What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Ceph- 1 year in the life....well almost!

petmantis

ermahgerd
Last year, around my B-day, Labine (Pascal) sent me this...

They grow up so fast! :'(

Out of the box, and potted up. May 2009.
DSC06430.jpg


Pitcher used to take the cutting
DSC06431.jpg


Sometime later, almost summer 2009.
DSC06500.jpg


Growing up! Summer 2009.
DSC06881.jpg


A whole bunch of immature pitchers- December 2009 (bad quality)
ceph.jpg


Another view (horrible quality) of the same day- in front of it there's a Ceph cv. Czech Giant, also from Labine...
DSC07586.jpg


Early January 2010
014.jpg


And what could this be?
015-1.jpg


Inflating, early February 2010
DSC07883.jpg


Today (late February 2010). After almost a year of growing in a small sealed Tupperware container, with a 13 watt desklamp for light.
DSC07911.jpg


View of entire plant, obviously begging for a bigger pot....which it won't get very soon, no room left! :)
DSC07912.jpg


Huge thanks, Labine. :)

Thanks for looking!
 
very cool to see the progress! seeing the juvies become adults is a great thing. no need to change the pot though! at least not yet! from what i understand they love being cramped!
 
very cool to see the progress! seeing the juvies become adults is a great thing. no need to change the pot though! at least not yet! from what i understand they love being cramped!

Yup! :)

I wasn't expecting mature pitchers for another 6 months or so. This was a nice surprise :) Totally worth the long wait.

''Patience is a virtue'' :-))
 
very cool to see the progress! seeing the juvies become adults is a great thing. no need to change the pot though! at least not yet! from what i understand they love being cramped!

Not claiming to be an expert, but that is the exact opposite of what I have heard. Ceph's hate to be root bound and cramped roots could cause sudden ceph syndrome.

The reason being that ceph's have a large tap root that needs plenty of room to grow under the soil. That is why a tall pot is recommended for larger cephs.
 
didn't know that. i thought tall pots were used for drainage management...but then again, i've seen someone grow cephs in waterlogged conditions...how does that work *scratches head*

and i thought SCS was suspected to be caused by a lack of a dormancy period for a prolonged period of time.

hahaha---ceph cultivation techniques need to be systematized and straightened out.
 
I think I've also heard that crowding triggers certain behaviors. I get the feeling that the hard part about growing Cephs is not being scared of them and repotting regularly as needed. I've seen more examples than I can count now of people doing things that "shouldn't work" with marvelous results, mostly related to repotting and considerations for the plant's roots. Definitely not a very well understood plant. I'm having crazy good results with a cutting I recently received in conditions I was sure would be harsh even for my established Neps nearby. Somehow they're all doing swell with less-than-ideal fluorescents and about two hours of morning sun on clear days.
My favorite hint for growing plants was given to me by a friend in high school; he said that you have to abuse houseplants a little if you want them to grow their best. If you pamper them too much, they'll forget how to take care of themselves, get lazy, and eventually sick. Controlled stress is a sort of exercise. It's kind of like, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
~Joe
 
"what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
~Joe



Words of wisdom. Very true for Sarracenia: Strong winds will destroy greenhouse-grown pitchers, but the next generation of pitchers will be much, much more hardy :)
 
Good advice seedjar.

amp: I have heard that too about lack of dormancy. Truth is I know little about ceph cultivation and am just repeating what I have heard/read/researched.... I have managed to keep mine alive for about a year and that is about it.

I forgot to mention very nice and healthy looking ceph petmantis. Good job! Looks better than mine actually. :)
 
The colour of the plant in the latter pictures is more intense, have you changed your lighting?
 
  • #10
The colour of the plant in the latter pictures is more intense, have you changed your lighting?

Nope, just lowered the humidity a bit, and put the plant directly under the desklamp lights. In the beginning, I kept it in the more darker corners of the Tupperware container, so it's less colorful. Since it grew bigger, I moved it closer to the lights and it colored up.

I have the same lamp on my Heliamphora, and it's also pretty colorful.
 
  • #11
D'aw. It grew up to be a great plant!
 
  • #12
Nice recovery!
 
  • #13
Great growing!
 
  • #14
I accidentally left the desklamp on for about 36 hours continuously - the pitcher has darkened, but hopefully it didn't mind the extended photoperiod too much :p

Here are some new shots:

March 2, 2010.
DSC07933.jpg

DSC07934.jpg

DSC07936.jpg


And for fun, my P. x'Pirouette'. 3 more flowers coming, it's gonna beat the record of my P. x'Sethos' soon enough :)

DSC07920.jpg

The leaves look like something in TC gone wrong...
DSC07922.jpg
 
  • #15
awsome pet!! Great colours and so many flowers on the ping!
 
  • #16
What type of bulb is in your desklamp?
 
  • #17
I don't know, but I changed it from a 9 watt CFL. The ceph is pretty close to the CFL, maybe an inch or two away.

Even with the 9 watt bulb, I managed to get some surprising color on my H. minor and VFTs.

DSC07470.jpg


D. muscipula 'Pink Venus'
DSC07692.jpg


EDIT: Oh yea, the color could also be due to the terrarium being somewhat close to a windowsill :) So maybe the 9 watt had a much larger partner-in-crime (the sun) :D
 
  • #18
either way, they all look great!
 
  • #19
Still, that's one heck of a bulb.
 
Back
Top