone sitting right next to eachother, and have one that thrives while the other is like "ehhh"

so congrats again on getting them to grow well for you :) it took me almost 3 years to get it down haha
 
I would go with adappted not a number a what a great first thread Maxima.
 
If you can provide the proper growing conditions, Cephalotus is an unkillable beast that will multiply and spread.
 
LOL! I have yet to try my hand at growing these even though I've asked around for some. When I get a few, I'm sure my climate will provide easy growing also.
 
  • #10
If you can provide the proper growing conditions, Cephalotus is an unkillable beast that will multiply and spread.

i wouldnt quite go that far....
 
  • #11
Hello everyone!
This is my first post :blush:

Hello and welcome to this forum!

I'm from Istanbul and ...
finally decided to stick to plants that can grow on my balcony without the need of a terrarium.

You are doing absolutely right when keeping Cephalotus at chilly temperatures.

Your climate in Istanbul is nearly the same as Cephalotus is used to near Albany, Australia. Just have a look at the climate table of temperatures for comparison:

Albany in °C: http://www.worldweather.org/185/c00356.htm#climate
Istanbul in °C: http://www.worldweather.org/014/c00047.htm#climate

Or if someone prefers Fahrenheit:
Albany in °F: http://www.worldweather.org/185/c00356f.htm#climate
Istanbul in °F: http://www.worldweather.org/014/c00047f.htm#climate

Daily maximum in summer is a bit higher in Istanbul than in Albany, but stays below 30°C in average. Daily minimum drops below 20°C in summer months. Looks good in summer half-year.

Daily minimum temperature stays above freezing point in average nights in winter.
Looks good in winter, too.

I'd perhaps close the lid of the tank in January and February to increase the temperature level a bit during these two months and prevent most of the frost, and in the hottest summer months I'd keep the plants only with some morning sun to prevent midday sun.

Well done - keep it up!

Unfortunately, in my area (Northern Germany) I can keep Cephalotus only from May until November outdoors and have to take it inside during the rest of the year because winters are too cold here. Cephalotus likes it chilly, but doesn't like freezing.
 
  • #13
Hey everyone!

Much thanks for the warm welcome. After I posted this thread, I couldn't see it in the forum. I kept checking back and it wasn't there; thought I had made a mistake while sending the post or some other error had occurred. I was sorta discouraged naturally :crazy:
I'm glad it made it!

Thanks for the feedback. I do agree with NaN, it may be a bit early to celebrate so I guess time will tell if this works in the long run or not.

Jesse much thanks for the weather comparison, I hadn't thought of doing that. I'm lucky to be living in a similar climate. Istanbul used to be freezing cold in the past but in the last few years, we barely had any snow. This winter it hasn't even snowed yet, not in the city anyway.

I would like to add 1 detail:

The big trap of cephalotus grew when it was in another location. It was a balcony again, but not a sunny one. It was bright shade but received about 1-2 hours of sunlight close to noon.
My plants never got red there (none of my CPs including cephalotus) but they grew bigger.

Cephalotus receives about 7 hours of direct sunlight right now, on a sunny day that is.

---------- Post added at 02:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:54 PM ----------

Here's something weird (I think):

gentr.jpg



Below cephalotus, you see a D. Aliciae pot. This is their second winter outside. They've been through all kinds of bad weather including some snow, frost and heavy wind!

Originally there were 2 Aliciae plants in the pot. I put them outside in spring and they thrived. Mind, there was a huge population of springtails around at the time, I think it helped them much.
When winter came, they went all brown and dried up. It was their first winter outside and I thought they died. I didn't give up though, I kept them moist but they didn't stand in water.

When spring came, I was amazed to find about 6-8 growth points on 2 plants, they looked like hydra. As you can see, they all grew up during spring/summer, they flowered and set seeds.
Even many seeds fell on the soil (I never collected them, was too busy) and they all germinated!
No cover, no extra arrangement; but keep in mind it was a very hot + humid summer.

