10 replies to this topic

[Richard Bunn]

I don't really know what's going on with my Cephalotus.  

I bought it in Spring last year from Bugtraps as a large plant and it looked fine.  I've been growing it in my (almost) south facing window and watering it via the tray method, leaving the tray go dry for a couple of days before refilling.  Usual damp dormancy.  Basically, besides the winter temperature, I've been growing it like a Dionaea.  

During the winter it got fungus and there wasn't a lot I could do for a long time as I couldn't locate a safe fungicide over here.  Ireland is very Ballygobackwards when it comes to that sort of thing, plus very tight chemical laws.  

I got some fungus clear in late winter and have been treating the plant every now and then with it since (it's mycobactyl based).  

As you can see from the pictures a couple of sections of the plant have died back (although there is life right in the growing point of those sections).  I've also quite a few yellow leaves, is that a regular thing early in the growing season? I read somewhere that as new pitchers are produced then old leaves will die. I don't know how true that is.  

As you can see there's a lot of moss in the pot (always has been).  It's mostly what I attribute the past fungus with as it's smothering parts with damp moss and reducing air flow.  

What are your views?

Should I remove all the moss and replace the surface with perlite or sand?

Can the plant go outside with my VFT's for the summer?

I'm working on getting images into the post. Damn blasted contraption.


IMG_1186 by richardmbunn, on Flickr


IMG_1185 by richardmbunn, on Flickr


IMG_1184 by richardmbunn, on Flickr

Edited by Richard Bunn, 26 June 2012 - 17:38 PM.

[WeXi]

Hi

Try to push it to new peat.
I have pitched in their peat + quartz sand and beautiful growth.
They are in the aquarium which is buried in the ground.
The sun shines on them blow from 9:00 to 18:00
humidity: 99
temperature through the day:35-40
temperature at night:8 -15

Moist when i mention to them.

Little cleansing him from the dead leaves and moss.
Can try break off some smaller outfit can take root growth.

Edited by WeXi, 26 June 2012 - 18:49 PM.

[Blocky71]

It's gutting to see them wilting, my two are just beginning to show signs of recovery after a series of incidents set them back a whole season.
I'm new so no way an expert but it seems unusual for a window sill grown plant to suffer from fungus/mould, caused by dampness anyhow.
Chemicals on my ceph would be an absolute last resort, i'd be removing the worst contaminated leaves and cleaning the rest where possible.
The moss doesn't look troublesome to me, more unsightly, i'd pinch it out and replace the top layer with compost then dress with sphagnumor whatever .
I'd also gently remove any obviously dead leaves/pitchers, taking care not to uproot plant in process, this should allow maximum light to the new growth amd improve air flow.
Natural die back of the non carnivorous leaves in summer is normal but usually doesn't happen all at once, a few leaves here and there unless its been a bad winter, sometimes they lose very few. As you'll know each plant has it's own finicky characteristics....
I'd say the plant looks like it's through the worst, new growth is looking healthy and the remaining adult pitchers look great.
Get it out in the sun, it'll thrive in full sun but protect it from harsh extreme weather, hot or cold.
As said, i'm still novice so gather as much info as you can but i reckon your plants gonna do you proud this summer !
Good luck

[Marcus B]

Richard Bunn, on 26 June 2012 - 17:04 PM, said:

I don't really know what's going on with my Cephalotus.  

I bought it in Spring last year from Bugtraps as a large plant and it looked fine.  I've been growing it in my (almost) south facing window and watering it via the tray method, leaving the tray go dry for a couple of days before refilling.  Usual damp dormancy.  Basically, besides the winter temperature, I've been growing it like a Dionaea.  

During the winter it got fungus and there wasn't a lot I could do for a long time as I couldn't locate a safe fungicide over here.  Ireland is very Ballygobackwards when it comes to that sort of thing, plus very tight chemical laws.  

I got some fungus clear in late winter and have been treating the plant every now and then with it since (it's mycobactyl based).  

As you can see from the pictures a couple of sections of the plant have died back (although there is life right in the growing point of those sections).  I've also quite a few yellow leaves, is that a regular thing early in the growing season? I read somewhere that as new pitchers are produced then old leaves will die. I don't know how true that is.  

As you can see there's a lot of moss in the pot (always has been).  It's mostly what I attribute the past fungus with as it's smothering parts with damp moss and reducing air flow.  

What are your views?

Should I remove all the moss and replace the surface with perlite or sand?

Can the plant go outside with my VFT's for the summer?

I'm working on getting images into the post. Damn blasted contraption.


IMG_1186 by richardmbunn, on Flickr


IMG_1185 by richardmbunn, on Flickr


IMG_1184 by richardmbunn, on Flickr

I would not panic, it is not unsual.  Best response is as much sun as you can give it, with good air movement.  Lift the crown up above the substrate by pushing the potting mix down the side of the pot, but do it gently.  Mounding cephs helps with this issue.  Don't let it sit in water, but still water regularly, allowing the mix to dry out a bit between waterings.  This avoids the plant sitting in stagnant water and avoids constant humidity that allows fungal growth.

It should regrow without too much of a problem.  Just move dead matterial as much as possible.  I have some plants that do this while others in similar growing conditions get through winter with little pitcher loss, and they are the same clone, with the cutting doing better than the bigger plant.  The issue seems to be the big plants get too dense and don't get good air flow around them.

