Calling All Cephalotus Experts!! PLEASE HELP!!

[icemansyr]

Recently my Cephalotus 'Hummer's Giant' hasn't been looking so good. A lot of the pitchers are turning yellow. I'm hoping it's not Pythium and is instead just the result of not enough water. The weather in San Francisco has been getting warmer lately and this plant is starting to receive some later afternoon sun (in addition to the T5 bulb it grows under all day). It is growing in an open top growing chamber in front of a large window that is cracked most of the time. So there is always some airflow happening. It's companions in the grow chamber are Nepenthes and Helis. Everyone else seems happy. My Ceph seemed to be doing GREAT until about a week ago. I should also mention that the Ceph is growing in the Charles Brewer mix. Here are two photos I took before I trimmed off a lot of the yellowing pitchers.

 

[GrowinOld]

A lil' more background may help some of the folks here make a guess.
Like how long have you had the plant?, how long in its current location/conditions?,
has anything changed in the past few weeks/months?

It looks to me like it was growing great in conditions it loved,
and then was put into conditions it didn't like as much,
and is finally getting around to showing its response.

Always hard to give an accurate diagnosis without knowing about things...

 

[amphirion]

a shot in the dark, but it could be transitioning into the winter leaf spring phase? maybe increase the ventilation if possible?

 

[icemansyr]

A lil' more background may help some of the folks here make a guess.
Like how long have you had the plant?, how long in its current location/conditions?,
has anything changed in the past few weeks/months?

It looks to me like it was growing great in conditions it loved,
and then was put into conditions it didn't like as much,
and is finally getting around to showing its response.

Always hard to give an accurate diagnosis without knowing about things...

Well I've had this Ceph since early November (so not that long really). It's been growing in these conditions for about the same amount of time. Lately, as I had mentioned before, it has started to receive some late afternoon sunshine and temps have generally been a bit warmer. I usually water everything in that grow chamber at the same time and I may have skipped a week on the Ceph. The pot didn't feel THAT light but sometimes that Brewer Mix (which is heavy on the perlite) can be a bit hard to judge IMO.

---------- Post added at 11:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 PM ----------

a shot in the dark, but it could be transitioning into the winter leaf spring phase? maybe increase the ventilation if possible?

I hope it's just a transtition?? I did notice after I trimmed off a bunch of the yellow pitchers and really got down in there that some of the growth points had turned brown. Unless it was just some teeny, tiny little pitcher forming at the end of the growth point that was brown? It is soooo small it was hard to tell.

I think the ventilation is already pretty good since I keep the nearby window ajar (normally an inch or so) and the grow chamber has no top on it. That should be enough, no?

 

[Exo]

Kinda looks like it's been getting either too dry, or too hot.

 

[jimscott]

I would also take the "winter leaves" and start them in LFS as backups.

 

[Fryster]

I had the SAME thing happen to all my Ceph's just last Fall.

They all had been in the same growing conditions for two years; same photo period, never a rest.

I decided that they were "tired". We've all heard the Ceph's don't need a proper dormancy, but now I'm not so sure...

Anyway, in the Fall/Winter of '10 I moved my Ceph's to much cooler and lower light conditions of north-facing windows. Well, long-story-short, they're doing MUCH better now. My Cephs simply needed a slower & cooler growing period. I'm actually treating them as normal house plants. (!!) Lower light, cooler conditions and letting them dry a bit more between waterings.

 

[thez_yo]

Yeah my Cephs looked as bad outside as my VFTs, and the one that spent the past whole year with me had just non-carnivorous leaves so it barely looked like a Ceph. I think pitcher production might start soon again, or at least I hope because the plants look so bad :O

 

[Baylorguy]

I would follow Jim's advice and take some leaf cuttings as a backup. Any chemicals sprayed in the room recently? May be best to see if any new growth happens rather than doing something drastic. There are those on here though that are far more exprienced than I am, so hopefully they continue to chime in here.

Phil

 

[icemansyr]

Thanks for all the input guys. The conditions I grow it in are generally cool. I live in a fog belt part of SF so days don't normally get too hot. I might take some of the winter leaves and put them in LFS soon if the plant continues to look bad. Do you think taking them off might set the plant back even more? It may not be able to photosynthesize as well then.

