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Cephalotus "fuzz"

superimposedhope

Somewhat Unstable
My Ceph is gro0wing like mad BUT, it has this white "fuzzy" looking stuff growing as well around the bases and moving up over the new leaves and pitcher nubs. It does not do anything on previously developed pitchers. What is it and how do i get rid og it?
The plant grows in a pot inside a 1gl bucket with water around bottom, but not touching pot. Covered with Ceran wrap and sitting in a windowsill.

Thanks
Joe
 
Hi Joe:

It sounds like a fungal attack on your plant!. Those roots and leaves with  fungus should be excised from the plant and discarded. The rest of the plant, should be treated with a systemic fungicide, preferably sulphur based once a week for two weeks. After that, repot the ceph in new compost and hope for the best.

Gus
 
Its not doing any damage? That's strange...how long's it been there for?
 
Sometimes a fungus will go away on its own if you lower the humidity.  Usually one is the result of high humidity with poor air flow (which you would have if they thing is covered in Ceran wrap).

Then again, you don't want to take chances.
 
Is it dry and powdery? If so it could be mildew. My plant got it over winter but it doesn't seem to do any harm. Spray with a fungicide and then scrape all the powder off with a Q-tip.
 
From what I have read and heard from other growers, cephalotus is very suseptable to rot, especially when there if very little air flow. It will be growing just fine, and then WHAM, it rots away. Do not under estimate cephalotus's ability to grow with less humidity. I have been growing mine for over a year with humidity as low as 33 percent. Average humidity is probably closer to 50 percent. It pitchers very well, with pitchers up to an inch and a half (3.8cm) so far.

Homer has built a very nice grow structure for his cephalotus and other Australian cp's. He has holes drilled into two sides of structure to allow for more airflow. Good pictures of this tank are on his website. I do not know what the humidity inside this terrarium is, but I will ask.
 
As Alexis has said, sounds like powdery mildew, not a rot. Cephs are quite prone to powdery mildew. treat witha fungicide if you like & increase ventilation.
 
I had had some white stuff growing around my ceph as well, but it was not powdery. It was somewhere between wet cotton and cobweb, but not as tough. Adding more air flow as suggested fixed that problem, as I couldn't lower the humidity too much - it was growing on the live spagnum that my cephs were in.
 
WickedThistle hit it on the head. Thats exactly what it is.

Joe
 
  • #10
whenever a plant of mine gets something like that, i just dip a q-tip in achohol, and rub it off
 
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