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feeding cephalotus

  • #22
I recently started feeding my larger ceph pitchers (1.5-2.5" ) with house flys I catch ( I make a trap) and place them in the plant while they're still alive in hopes of of stimulating the pitcher. So far I fed about 12 flies split up between three plants and the pitchers havnt responded negatively. So I was thinking what have other ceph wners been feeding thier plants? I've searched and I haven't seen feeding cephs discussed as much except for the betta pellets and other fish foods.

I have noticed that since feeding (over the last two and a half months) thier growth has seemed to been better. By that I mean before feeding the flies they would send out about one pitcer at a time. Now I've noticed its sending ot 2-3 fists at a time :) However I"ve only been feeding these 3 plants out of the 5 I currantly have.

My Cephalotus has put out 3 or 4 'fists' and a flower stalk even without insects! But, it did just come out of it's small dormancy.

My Cephalotus 'German Giant' (last year it changed from baby pitchers to adult, this year it's flowering, but, I believe it is not full size yet and it may be a year before it's full size, maybe even two!) has been snacking on ants or whatever gets in the windowsill. A wasp tried to shove itself in a smaller Ceph pitcher and it got stuck half way in the mouth and was kicking and stinging the air, as well as buzzing. Crazy for nectar! Usually, since it's in a windowsill, it cannot get much crawling food, so, I give it a few ants here and there. I tried to the other day to help it grow a bit faster and have some nutrients so it wouldn't be exhausted after pushing out all these pitchers and the flower stalk, but, sadly, it snowed the day I tried to go get some ants, so, I'll have to try again in a week or two. Ants are usually what I feed them. Small-medium sized ants.
 
  • #23
ahh thats good to hear.

BTW I make a "fly trap" by placing a dish of water with some sugar syrup mixed in and then I place it outside on the porch and I'll usually catch 3-5 ater leaving it it out over night....
 
  • #24
ahh thats good to hear.

BTW I make a "fly trap" by placing a dish of water with some sugar syrup mixed in and then I place it outside on the porch and I'll usually catch 3-5 ater leaving it it out over night....
 
  • #25
When I received my Cephalotus a year ago after it settled in and it was still winter, I fed them wingless fruit flies. However, now, my Cephalotus is in a windowsill and no longer under fluorescent lights. The only visitors that come inside for a taste of nectar are bees and they don't fit in the pitcher. A bee did try and shove itself in one of the smaller Cephalotus pitchers and got stuck, and it kicked and buzzed for a whole hour before I finally just got a tweezers, grabbed it and flushed it down the toilet. I go outside every once and awhile, go down my driveway a bit, pick up a few ants, small to medium sized, not any of those gigantic ones, just a few typical worker ants, and put them in the pitchers, One a pitcher usually, sometimes 2. My plant has been going mad with the pitcher production. It started off with 4 pitchers and once those opened it started pushing out another five, and it's still making more, as well as flowering, so, I decided to feed it some ants for a bit of a well-deserved (and needed, I'd guess!) boost. I also fertilized my Cephalotus on one occasion. I gave the pitchers a light misting of 1/2 of the manufacturers recommendation of an orchid fertilizer. My Stylidium took off like mad, and my Cephalotus showed improved growth speeds as it would with a few bugs, nothing spectacular. All in all, ants are the best choice. I sometimes be cruel and let nature do it's own work by putting the ants on the Cephalotus. Some are frantic and try to escape (in which case I hold onto them and watch the curious ones fall in) and then at the end feed the frantic ones to the plant.
 
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