Ceph observation

[rattler]

was having a heck of a time with my Cephs last year, they were growing slower than heck.....for grins early this winter i removed all the moss off the mound of soil in the pot(though it wasnt terribly thick) and replaced the top of the mound with Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil which i figured would keep the moss to a minimum in the future which it has over the last 5 months.....but with no change in watering practices, light or anything else the growth has absolutely exploded, the couple of separate patches in the large pot have been doubling in size every month and the pitchers are making leaps and bounds in size over the last 2 months......seems in my conditions atleast the ceph REALLY did not like competition with the moss

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Rattler, was it sphagnum moss or that carpet moss that forms a dense fibrous mat on the surface of the soil?

 

[rattler]

the carpet moss.....the only place LFS grows for me is in the U. humboldtii pot

 

[jimscott]

What exactly is in the soil medium?

 

[rattler]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........good question......the original clump is going on 2 years in that pot.....the second and third clump were TC plants added about a year ago, maybe less......off the top of my head 50/50 peat and APS

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Thought it probably was carpet moss. Some don't think it hurts the plants but I've never liked it as it slowly chokes out my small plants and seedlings.

 

[rattler]

most plants it doesnt hurt......i removed it from the ceph pot on a whim cause i didnt know what else to do.........never had a problem with carpet moss with plants like cephs.....hell it doesnt seem to bother my pygmy dews......going to have to say other than tiny, slow growing seedlings i have never had an issue that i could with confidence blame on the carpet moss.........

 

[jimscott]

I'm seriously contemplating returning my bag of Perlite in exchange for this Schultz stuff, if they even have it at Home Depot.

An observation for me: After my Ceph got knocked to the floor it went downhill (ya think?). I ended up removing all the dead pitchers and had one "winter leaf" left alive. But it was attached to a shoot. So I replanted it with my U. alpina, which has live LFS on top. And now I have all "winter leaves" and no real pitchers. Strange!

 

[SirKristoff]

Well, im starting to realize cephs hate competing with other plants for growing space...i had a top cover of LFS in my Hummer's Giant's pot...it was starting to slow down in growth and act all strange. plus, moss holds the humidity high which can equal the dreaded powdery mildew, which was forming on mine...but the moment i removed the LFS, the mildew pulled back. and now its almost completely gone...this is the one stage i love springtails, because they eat the rest of the mildew lol.