FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have a baby cephalotus from FTS that I received last Friday. I tried to acclimate it to the sun but even just an hour of direct sunlight, it caused some pitchers, especially the smaller ones, to wilt and dry up. I've read that cephalotus can tolerate a lot of light. What I didn't realize at the time is that they can't tolerate heat much more than 100F. My plant rack is in our roofed balcony. The plants get only 3 to 4 hours of direct sunligh. During these times though, the temperature can exceed 105F even though the shaded temperature is only at 85F. In addition to the direct sunlight, my plants are getting 16 hours of 2 x T5HO. Right now, I place the cephalotus on the rack so that it gets 10 hours of light from the T5HO. I take it off the rack for 6 hours so that no direct sunlight ever hits the plant. As I mentioned earlier, I only have this plant since last Friday. The soil is still quite moist so I have not watered it yet since I received it. Am I doing this correctly? The plant seems to be tolerating the T5HO quite well. I'm just too afraid to put under direct sunlight even for just less than an hour.

Water it more if it is getting hot. Cephalotus watering intolerance is much overstated, probably because a lot of people try growing them in terrariums.

In my experience, pitcher drop after shipping is normal. Cephs are tough and bounce back.

My greenhouse gets over 120 degrees in the summer. My greenhouse cephs are doing fine. It does, however, cool down in the evenings here.

I've also grown them under T5HO, LED, windowsill, and outside in direct sun. While I think cephs are quite adaptable to many different growing styles, I believe they grow best when they aren't being constantly moved around.

Good luck!

p.s. Here's a pic of a ceph I have growing in direct sunlight. They color up nicely from sunlight.

Have photos?

Here is a photo I took earlier tonight. The pot that I got has 3 individual plants. 2 are the same size and 1 a lot smaller. The small one really got affected. This photo shows one of the bigger plants. You can see all the deflated and brown traps on the front. The other big plant is unaffected. It seems like only the part that was facing the sun directly got burnt.

Still looks healthy just update us if it gets worse.

Just an update. 10 days ago, I noticed that one of the pitchers on the good plant was starting to dry up. This is the individual plant that was unaffected by the initial sun burn, so when I saw that it was starting to lose a pitcher, I knew the plant was not happy. There's too much variable on the balcony. Mainly because I think it was not getting enough light. I was too afraid to put it back under the sun again after it started to desiccate the last time I had it under sunlight even for just a very short time.

The soil came quite saturated with water from FTS and I barely watered it since I received it. Even with minimal waterings, since it was not getting enough sunlight, the top LFSM was remaining quite moist, to the point that it started to get slimy algae on the surface. I did a "semi-re-pot". Without disturbing the roots, I took out the LFSM and wringed out as much water as I can from it. Comparing the weight of the pot before and after re-pot, I estimate that I removed about 50ml of water from the FTS pot.

The waterings are tightly controlled now. After re-potting, I also moved the plant indoors under a 23 watts CFL light at 15 hours light cycle. It's now getting a constant 75F-79F and 50%-55% relative humidity indoors. I trimmed all the dried pitchers and the plant has not lost a pitcher since I moved it indoors. My fiance recently commented at how perky the plant is looking now.

francisfaustino wrote:Just an update. 10 days ago, I noticed that one of the pitchers on the good plant was starting to dry up. This is the individual plant that was unaffected by the initial sun burn, so when I saw that it was starting to lose a pitcher, I knew the plant was not happy. There's too much variable on the balcony. Mainly because I think it was not getting enough light. I was too afraid to put it back under the sun again after it started to desiccate the last time I had it under sunlight even for just a very short time.

The soil came quite saturated with water from FTS and I barely watered it since I received it. Even with minimal waterings, since it was not getting enough sunlight, the top LFSM was remaining quite moist, to the point that it started to get slimy algae on the surface. I did a "semi-re-pot". Without disturbing the roots, I took out the LFSM and wringed out as much water as I can from it. Comparing the weight of the pot before and after re-pot, I estimate that I removed about 50ml of water from the FTS pot.

The waterings are tightly controlled now. After re-potting, I also moved the plant indoors under a 23 watts CFL light at 15 hours light cycle. It's now getting a constant 75F-79F and 50%-55% relative humidity indoors. I trimmed all the dried pitchers and the plant has not lost a pitcher since I moved it indoors. My fiance recently commented at how perky the plant is looking now.

