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Hello Everyone I have been growing Cephalotus in the UK for over 25 years now but still no expert. I have done some Googling and there is often debate over what bit of the plant is which. For the purpose of this post I am referring to both leaves and traps as leaves. I have taken leaf cuttings in the past which you can do without disturbing the mother plant so much. I get around a 80-90% strike rate. However due to now living in a flat I don't have much windowsill room I don't take leaf cuttings anymore. I have a mother plant that I have had for ages and she was in a 4 inch (10 cm) and she is now in a 7 inch pot (18 cm). I take cuttings when I repot. I mainly take crown divisions which I remove from the outer rim of the plant. Now when I say crown I mean a rosette of leaves attached to a structure that is creamy white to brown (which I shall call a rhizome) that is usually below the potting medium. Now sometimes this "rhizome" in a bigger plant can be dark brown and sometimes a bit hairy and partly above the potting medium. In both the cases the cutting may have roots, or may not. When I say "roots" I am referring to the thinner parts of the plant below the "rhizomes" usually the same colour. Now then I have this year in January I had 8 crown divisions all of which have taken and a few have put out some new growth. As a few bits fell off I tried to take three "root" cuttings and put them horizontally in a pot covered by a centimetre of potting medium. All three have struck and have popped small leaves above the surface. I now wish I had taken pictures but here is one I found that I think make my ramblings clearer, it is on the website below. On this website it talks about root cuttings but it then refers to them as rhizome cuttings interestingly. https://carnivorousplantresource.com/the-plants/australian-pitcher-plant/ Any thoughts? I would appreciate any suggestions but a botanical slant would be good. Keep yourselves safe and happy growing Peace Adam

Two weeks ago the leaves of my N. spectabilis started to look a bit different from my other Nepenthes'. I haven't seen this before and the old leaves are still green and smooth. Does anyone know why the leaves suddenly have this white layer and what it is? See photos below.

I have a love of science and as a result have been testing multiple methods of leaf pullings on Dionaea for some time now, this is a log of my testing method, results and conclusions. Introduction: I'm a student so cutting costs is one of my top priorities when taking cuttings, as a result all of my experiment was preformed using items that can be found in the common household(excluding a full spectrum CFL and a VFT:-P) as a result no chemical additives were used eg. Rooting hormones, anti-fungal powders .etc. All experiments were preformed over a three month period During said period progress was recorded at 1 month intervals Each factor/method was preformed with three leaves Once the traps turned fully black (in all methods) they were removed to prevent fungal growth Taking pullings: Pullings were taken early February from a plant which was bought fresh fresh out of dormancy Pullings were taken by un-potting the VFT and "pulling" downwards on the leaves so a section of the rhizome came away each time All pullings were taken from the same two plants All chosen leaves were of the same size and health Procedure: Method 1: Pullings placed on Peat Moss The leaf Pullings were placed in dents on the surface of a pot of boiled peat moss(dent used to make the most possible surface area of the underside of the leaves be in contact with the peat moss, boiled in an attempt to kill off fungus spores and bacteria) The pots were placed in a tray of Rainwater approximately 30cm away from a CFL Each pot was covered in cling film Method 2: Pullings placed in Long fibre Sphagnum (LFS) The leaf Pullings were placed in on the surface of the boiled LFS with as much of the underside of the leaves in contact with the LFS as possible The pots were placed in a tray of Rainwater approximately 30cm away from a CFL Each pot was covered in cling film Method 3: Pullings placed submerged in Rainwater The leaf pullings were placed in glasses of boiled(then cooled) rainwater (boiled in this case in an attempt to kill bacteria and algal spores) The glasses were placed approximately 30cm away from a CFL Each glass was covered with cling film Results: Method 1: Pullings placed on Peat Moss This method resulted in the shortest amount of time before fungal growth was seen(at the 1 month interval) No successful strikes were seen before all pots were consumed by fungus(possibly due to cling film causing stagnant air which sped up spore germination) Method abandoned at 2 month mark when all leaves were noted to be dead Not a method I've had "lots" of success with in the past as well Method 2: Pullings placed in Long fibre Sphagnum (LFS) Method shows promise as 2/3 had strikes Fungal growth occurred only after 2 month mark Between month 2 and 3 two leaves were killed by fungus(one with a strike and one without) By the end of month 3 the remaining leaf had formed a plantlet Method 3: Pullings placed submerged in Rainwater By far most successful No maintenance required (ie. no topping up water) apart from removing dead traps %100 strike rate No fungus seen(due to submersion) Small amount of algae seen during month 1 but it was left alone Conclusion: After preforming all three variations of leaf pulling I found the most successful to be the technique of placing pullings in rainwater. The LFS strike that did survive had grown larger then all of the plantlets from the Submerged method, but a conclusion on size of plantlet can not be drawn as this could be an isolated case. From my own opinion the submersion method is also the easiest, no potting or watering, just stick it in a glass of boiled and cooled rainwater(not to mention it's the cheapest) Method of acclimatising Submerged plants to emmersed(yes it's a real word) state After plantlet has reached approx 1cm in diameter remove it from the glass and place it on LFS or peat (very wet) in a pot with cling film over the top Over the course of a 2-3 weeks pop holes in the cling film At the end of the three weeks you have air-hardy little plantlets After Notes: Two weeks on from the end of the experiment all 4 of the successful strikes have formed plantlets with small traps, the ones from the submersion technique seemed to take a week off of growing to acclimatise. I would like to see how long one on the plantlets could be left in water before being acclimatised as growth was much faster pre acclimatisation, buts that's a whole other experiment for a different time. I hope my long rambling report can help someone in some way eventually. - Niall FM

Hi, I ordered some Nepenthes from Exotica Plants in Australia through a large order and then it was shipped to me by that person. And unfortunately it did not arrive while I was home, but a day after I left for vacation. And my sister was home along with my mother and so I told them to plant them in sphagnum moss and to water regularly which they did. Knowing them, they complained about having to do my plating for them, so I didn't want to make a hassle further by asking them to mix in perlite with the moss. And roughly 8 days on, the N. (Spathulata x Aristo) x Lowii leaves are looking very dry but my sister informed me the moss is moist. I only have these photos she sent me and I'm trying to see if she can send me more clear shots and the correct angles to see for new growth. Is this a result of humidity drop, shipping, or something else?

I just received my order from CZPlants. Nepenthes truncata had some brownish spots on the leaves. Is this a serious problem? Should I do something with the plant (treating it with fungicides or something like that)? Or maybe I can just wait and hope that it will grow some new leaves without brown spots? Is it safe to keep this plant in the terrarium together with my other nepenthes? I am a little paranoid about getting any infections there.