37 replies to this topic

[Martin Hingst]

Interesting experiment - and great looking result :-)

[amphirion]

wonderful! quite a novel way to grow cephalotus. looks like your hard work and persistence have paid off!

[Marcus B]

petesredtraps, on 17 January 2012 - 20:27 PM, said:

Agreed- maybe Marcus would give us a little tutorial on how to make one.

It was relatively simple.  I just took an old piece of tree-fern trunk (TS not LS), the core of which had rotted out, and cut a hole through the remaining core.  After that I plugged one end of the hole with sphagnum and transplanted a cutting into the resulting cup.  The cutting is in peat and perlite, overlayed with sphagnum, like most of my plants.  

After that I removed a few frond stem sections and filled the resulting holes with more sphagnum, then turned it on its side before dressing the top with more sphagnum.  By keeping it damp the sphagum grew well and so has the Ceph.  Much of its current growth has been put out in the last month and a half.

[Dode]

Marcus B, on 18 January 2012 - 09:48 AM, said:

It was relatively simple.  I just took an old piece of tree-fern trunk (TS not LS), the core of which had rotted out, and cut a hole through the remaining core.  After that I plugged one end of the hole with sphagnum and transplanted a cutting into the resulting cup.  The cutting is in peat and perlite, overlayed with sphagnum, like most of my plants.  

After that I removed a few frond stem sections and filled the resulting holes with more sphagnum, then turned it on its side before dressing the top with more sphagnum.  By keeping it damp the sphagum grew well and so has the Ceph.  Much of its current growth has been put out in the last month and a half.

Sorry, Ive got to ask...(TS not LS), what is that an abbreviation of?

[Marcus B]

Dode, on 18 January 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

Sorry, Ive got to ask...(TS not LS), what is that an abbreviation of?

TS = Transverse, or Cross Section (CS), as opposed to Longitudinal section (LS).   Sorry, it is just a bit of habitual terminology from dealing with sectioned specimens for such things as microscope slides, and timber slices.

I don't know if you can get a similar material, but most tree-fern pieces readily available here are LS pieces and lack the thickness to enable me to stand them up on their own. They are cut to avoid the core that I used to pot the Ceph into.  I am considering trialing a LS if I can over come the issues.

Edited by Marcus B, 21 January 2012 - 09:31 AM.

[H.lividum]

I'm also trying a vertical growing from almost an year, but a little more "radical"...

Here's the result for now... ;)

[pmatil]

I'm planning to buy tree fern (Cyathea contaminans). It's sold as background material for terrariums. Is your tree fern the same species? And, how fast will it start to grow? These are sold as panels: http://www.luckyrept.../products.html. Nice job on the cephalotus!

[Marcus B]

pmatil, on 01 February 2012 - 12:16 PM, said:

I'm planning to buy tree fern (Cyathea contaminans). It's sold as background material for terrariums. Is your tree fern the same species? And, how fast will it start to grow? These are sold as panels: http://www.luckyrept.../products.html. Nice job on the cephalotus!

Different species, but most likely close enough.  I mainly use the local ones that are the other genus (we have both genera locally).  What I use is the dead parts cut off the bases of the trunk.  They are cut back to the live tissue before planting in gardens.  The species that you are referrign to is foreign to Austalia, but is apparently about the fastest growing.  It might get a bit big for a tank if the tree-fern itself grows.  It may just support the growth of other ferns as our local slabs do.  Spores of other ferns lodge in the stems of many tree-ferns.

[Marcus B]

Update - The biggest pitchers are now a bit over 50 mm.  This is a "Typical" which normally only has pitchers up to a little over 40 mm.  More proof that growing conditions can result in bigger pitchers on "Typical" plants. It is also growing much faster than the plants that were bigger than it, from the same batch, which are still in small pots.

Edited by Marcus B, 30 April 2012 - 03:14 AM.

[TheInactiveMoth]

Genius setup!

[mobile]

Looking good

[Daniel G]

Very good results.
Maybe time for me to update my setup :)

Well done!

[Ewoud]

Nicely done! Looks very good

[bag1234]

Would this work well? http://www.blackjung...--9_p_1529.html

[Marcus B]

bag1234, on 12 May 2012 - 14:47 PM, said:

Would this work well? http://www.blackjung...--9_p_1529.html

Let put it this way, it is a cleaned up version of what I used.  It calls it a tree-fern root, but it is more likely all stem anyway.  The hollowed out section is the hard core, which I removed to insert the Ceph.  It is well worth trying.

[Marcus B]

I have found one drawback of growing Cephs on Treefern.  In consistently warm weather the plants die off more readily than pots that can be immersed in water.  I have had my two well established plants die right back and lost one that I was trying to establish on Tree fern.  

The survivors are starting to re-grow now the heat is over, but I was starting to think the Treefern was killing the Ceph until I realised that the other airy set ups were suffering the same problem.  As the heat persisted, the problem spread through my collection.

[Ian_P]

I was recently looking at this website, http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/epiweb/ and having just read this thread, was wondering if this would perhaps be more suitable, as it includes a spray bar watering system (Integrated Irrigation System) which may help to keep the plants cooler on hot days.

Really like the idea and the plant looks great in the photo's.

Best regards,

Ian.

Edited by Ian_P, 02 May 2013 - 08:11 AM.

[Marcus B]

I bought a solar powered pump for that purpose but it has not proved to be very reliable.  The issue is that during the recent summer we had a long period of warm weather without cool breaks.  So pots stayed warm and the water I had around plants warmed up.  I did not get the water changed as often I should have.   Those open to the air also warmed up and stayed warm.