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Just repotted ceph is dieing :(

Brie

Sarracenia freak
Anyone have any miraculous, life saving tips to give me? :-(

Every part of the media mix was pre-rinsed, I was careful not to break off any roots, let the roots dry out, etc.. It was potted in LFS, which I carefully peeled away a bit at a time from its roots. It wasn't very grown into it so it was pretty easy to do. Then just made a hole in the center of the new media, dropped it in and watered it a bit. I was careful to not get the plant itself wet, nor is it sitting in any water. Its still in the exact same spot under the same lights. It has been 48 hours now since the repotting and it now looks like a shriveled green and brown bunch of raisins.

It wasnt covered before I potted it, so I did not cover it after.. Well I take that back. I put a cup over it the night of it being repotted, but when I woke up the next morning, it had shriveled some so I assumed it was from lack of airflow, so I took the cup back off... It looked about the same this morning, but now tonight it looks horrid. I just put the cup back on it after misting the sand a bit to give the humidity a boost for it. Is there anything else I can do?? :headwall: :cry:

Edit: Oh and I just misted down a handful of live sphagnum and layed strands carefully around the plant in a little ring.. If that will do anything at all. Figured it wouldn't hurt.
 
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This the same exact thing I did with one of my plants before, and it died. I usually keep some old media in the new when I repot for this reason, but I guess maybe temperature change in the soil hurt its roots. Try to find something ur missing in the old media, like maybe the plant's media was a lot more degraded.
 
Seems it didn't take too kidnly to the root disturbance. This is a common occurence with cephalotus, there is nothing you can really do to save the current growth. Trim the dead growth, and make sure it is not too wet, there is a possibility new growth will come from the roots, this happens often when cephs randomly shrivel.
 
The first ceph I got died completely off after repotting. I kept it around and after about 2 weeks I started seeing new growth. It's now put out one immature pitcher and is working on it's second. I've had it for about 6 weeks I think but would have to check my book. When I got it, it was about the size of a nickel.

In short, don't give up too soon.
 
Cephalotus often die-back after very stressful events but i wouldn't give up on it. I have had a few over the years reduce themselves to nothing, only to return. Many think it to be part of the plant's life-cycle . . .
 
It was potted in LFS, which I carefully peeled away a bit at a time from its roots.

The root system of Cephalotus consists of fleshy roots that are easily visible and of hair roots that are nearly unvisible. The hair roots are connected to the fleshy roots. All roots of Chephalotus break away easily.

Please have a look at a full root system that was carefully washed-out from its substrate:
http://www.foxoles.dsl.pipex.com/Resources/Cephalotus-roots.jpg

If you "carefully peeled away a bit at a time from its roots" you most likely stripped many of the hairy roots from the fleshy roots by mistake.

So absorption of water may be greatly affected and it would have helped the plant to increase air humidity to a high level before the plant dried out.

Thankfully Cephalotus can easily regrow from the fleshy roots, but the plant will start its new growth at a very small size. Needs to regrow the hair root system, too. And Cephalotus is a slowly growing plant. After regrowing the plant will be a lot smaller than before for a long time, sorry.

When I repot Cephalotus, I try to transplant all of the old pot contents (including the hair roots) into a new and bigger pot, without disturbing the old pot contens and the existing root system (hair roots included).
 
It'll die back regardless if you even looked at the roots. Let it settle.. it'll come back if it wasn't too badly tampered with. When I repot, I take out the media and all. I don't do ANYTHING to disturb the roots. I even try to avoid vibrations with those suckers.
 
Ditto all above. I have transplanted both my plants exactly once, from the original pot they shipped in to a new, much much larger pot which will hopefuly be its permanent home. When replanting I pressed the old pot in the media, then cut it away, and set the whole mass in the hole. Fill in with some media and you're off. Plants didn't even skip a beat.
 
Last fall I repotted my cephs into bigger pots. I was very careful and still one 'died' after. The others were fine. All growth died complety back to the root. Well I cut it back to soil line and just took care of it as if it were fine, I didn't pamper it or change the normal care routine. 5(!) months later, it put out new growth. I made a thread about it with pics:

http://terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125818&highlight=back+dead

It now has several mature pitchers on it. So just keep caring for it as normal, you may get a nice surprise in a few months.
 
  • #10
I had this happen after my big ceph was shipped from the nursery....it died back to the ground....cephs hate changes in growing conditions, and I've seen this happen with other people as well. The best thing you can do is to just grow it as if nothing was wrong with it...more likely than not, it will send up a bunch of new growth in a month or so and be fine like nothing happened.

I have since repotted my ceph once...not so much as a hiccup, probably because it was used to the conditions.
 
  • #11
I wouldn't worry too much. As others have said, this is quite normal when doing a transplant. I had most of my mature pitchers kick the bucket after transplanting into a 6 inch pot, and it took a good 3 weeks for growth to resume. Don't fuss over it... that is the best advice I can give you :)
 
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