I took it inside for about a month, and central heating killed all the baby plants but a few. The humidity had dropped to about %10 inside.

So I took them outside again and they've been there all winter. Some parts are brown but don't worry, I'm pretty sure they will all come back in spring.
I thought D. Aliciae died under 10C, I was amazed to see them make it through 2 winters and only thrive.

And lastly, here's how cepha has been doing in february:

cephafeb.jpg


Some day I'll start root divisions to get more plants but I don't dare do that yet...

cheers from Istanbul


PS: Cephalotus plants sit on live sphagnum. It may look all black to you but when you scratch it a bit, it's all a healthy stiff green under.
 
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  • #14
Hey everyone,

My cephalotus have lost half maybe even more of their pitchers and started sprouting light green leaves instead. I admit I've been keeping them a little on the dry side in spite of the rising temperature. I also spray them now and then with soapy water but I must have done that hundreds of times since last summer so I don't think that would be the culprit...
IF there's a culprit at all.
I've plucked out the dry/dead pitchers. Is this a seasonal process or should I take action ?

cephajune.jpg
 
  • #15
Hey everyone,

My cephalotus have lost half maybe even more of their pitchers and started sprouting light green leaves instead. I admit I've been keeping them a little on the dry side in spite of the rising temperature. I also spray them now and then with soapy water but I must have done that hundreds of times since last summer so I don't think that would be the culprit...
IF there's a culprit at all.
I've plucked out the dry/dead pitchers. Is this a seasonal process or should I take action ?

cephajune.jpg

Soap breaks down in to minerals when it reaches the soil, and doing this repeatedly can cause massive mineral buildup in the soil. Cephalotus are fairly tolerant of minerals in the soil, but I have a theory considering your situation.....it is possible that the plants are feeding off all the built up minerals from the repeated soap applications, and have dropped their pitchers since there is no longer a need to catch insects..they have all the food they need in the soil. Since this is the case, they have switched over to leaves that can help them photosynthisize and use all those nutrients they are getting.

I know nepenthes will do this, so I think it's possible that cephs can do it too.....my advice to you is to stop using soapy water needlessly and flush the pots with plenty of clean water to wash some of the soap out....do this enough and you may get some pitchers back.
 
  • #16
Interesting theory Exo, thank you, I will stop using it. I was only spraying lightly on the surface to ward off insects and making sure the soil was dry before doing so; but I may have been careless all the same.
Thanks for your input.
 
  • #17
Nice plants. I generally repot mine every two years or so; at which time I take rhizome cuttings, make divisions, and take a few flat leaves as well.

Yet another myth is that they'll easily die if uprooted; yet I have done so for years without incident. I too grow them outside, also in a Mediterranean climate . . .

Cephalotus follicularis cv. "Hummer's Giant"

CFHG-1.jpg
 
  • #18
Ah, beautiful plant bigbella ! Congratulations... I hope I get to see a Hummer's Giant some day. Mine's pitchers are very small compared to yours.
 
  • #19
Quick update: Looks like the problem was the lack of water. Soon as I increased watering, a few small pitchers and 4 mature ones emerged.
I guess sometimes the simplest explanation does tend to be the right one.


rec2p.jpg


rec1l.jpg
 
  • #20
I have yet to successfully grow a cephalotus for any length of time. I did grow one for two years going from a tiny plant with immature traps about the size of a dime to a medium sized one with adult traps.

It kicked the bucket a few months after I repotted. In hindsight, I wouldn't attribute the death to repotting. I would attribute it to the media I chose for it. I had it in a peat and sand mixture that it came in and moved it to a very airy mix of LFS, perlite, charcoal, and sand. It would tend to dry out very fast and needed to be watered 2-3 times a week, or so I thought. I believe I was keeping it too wet because the top layer of soil felt dry but underneath was very wet. Since the top layer felt dry, I would water it.

I will try cephalotus again in the future sometime.
 
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