 

[Exo]

Thanks for all the input guys. The conditions I grow it in are generally cool. I live in a fog belt part of SF so days don't normally get too hot. I might take some of the winter leaves and put them in LFS soon if the plant continues to look bad. Do you think taking them off might set the plant back even more? It may not be able to photosynthesize as well then.

Good point..I would probably take 4 or 5 leaf pullings and leave the rest on the plant.

 

[dashman]

Hate to hijack the post, but does anyone know what it means when new leaves and pitchers yellow quickly? Older established leaves and pitchers are fine. New ones tend to yellow.

Overwatering?

 

[icemansyr]

Yeah I have both small and large pitchers yellowing on my plant. When I got home today my plant looked even worse and the weather today was warmer. I wonder if there is a connection. I've moved it to a cooler spot with less light to see what happens. I've noticed some of the leaves are now wilting and I'm seeing more browning on the plant. I'm going to try and salvage some of the leaves to try and start some new plants. Do you guys recommend dipping the ends in Rootone?

I've also noticed some of the growth points on the plant have browned up while others are still looking ok. Since the roots on the plant are so fussy about transplanting I guess it's best to just leave it be?

I'm beginning to think more and more that my plant has Pythium. Has anyone treated Pythium successfully with Physan 20?? I have some and I'm wondering if it would do any good.

If this plant croaks it would TOTALLY suck. Meh.

 

[Exo]

Yeah I have both small and large pitchers yellowing on my plant. When I got home today my plant looked even worse and the weather today was warmer. I wonder if there is a connection. I've moved it to a cooler spot with less light to see what happens. I've noticed some of the leaves are now wilting and I'm seeing more browning on the plant. I'm going to try and salvage some of the leaves to try and start some new plants. Do you guys recommend dipping the ends in Rootone?

I've also noticed some of the growth points on the plant have browned up while others are still looking ok. Since the roots on the plant are so fussy about transplanting I guess it's best to just leave it be?

Has anyone treated Pythium successfully with Physan 20?? I have some and I'm wondering if it would do any good.

If this plant croaks it would TOTALLY suck. Meh.

No rootone...I find that it works poorly with CPs.

 

[icemansyr]

Interesting. Was it a certain type of CP that the Rootone didn't work well on? I took a bunch of Nepenthes cuttings months ago and had pretty good success with the Rootone. Hmmm. Maybe Ceph leaf cuttings are more finicky?

 

[Exo]

Interesting. Was it a certain type of CP that the Rootone didn't work well on? I took a bunch of Nepenthes cuttings months ago and had pretty good success with the Rootone. Hmmm. Maybe Ceph leaf cuttings are more finicky?

Actually..I had problems with nepenthes cuttings and rootone powder.....it lowered my success rate by half.

If you had success though, you could try it, although I have heard that as long as you get enough of the whitish leafbase in the leaf pullings you should have good success without it.

 

[nepguy]

I'm a little late to the party, but I don't think your cephalotus looks sick at all. In fact, it looks quite happy. The reason I say that is because the new spring leaves look extremely healthy, and I see new pitchers forming among the old ones. It think that the old pitchers are fading because they are old, and it is their time to go. A ceph that is dying from the roots looks a lot different than that. For one thing, those juicy, verdent new leaves would be yellowing, too.

Give it a couple of months, and don't do anything rash out of panic. (Panic kills plants.) There is no need for you to fear the black death stalks in the night! You live in San Fransisco, the perfect place to grow cephs!

---------- Post added at 11:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:25 PM ----------

Dashman - your ceph might need some attention. That symptom, yellowing of new leaves and developing pitchers, always preceded a crash for me. I don't know your conditions. Cutting back a bit on watering might help, but if you find that the symptoms accelerate, you might need to do some radical surgery.

I found out that I could always save my plants when they got like that by cutting off the crown below the soil line, taking part of the thick hairy stem, and replanting it in a new pot to root up in regular ceph medium. (They root very easily that way.) The remaining stem under the soil somehow always came back, and with more growth points than it had before.