Should I have a humidity dome for Cephalotus?

[Wolfn]

I have a Cephalotus and I'm wondering whether or not to keep the humidity dome. On one hand, Cephalotus loves high humidity and I have lots of sphagnum moss starting to grow in the soil which I believe the high humidity is a factor. But on the other hand, the humidity dome blocks out sunlight and I can increase the sunlight and improve colors without a humidity dome.


Here in Florida on my windowsill, should I have a humidity dome for the Cephalotus? Would it kill the live sphagnum moss?

 

[seedjar]

Absolutely not; Cephs have no use for high humidity. They're specifically adapted to habitats with lots of air circulation and modest to low RH. Do some reading on their natural habitat.
~Joe

PS - WildBill has a great compilation of Cephalotus cultivation/ecology information, but for the life of me I can't find a link. I've got a printoff of it here but his website seems buried under millions of pages about Chris Matthews and Wild Bill Hiccock

 

[Exo]

The moss probably would like the dome.....but the ceph will not, more people probably kill cephs due to lack of airflow than for any other reason.

 

[Not a Number]

http://www.foxoles.dsl.pipex.com/cephalotusfollin.html
http://culturesheet.org/cephalotaceae:cephalotus:follicularis

 

[seedjar]

80%? Really? I have problems any time I go over 50%. I must need a fan.
~Joe

 

[Exo]

80%? Really? I have problems any time I go over 50%. I must need a fan.
~Joe

I have mine in 75-80% humidity.....but it's right in front of an occillating fan.

 

[mobile]

The relative humidity range in their natural habitat is ~70 - 80%** BUT this would be with natural ventilation. Keeping them under a humidity dome, with no ventilation, can lead to fungal attacks and rot. As an aside, I have never seen any pictures of Cephalotus growing in Sphagnum moss in their natural habitat, so this might indicate that they do not share the same environmental conditions.

** Source: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_009500_All.shtml

 

[Wolfn]

I should have mentioned that I often replace the dome with a different dome every now and then. For example, I sit the plant with a dome on the windowsill on the afternoon, and when I move it under my light, I replace the dome. This gives it a nice air flow so it's not constantly stagnant.

 

[SirKristoff]

moving a plant around like that will stress it out, as it wont be able to adjust to one certain condition....
IME there is a sweet spot for cephs, and finding it seems to be a bit of a pain....and once you do find it, if you move it, its all over lol.
so basically put
no i do not advise a humidity dome, get all sorts of fun fungus,mold,mildew etc...

how much moss do you have in your mix? is it pure sphagnum, or is it only a top dressing?
i use sphagnum has a top dressing, but i also have adequate air circulation....

 

[Not a Number]

http://culturesheet.org/cephalotaceae:cephalotus:follicularis

Cephalotus is a slow growing plant which doesn't appreciate disturbance very well. This is often one of the problems when growing it for the first time: It can take a while before they recover from transplant or transport shock and during this time the novice grower panics and changes the growing conditions - making things worse. After obtaining a new plant you should give it a dedicated spot and let it recover for at least 6 months before evaluating its health. It's very probable that your plant will experience periods of several months where nothing happens, even though it should be pushing new growth.

Cephalotus will also slow down pitcher growth and grow non-carnivorous leaves in the late fall and winter.

 

[Wolfn]

moving a plant around like that will stress it out, as it wont be able to adjust to one certain condition....
IME there is a sweet spot for cephs, and finding it seems to be a bit of a pain....and once you do find it, if you move it, its all over lol.
so basically put
no i do not advise a humidity dome, get all sorts of fun fungus,mold,mildew etc...

how much moss do you have in your mix? is it pure sphagnum, or is it only a top dressing?
i use sphagnum has a top dressing, but i also have adequate air circulation....

The soil is one part peat, two parts perlite, and one part sand, with the top 1/4 inch being pure sphagnum moss

 

[brisco225]

I'll +1 what Kris had to say about the ceph and it's sweet spot. The cephalotus I have been growing for almost ten years is a window lover. I tried under grow lights, under domes, etc, but it always did its best when I had it in a grow window on the south side of the house. Since my remodel job on the house, it lost it's south side grow window, so now it grows next to a window facing the east. It does well, but not as well as it did in that one grow window facing south.

My point is, they are tougher plants than what you might hear about when it comes to humidity, but at the same time, each plant has its own sweet spot in mind.

 

[RSS]

I've been growing Ceph's in high/mid/low humidity and if I had to pick one, I would go with the open air ones like this.

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122053

The high humidity ones seem to have a lower strike rate and are generally growing slower. Of course this is subjective and with a very small sample size but the results are no where close. The open air ones are just growing so much faster. They are of the same clone with most factors being equal expect humidity. Of course there are some differences.

All this is subjective and should be treated as such. Consistancy would be the key I would say.

 

[RL7836]

For your conditions, the humidity dome probably isn't needed at all. However, depending on how long it has been in there, you should remove it very slowly (week or 3) to allow the plant to acclimate to it's new lower-humidity digs. One of the easier ways to croak a ceph (& many other plants) is to suddenly move it from high humidity to low humidity ...

I've been growing Ceph's in high/mid/low humidity.....

Ditto - some on windowsill, some in highland tanks, some in intermediate, some outside all spring, summer, fall (got to bring them in today if I remember). The ones that seem the 'happiest' are in my office tank setup - moderate temps, higher than normal house humidity. In general, Cephs are little weeds that can adapt to a host of conditions.

 

[Cindy]

From what I've seen...Cephalotus grow in very humid conditions in the wild. They either have water constantly flowing down its media (albeit slow) for those growing on cliff surfaces, or grow in open/sunny swamp areas near the base of much taller plants. They are not found growing in live/dead sphagnum moss.

In cultivation they would do better with slightly lower humidity. IMHO, keeping them in a dome can help them cope with fluctuating humidity levels but a constantly low humidity won't hurt at all if the plant is already acclimatised.