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When to give up on a "dead" Cephalotus

Hey everyone,


Its common knowledge here that Cephaloti have the ability to die back to seemingly nothing only to come back several months later, often with a vengeance. However, mine has gone through its own tale of woe, and I'd like to know what you guys think. I just declared it "dead" today, and so I've started the clock, timing the "resurrection."

Beginning of tale of woe:
Spring/Early Summer, happy plant:
P5190979.jpg


Mid/late summer, I drop lights on it accidently, and it isn't very happy about it. It starts to decline a little.

Also late summer: I decided it's a GREAT time to repot the poor thing into a larger pot of something like 2:1:1 sand: peat: perlite.

The decline continues, and even accelerates a little. Maybe accelerated by a fungus I couldn't see, who knows. But I have this now:
downsize-1.jpg

Which is pretty much nothing. (Crummy cellphone picture, the small brown rosette-looking thing in the middle there? Yeah, thats what I've got. There is the SLIGHTEST ting of green at the center, but it'll probably be gone by tomorrow)

It is as close to the lights as it was last year when it did well, the only conditions that really changed are those that I described above. My plan is to let it be and water it as normal for several months (but how long is what I wanted to know). Should I do anything more that might be helpful?

Thank you very much,
CJ
 
The soil still looks very clogged to me. If it was me, I would un-pot the entire thing, take a bunch of root cuttings, and restart completely with new soil and everything.

The soil also looks very wet, which is not what Cephalotus like. Is the pot sitting in water?
 
Hey everyone,


Its common knowledge here that Cephaloti have the ability to die back to seemingly nothing only to come back several months later, often with a vengeance. However, mine has gone through its own tale of woe, and I'd like to know what you guys think. I just declared it "dead" today, and so I've started the clock, timing the "resurrection."

Beginning of tale of woe:
Spring/Early Summer, happy plant:
P5190979.jpg


Mid/late summer, I drop lights on it accidently, and it isn't very happy about it. It starts to decline a little.

Also late summer: I decided it's a GREAT time to repot the poor thing into a larger pot of something like 2:1:1 sand: peat: perlite.

The decline continues, and even accelerates a little. Maybe accelerated by a fungus I couldn't see, who knows. But I have this now:
downsize-1.jpg

Which is pretty much nothing. (Crummy cellphone picture, the small brown rosette-looking thing in the middle there? Yeah, thats what I've got. There is the SLIGHTEST ting of green at the center, but it'll probably be gone by tomorrow)

It is as close to the lights as it was last year when it did well, the only conditions that really changed are those that I described above. My plan is to let it be and water it as normal for several months (but how long is what I wanted to know). Should I do anything more that might be helpful?

Thank you very much,
CJ

Hi there , sounds like you have a real problem , first of never re-pot and plant in summer , especially a ceph , very early spring for most plants , but cephs late winter for good recovery time in new spring growth, ,your mix mixture is OK , but seems to be looking a bit sad,try just peat and fine perlite 50 /50 mix for a more airy mix , or even strait live sphagnum moss , mine grow great in it as well as peat with a lot less hassles , if your putting the pot in standing water , don't , only top water often ,and let it drain if needed,better dryer rather than wetter is better for them , the light factor is not overly important as long as its the right spectrum , high in red and blue light spectrum , ,natural sun is best all ways , grow mine in 50% to full sun , the humidity , they like good humidity , as in there natural climate its about 60% or so and varies from there but need very good ventilation too very important good air movement is vital !!, your plant may be in total stress because of the summer disturbance , and possibly take many months to recover. others will have differnt opinions , but this is from the home land climate where i am close to !
here is a yearly weather chart so you can see the rain temps and humidity where they live ,may give you a better understanding of the conditions needed ,I am heading there my self on Thursday for a 5 day photo ,info field trip
good luck
J

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_009500.shtml
 
Hey guys, thanks for the quick response.

The soil does look wet, I know, but I only top-water it when the soil looks like it starts to "pull away" from the sides of the pot. Maybe thats not enough, I don't know.

I took a leaf pulling, so there is that as a back up if it strikes. If you guys think I'm in a "nothing left to loose" situation, I'll un-pot it and take root/rhizome cuttings.

Its weird, though, the original soil it came it from the nursery was in a similar mix to what it its now, so I figured it would be okay as far as water retention goes.
 
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