[Richard Bunn]

Thanks so much for all your help guys.  

Marcus I have I few questions for you.  I have two options for potting now:

• Remove moss, make a mound, raise plant lavel by adding more compost to the bottom of root ball. Finish with perlite to keep things from getting too wet.
  
• Repot completely, removing all old compost and use a new ceph mix of 1 part peat 2 parts perlite. Mound on top.  I was going to wait until the autumn and do this method then anyway.

Which would you suggest as the course of action right now?

I'm also going to take a couple of leaf cuttings as a precaution if you think it won'd weaken the plant too much??  

A question or two regarding watering.  Do you top water or water from the bottom?  Also do you give your plants a daily watering without sitting in water or do you wait until the soil is on the slightly drier side?

I'm going to remove all the moss and dead material tomorrow as soon as I can.

[WeXi]

if that was my problem so I choose 2.B ut I never watering and not worth my Cephalotus in water i only spray of water few second, maybe because I do not have moss on top of the substrate is not soaked

But do yourself a backup for sure if the worst happened.  

[Richard Bunn]

I've repotted the plant as when I was cleaning it up I learned that due to all the dead material I had less plant than I thought.  The compost it was in (peat and chopped sphagnum) was absolutely soaking wet.  Between that and the moss it's no wonder I've all the fungal trouble.  I have two adult sections and a couple of really young baby sections.  I've potted them up together in 1 part peat 2 parts perlite (D'Amato) and mounded the mix at the surface.  I also took four leaf cuttings and put them in a small pot of the same mix and put a tiny bit of sphagnum moss (dead) over the ends. Popped the cuttings in a plastic bag and secured with a clothes peg.  

The light's not good now so I'll take a picture of the main pot tomorrow and upload it.

[Marcus B]

Having the potting mix soaking wet is not a problem if the air is dry and hot.  However, given your location, that is not a good idea for your plant.   My plants end up like yours if too wet in autumn.  I tend to make sure they are all out of trays for winter, but I was a bit slow this year in moving them so some suffered, plus I experimented on a few of them.  They are recovering.

It doesn't not matter if you water by tray or overhead, if they get plenty of air movement.  I like to let plants dry out a bit when the temperature is below 20^oC.  Above 30^oC they sit in water and when it gets up to 40^oC I make it deep water.  However, even when sitting in water the water needs to be freshened up and run through the pots occasionally.

Humidity is the biggest problem, but I have had plants grow well with good drainage when under Nepenthes which were sprayed daily.

I tend to grow my plants in a mix of gravel and sphagnum with a peatmoss core.  As a result water moves through the pots fairly well while being retained by the sphagnum.  As the sphagnum gets too high I lift the Ceph by pushing the sphagnum down the sides of the pot and under the ceph, taking care to cause as little distrubance as possible to the ceph's roots.  Cephs seem to grow well if the crown in above the pot rim.

Repotting may cause as many problems as it solves, but if the mix was heavy and wet without good drainage then it is more likely worthwhile.  I have, in the past, simply driven dowelling into the mix and formed holes around the plant that I filled with gravel, thus forming a series of drainage ways to get the air and water in until time for repotting.  

The last plant that I lost, I found out after it died, was in rock wool that I did not know about and did remove.  The rock wool held too much water without air movement and so was not suitable for my growing method, even though it had gravel underneath.  I repotted without disturbing the roots and so I did not find the rockwool block in the peat.  Fortunately it was plant that is most likely from the same stock as my main plants, and it left a number of seedlings to replace itself.  How, and how often, you water them depends on how well their potting mix drains, air temperature and movement.

[Richard Bunn]

Thanks Marcus. Much appreciated.

[Richard Bunn]

Here's the plant after clean up and repotting.  There turned out to be two sections of plants but I potted them up together if you were to mentally divide vertically they're the 2.  I also took 3 leaf cuttings as a precaution.  

Now for two questions.  Do I keep it stood in a shallow tray of water in the summer or not? I'm planning on putting it outside (if you think I can do that for the summer) and when my greenhouse is up I'll then move it into there.


IMG_1195 by richardmbunn, on Flickr

[Marcus B]

Richard Bunn, on 30 June 2012 - 17:49 PM, said:

Here's the plant after clean up and repotting.  There turned out to be two sections of plants but I potted them up together if you were to mentally divide vertically they're the 2.  I also took 3 leaf cuttings as a precaution.  

Now for two questions.  Do I keep it stood in a shallow tray of water in the summer or not? I'm planning on putting it outside (if you think I can do that for the summer) and when my greenhouse is up I'll then move it into there.

My plants are happy outside all year around, but then I am not too far south of their native range, which tends to be a bit more stable in the day to day temperatures than here.  Locally they have to put up with much higher temperatures for short periods than they would in the wild.  Shallow trays of water in warm weather are fine, as long as things are not too humid.  However, even in high temperatures (consistantly over 30^oC), is good to let the pots dry out a bit and run fresh water through them.  I also like to have deep pots, but many of my Cephs do well in shallow pots in shallow trays.

Edited by Marcus B, 02 July 2012 - 03:02 AM.