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Cephalotus.. what do you think?!

Hey guys, I bought 5 beautiful Cephs last year. they were mature and healthy as can be.. they came from meadow view Biological. ANYHOW I've lost 4 of them sinc ehten and have one remaining that isnt looking too great :/

What do you guys recomend?

I grow it in a 10g terrarium with glass lid, not compleatly covered but has high humidity like 80% or so.

It has teo 15W compact flouros 5,500k they are pretty intense.

I am growing it in peat perlite mix and I've been keeping the mix moist not soppy wet. The ONLY thing that maybe could be the culprit is the heat... It stays at about 86-90 F

Any thoughts? Should I transplant it in sphag? or LFS and bring it indoors? less light? more light?

Man if anyone could offer advise it'd be great I've lost 4 dont want to loose the last
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Thanks!

-Jc
 
Juan-Carlos,
I don't really have advice for you, but can only relate my experience. I'm growing them outdoors in San Francisco, and they are in MUCH cooler weather. We normally have nighttime temps in the mid 50's and days in the upper 60s to the lower 70's in the summer, and subtract 10 degrees in the winter. Maybe it is the heat. Also, they don't need that kind of humidity, and might be getting some root rot as a result. You might try removing some of the lid, or at least adding a computer fan in there.

Capslock
 
DSC00014.jpg

Thats a picture I just took of my little guy... You guys should have seen how beautful and robust they where when I got them. They where full of big 1" -1.5" traps
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Thanks again guys!

-Jc
 
Hey Caps, I tried that for a while, I left the lid off the terrrarium.. being that florida is already humid enough.. and that did nothing so now I keep the lid on but not completly.

Yeah it sucks, i'm really stumped and disapointed:(

-Jc
 
Hello Juan-Carlos
That substrate seems a little peat heavy for Cephalotus follicularis in cultivation. I never liked the presence of a lot of peat however well plants grew.
I received a nice plant early this year which was grown in straight peat (it seems), and to my horror discovered that it had no roots whatsoever, just rhizome. I then repotted it into my usual Ceph mix of 3 parts thoroughly washed perlite, 2 parts shredded/milled LFS, and a half handful of very clean peat. I've had my plants grow on and on and now there are roots poking through the bottom of their (I think they prefer) deep container.

Also, is the constant 86-90F at night as well? I have my best Ceph in a propagator on my windowsill and it hits 100-120F (RH 100% during the heat) easily in there whenever the sun is out. This doesn't bother the plant at all. It has a cooling off period during the night though, which it definitely seems to appreciate.

Good luck, and keep us informed

Cheers,

Amori
 
Hey there Amori, hmm thats true I think i'll repot it then... Yes the temps at night are like 85-87. I just hope the transplanting dosent kill it through shock O_O

Anyhow thanks for the advise! I really do appreciate it!

-Jc
 
OKay, I repoted him.. used 3 parts perlite, 2 parts shreded live sphag, and 1 part peat... I soaked in super thrive for 15 min. and moved it under regualr flouros instead of the compact flourecents. Lets all cross our fingers!!

sound good?

I'll get a pic later.

-Jc
 
That's a bummer.

I grow mine in a 10 gallon terrarium with 2 - 15 watt fluorescents. My temps in the summer hits the mid 80's. My top has a 2" opening the length of the tank to allow fresh air in. I have never had any bad lucks with cephs growing like this.
I have potted them up in 2 different mixes and have had great results. I use equal amounts of perlite, LFS, and peat. Another is 60:40 mix sand:peat.
 
Hey there Juan-Carlos
I've never had a problem with shock after repotting/transplanting any CP, especially Cephs. They're tough little buggers.

Good luck

Cheers,

Amori
 
  • #10
I have (or rather, had) a couple of Cephs earlier this year, both in a 20gal terrarium 6" under 80W cool white fluorescents, 70-80Fday/60-70Fnight, humidity 80-100%, growing in equal parts peat:perlite:sand.

Anyhow, my air conditioner broke for 1 week and during that time, my apartment got ~10F warmer and, hence, my terrarium temps hit 90-100F for that week. I wasn't sure how the plants would react, but I took one ceph out of the terrarium and onto a grow-rack with the same conditions, except temps were ~80F and humidity 60-70%. The other remained in the tank.

After the week had passed, the ceph outside the tank was fine (and still is) fine, save for a couple of yellowed pitchers. The ceph in the tank had half of its leaves/pitchers completely yellowed (dead) and after another week, it had completely died.

Thus, the higher temperatures were probably caused the demise of the terrarium ceph as both plants started in the same condition and the only significantly different parameter was temperature. This may not be true for everyone's growing conditions, but it seems like temperature is a factor for my cephs. I've kept the remaining ceph on the grow rack and it has done just as well as it was in the terrarium. Moreover, though my watering regime is more frequent, there's less of a chance of root rot as the medium dries out a bit faster. Also, the plant is getting more fresh, circulated air than it was getting in the terrarium (which had a CPU fan in it).

Since then, I've been gradually moving my lowland neps, dews, utrics, sars, VFTs, adrovanda, pings and cobra plants out of the terraria and onto the grow-racks. They've been doing just fine and, in some cases, appear healthier. I've kept my heliamphora and highland neps in a terrarium because they love the extreme humidity.

Bottom line is....I've been growing in terraria for 2.5yrs and have made the switch to grow racks. More space, less hassle, equal light and near-equal humidity with more air circulation = healthier plants (at least so far for me).

So maybe you should try the same for your ceph.....

Good luck.
 
  • #11
To add to the confusion, I have a Ceph, from Elgecko last year, that I grow at a SW facing window sill, open tray. Its winter leaves I placed in a tray of swampy, live, LFS. They are also at the SW sill, but very different growing conditions. Both settings are doing well.
 
  • #12
Hi,
I think that it might be getting too hot combined with being in a tank. I grow my own Ceps in the greenhouse where there is hardly any humidity. They seem to do equally well in both full sun and shade. Bigger pitchers in shade, more colour in sun. I grow mine in 3 parts peat to one part sand. They stand in water which I allow to dry out between watering.
There does seem to be a bit of variation in the various clones out there. I find the so-called "giant" forms far slower and more susceptible to suddenly dieing.
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My best clone is one I got from Adrian Slacks nursery in the 80's as shown here:

cep.jpg


Best of luck with your last plant...

cheers

bill
 
  • #13
Looks great bill!!

Well as a little update, the plant is hanging in there after the transplant. I have it uncovered now. I noticed one new leaf but one of the old leaves fell when I transplanted it, so I put it to root.. lets hope it does!

Hopefully it does well.

-Jc
 
  • #14
Hello,

   I'm not a cephalotus expert, but I'm having success growing several different clones by doing the following:

1: growing the plants in a loose medium (mostly LFS, perlite, and lava rock)
2: Top watering the plant (no tray system) once the media begins to dry out.
3: Trying to keep the temps consistently cool (day time highs never exceed 78F).  I do this by keeping the plants in my basement.


I remember seeing a graph of the seasonal temperature patterns in South-western Australia.  If I remember correctly, the highs rarely approached 80F. For most of the year it was quite cool.

Here's a pic of one of my plants:
ceph3.jpg
 
  • #15
Bill, LOL! That's the almost the antithesis of the winter leaf cuttings that I have in live LFS, with temps exceeding 90 degrees this summer. But it's a lot closer to what I have for their parent plant.
 
  • #16
This is in your basement? You must have nice lighting. Nice plant!

Cole
 
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