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Cephalotus care

  • #21
[b said:
Quote[/b] (CopcarFC @ Oct. 31 2005,5:33)]Anyone grow Cehp's outside?  Where do they grow in the wild?

-Rail
I do, but it grows very slowly for me. I also know that Capslock grows his out on his back porch and its absolutely beautiful.

Steve
 
  • #22
[b said:
Quote[/b] (agviz @ Nov. 20 2005,5:05)]Help! I suspect my Cephalotus is having problems. It looks as though new pitchers are turning brown before the pitcher can mature. I had this once before with a Ceph and it eventually died.

I live near Chicago. When the season is warm, I grow it outside in partial shade and take it in only when the weather gets hot. It seems to do fine out there. When the harsh Midwest winter begins to approach, I take it in and leave it in a South window terrarium. The light hitting the terrarium is difused through shear curtains and the top of the terrarium is partially covered to maintain some humidity, but avoid heat build up. I would guess the avarage daily temperature is high 70's (F) to somewhere in the 80s. Night temperature is probably around mid to high 60s.

There is water sitting in the base of the terrarium so that all the other CP's are in one big tray system. But Ceph and some Heliamphora are sitting in their own tray which I let go dry between waterings. When I do water the Ceph tray, I only give it about a quarter of an inch.

I don't feed or fertilize the Ceph. I don't know what the growing mix is because I bought it from a CP supplier. I suspect the medium has perlite in it and is airy, but again I'm not certain.

I wondered if it wasn't getting cool enough at night, but I've noticed others on the forum growing Ceph without especially cool nights.

I've lost another Ceph last year in the terrarium, and I'm wondering if it could be the humidity. Perhaps it caused a fungal problem? Could it be SCDS as mentioned here: Ceph FAQ ?

For the time, I might keep my plant out of the terrarium. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm new to this forum and I was delighted to stumble across it. There's some great stuff here!

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I would say it is probably a fungus or mold. Check the growth point and other parts of it, and look for either something gray and fuzzy or something white or fuzzy. If you find either one of these, it is a fungal/mold infection. I suspect due to lack of air circulation your Ceph might have mold or fungus. Let me know what you find.
dewy
 
  • #23
I've had my Ceph for a few weeks now and it seems to be settling in pretty well. I grow it in a grow chamber with some Neps and a few sundews. Temps hover between 80 and 90 degrees and the humidity isn't usually more than 40 - 50%, which hopefully won't be bad for my Ceph in the long run. It grows under 61 watts of flourescent light (some tube, some compact) and it's on the tray system for watering.

Like I said, I haven't had it for too long but it seems to be doing well so far!
 
  • #24
Hi Dewy. I looked at Ceph under the magnifying glass, and while I didn't find fungus or mold, I did discover a minor infestation of scale! Yikes! Good thing you had me look closer or I might not have found this. They were very tiny and mostly hidden in the leaf crevices. I removed all I could see with tweezers, but I'll treat the plant with Orthene. I also noticed some on the Heliamphora too.

Hopefully this is the ONLY problem. I'll see what happens...

Thanks Dewy!!!
 
  • #25
HELP AGAIN!

So I checked my Ceph for fungus and didn't see any, gave it Orthene and removed some scale I found, but it looks as though the new growth are still turning brown. Humidity is not too high because the terrium is fairly open at the top. Temperature is 68-78 degrees (F) through day and night. Light is through diffused shears at a South window.

Perhaps because Ceph is such a slow grower, I'm not giving enough time to judge if my efforts with the Orthene and scale removal are having a positive effect. But let me return the question: What could make new growth on Ceph go brown?

Thanks for any help!

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  • #26
I have a question regarding pitcher formation...

I've had my Ceph for about a month and a half and it's just now finishing making its first new pitcher. There are about three or four pitcher "buds" forming around the rosette, but they're definitely slow in the making. Now I know Cephs are pretty slow growers, but is this normal?
 
  • #27
I'm no expert, but that's about the same growing speed I usually experience. Anyone else?
 
  • #28
Yup, they are slow growers. I've had ~12 new pitchers in the past 12 months - but the one plant now appears to be two.
 
  • #29
I have two small 3 year old ceph in my terrarium. Both stopped growing almost as soon as I put them in my terrarium. They were growing under 80 Watts worth of cool white fluorescents on a 12 hour cycle for winter. Still no growth ofter a month. As an experiment I lengthed the lighting cycle for 16 hours and they started growing vigorously. The humidity was on average 85%-90% with temperatures ranging from 68F to 80F.

Chris
 
  • #30
Chris, how far are your plants from the lights?

It finally occured to me to ask my seller about the Ceph turning brown and he said it sounded like a low light problem. He advised adding a 40 Watt fluorescent light about 6 inches above the plant for 12 hours a day. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if he meant in addition to the winter sun that it's already receiving.
 
  • #31
I actually have the photoperiod set to 14 hours. Each plant is roughly 8 inches from the bulbs. I seriously doubt the added sunlight is going to affect their growth in any negative way. I started seeing a ton of growth as soon as I bumped up the photoperiod from 11 hours to 14 hours. I hope this helps.

Chris
 
  • #32
I thank you, and Ceph thanks you!
 
  • #33
I have grown my cephalotus under two different conditions. The first was under 4 4ft shoplights. It did great under those conditions. I housed it inside of a 50 gallon aquirium put on its side, so the plant was about six inches from the lights.

About a year or so, I moved my cephalotus in my garden window that faces south-east. It recieves direct sunshine and turns a nice redish color. Here is a picture from last year.

cepth21.jpg


ceph101.jpg


Good luck with your cephalotus!

-Jeremy
 
  • #34
Jeremy, that's a GREAT specimen! Thanks for sharing the photos and the growing information!
 
  • #35
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WOW brisco225 thats a beautiful ceph.. Awsome pics as well.. Thanks for sharring, all the things im learning on how to properly care for a ceph is helping me for when the day comes that i do get a ceph.

Tracey hopes maybe in spring i will finaly have a baby ceph..
Hey i can hope and dream right..  
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  • #36
Thanks for the replies. That picture is a bit dated. The pot is nearly filled with pitchers now, and the plant has divided into many growing points. I have a smaller cephalotus in the same conditions as the larger one and it seems to thrive in them also. Don't under estimate the ability of this plant to grow in humidity conditions around 40%-50%.
 
  • #37
Hey Brisco, you have quite a Ceph there!

I heard from a little bird that you should post a current picture of your Ceph
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