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The CFL might not be enough lighting in my opinion. What's the distance? But normally I'll have a pitcher die after shipping or sometimes when I don't acclimate it properly to my conditions. You can always increase humidity for its recovery. 70+ I would suggest for recovery.

Hi, I have no way to increase the humidity right now other than putting a dome over it but I'm too afraid to do that. I will let it deal with the new climate on its own. The Eden Black that I received from eBay last week is also doing well. The Eden Black came to me with 2 crowns. It lost about a third of its total pitcher count within the first 2 to 3 days. It has stabilized for now and no more pitchers are drying up. I was actually expecting to lose a lot more pitchers since the seller said he had it at 100% humidity. It came to me with the soil soaking wet. He said he never had problems having it that wet, but I'm just too afraid to have it with that much water and humidity.

I read an older post made by the seller when he first got the Eden Black from the UK back in 2012. The plant endured a trip from Stephen Morley in England to the exporter in Scotland and then finally to the USA. It was then held in the US customs for 9 days! He immediately re-potted it and said the plant then lost all of its pitchers and leaves in the next following 2 weeks from the stress. I don't think I can handle that sort of setback!

I just re-potted the Eden Black in an extra FTS pot that I have. I did not have to disturb the old soil around the plant since it came out of its pot as an intact block.

I have a desk lamp over both cephalotus. The bulb is about 4" to 6" away from the plants but it can get much closer if I see it necessary. I also compensated the lack of power with a long 15 hour photo period.

Keep in mind these can grow in the shade too. I live in the subtropics, and am forced to keep them in medium shade. It's bright, but no direct sunlight.


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FLTropical wrote:Keep in mind these can grow in the shade too. I live in the subtropics, and am forced to keep them in medium shade. It's bright, but no direct sunlight.


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There's a difference between growing and thriving


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francisfaustino wrote:Hi, I have no way to increase the humidity right now other than putting a dome over it but I'm too afraid to do that. I will let it deal with the new climate on its own. The Eden Black that I received from eBay last week is also doing well. The Eden Black came to me with 2 crowns. It lost about a third of its total pitcher count within the first 2 to 3 days. It has stabilized for now and no more pitchers are drying up. I was actually expecting to lose a lot more pitchers since the seller said he had it at 100% humidity. It came to me with the soil soaking wet. He said he never had problems having it that wet, but I'm just too afraid to have it with that much water and humidity.

I read an older post made by the seller when he first got the Eden Black from the UK back in 2012. The plant endured a trip from Stephen Morley in England to the exporter in Scotland and then finally to the USA. It was then held in the US customs for 9 days! He immediately re-potted it and said the plant then lost all of its pitchers and leaves in the next following 2 weeks from the stress. I don't think I can handle that sort of setback!

I just re-potted the Eden Black in an extra FTS pot that I have. I did not have to disturb the old soil around the plant since it came out of its pot as an intact block.

I have a desk lamp over both cephalotus. The bulb is about 4" to 6" away from the plants but it can get much closer if I see it necessary. I also compensated the lack of power with a long 15 hour photo period.

IMG_1273.JPG

You need to invest in proper lighting and you need to maintain higher humidity and good airflow, else your plant will NOT be happy.


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Why did you remove it from under the T5's like it states in the original post?

I have my wife's ceph's under a T8 since I got them and they seem to be coloring up very nicely, and two of them are starting to pump out pitchers.

From what I'm gathering you're moving it around a lot. I would stop moving it around too. Let it get adjusted to one spot, one light.

Best of luck!

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In the future, anything coming from 100% humidity should be bagged and acclimated to lower humidity. It's also not a bad idea for a lot of CPs after shipping.

boarderlib wrote:Why did you remove it from under the T5's like it states in the original post?

I have my wife's ceph's under a T8 since I got them and they seem to be coloring up very nicely, and two of them are starting to pump out pitchers.

From what I'm gathering you're moving it around a lot. I would stop moving it around too. Let it get adjusted to one spot, one light.

Best of luck!

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The T5HO setup is out in the balcony. It is used as supplementary lighting for the Venus flytraps because it only gets about 3 to 4 hours of direct sunlight. That's where I had when it started wilting under the sun for only an hour. I have not moved it much since I got it almost a month ago. For the first couple of weeks I had the plant, it spent most of it's time out in the balcony in the shade. I moved it under the T5HO + direct sun for a total of one hour and moved it back to the shade once I noticed it started wilting. It stayed out in the balcony shade until last week when I moved it indoors.