A number of weeks ago I brought my Cephalotus in from outside, the largest of which had a flower stalk which had finished flowering. Being rather lazy, I decided to just pull the stalk out, rather than cut it, which resulted in me pulling out a length of rhizome, a pitcher and some leaves with it. I didn't really care as to whether the rhizome rooted or not, as it's just a typical, so I decided to try another growing medium experiment. We have a pet hamster and we use a by-product of the paper making industry as a bedding for it, that being a high temperature dried wood pulp. This material is absorbent and fibrous, which sort of reminds me of fibrous peat, so I decided to pot the rhizome in that. Figuring that it would probably offer very little in the way of nutrient or anything else beneficial, I decided to make a 'starter' solution to water it with so mixed some molasses, a vitamin tablet, trichoderma and mycorrhizal powder into deionised water and gave the wood pulp a good watering with it after planting the rhizome. I top water the plant with deionised water most of the time but occasionally add some of the 'starter' solution. Within a week or so of planting new leaves were visible and within the next few weeks more have appears:
As molasses are sugar, there is obviously a risk of unwanted fungal growth, though I'm hoping that the Trichoderma and mycorrhizal keep it at bay. There is also a chance that these they will digest the cellulose in the wood pulp, thus breaking it down. Time will tell, but as it's been growing well for a good number of weeks I decided to share the results.
As molasses are sugar, there is obviously a risk of unwanted fungal growth, though I'm hoping that the Trichoderma and mycorrhizal keep it at bay. There is also a chance that these they will digest the cellulose in the wood pulp, thus breaking it down. Time will tell, but as it's been growing well for a good number of weeks I decided to share the results.