ceph help

[M Jacobs]

i recently got a ceph hummers giant and i'm worried with its rapid decline of my plant. My conditions are it's under lights for 16 hours a day, Humidity 80 percent, water about every two to three days but i might have let it get a little dry one time so now i have a small tray under it and will let the water evaporate before i add more, and soil no idea just got it but the guy seemed very successful in growing them so i'm sure its good. here are some pics the grow points appear fine but this is the first ceph ive had so....

 

[amphirion]

too much watering in my opinion. i water my ceph once every month. then again, i also grow my ceph in highland connections and the humidifier waters it.

and keep the crown (growth point stem) dry as possible.

 

[uphwiz]

if it dried totally at this small stage it may have damaged it beyond saving , it looks very wet at the top , if you are getting those pitchers wet when your watering, stop that immediately, i do top water mine but the pitchers dry throughly, yours seem to be rotting a bit, but its very hard to tell , ease back a little on the water, but make sure not to let it dry out again, there may be a little growth at the cented that has some promise, not sure it needs that high of humidity, 50 to 60 percent may be better ,and back to the water, don't water close to the end of the light cycle, give the plant several hours to dry before lights out .
What kind of lights are you using, watts / lumens, kind of fixture, how close to the plant .
Give us a little more info on your growing conditions.

 

[BigBella]

Over-watering is the most common culprit with new growers; and I would back away from that a bit -- and I would suggest lightly watering around the plant only when the soil appears dry. Be assured that the peat - sand - sphagnum mixes retain a surprising amount of water below the surface; and it would take weeks to thoroughly dry out at the root level . . .

 

[Rob]

Is this the HG from ebay?

 

[UnstuckinTime]

I got my ceph a few months ago from a retailer out west. Great people, really, but they stuff their pots to the brim with their planting medium, making over-head watering difficult. What i did was I dug a little moat around the plant, so it is high above it on a little island. Every monday morning i pour DI water into this moat, filling it three times. I also mist it incidentally when I go to mist my Heli and highland nepenthes.

Bottom line- I agree, over watering may be to blame.

It may be prudent to remove one of the winter leaves in an attempt to propagate. The plant may die, but its genetic code can live on!

 

[SirKristoff]

it definitely does appear to be over-watered...i water my cephs only once or twice a week, i use a top dressing of LFS (still below the crown of the plant) as an idea as to when to water it...once the LFS starts to get dry, i wait a day and water em...ive lost several cephs to over watering and probably various other problems. for once mine is growing happily and well....

 

[droseraguy]

I will never plant another ceph without using trichoderma in combination. Do some research on it and give Crystal a shout, she can help.

 

[jimscott]

I would pull the "winter leaf' and see if you can get that to sprout.

 

[vraev]

Also, heat and lack of aircirculation is the spell of doom for a ceph (more so than any other CP IMO). Their hairy pitchers and foliage are prone to trapping drops of water and encouraging fungal/pathogenic growth.

 

[M Jacobs]

well i have good news and bad.
it died all the way back to just the growth points but they are still alive and healthy now that i have reduced the watering to once a week and i see a new growth point coming up. I'll try to get pics up when it looks better. Thanks.

 

[amphirion]

personally, i think you are watering it too much still. once every other week sounds better. but keep humidity up along with good air circulation.

 

[M Jacobs]

its in a small pot and hope to re pot when its adjusted and growing well but a result of the small pot is it dries out very fast.

 

[WildBill]

When you do water, water around the perimeter and avoid the crown of the plant. This has helped my plants a great deal.

When it gets better and forms a small pitcher, feed it with a tiny Betta fish food pellet. I have a package of something called BettaBioGold I am just about done with. It worked great for the tiny pitchers of my plants giving them a nice little boost. Now I will have to investigate to find a better food because the new BetaBioGold is different and has wheat listed as the first ingredient.

 

[jimscott]

Bill: Good to see you back! Peopl have been asking about doing dormancy outside. Well there's this hobbysit from Connecticut...

 

[Zhilin]

Hi, all. I am also new to ceph. After have reading your replies, I am confused. Here are my confusions:

(1) If I grow my cephs outdoors, and in my local area almost every day is sunny, what's the watering frequency should I keep? Once every day? or Once or twice per week? My cephs generally receive direct sunlight for 4 hours.

(2) My cephs in standard 3inch pots and I use the tray-method to grow them. So, in my case, what's the water-level should I keep? Currently, the water-level is 1-cm. Is this OK?

(3) In summary, can I say: to grow cephs, the soil needs to be kept drier than other CPs?

Thanks.

 

[WildBill]

I'm in Zone 5, in Connecticut.

A few years ago I had a ceph flower. Since the flower stalk can be around 2 feet tall, I moved it out of the tank, and outside. It was in a shaded area that got dappled sun, no tray and only occasional watering. Definitely not every day. It was in a 5 or 6 inch pot. Your 3 inch pot might dry out a little faster but personally I would go drier than too wet.

It was doing well and the flower was about a foot tall until a squirrel got to it. Lost the flower, no seeds, and the whole plant nearly died. If I ever do that again I will put it in a cage.

Here's a great Ceph Site:

http://www.foxoles.dsl.pipex.com/cephalotusfollix.html