FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

While looking at CPs I have found the different kinds of cephalotus to be interesting. Any tips on growing or good websites to get one from would be greatly appreciated.

I got one from predatory plants and another from Charles Brewer. Both are fantastic.

On growing, I've read everything from "they're easy, just put it on your windowsill" to "they're prone to root rot and are for advanced growers only". In my conditions, they did alright on the windowsill but only really thrived after putting them under lights.

To reduce the chance of root rot should a sandy media be used and should it be top watered?

Berrybob wrote:To reduce the chance of root rot should a sandy media be used and should it be top watered?

Yes on the sandy media, no on the top watering. Some of the best Cephalotus I have ever seen were grown indoors under artificial lighting and in 70% sand/30% peat mixture watered with an auto-watering tray that kept the bottom 1/4 inch or so of the pot in water at all times.

See this post for more information:
https://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/post ... ml#p350435

For me Cephs have been very easy. The biggest factor IMO is to set them up in a good soil mix. In my experience they like a well drained mix (equal parts red lava rock, perlite, peat, sphagnum) so that you can water them pretty heavily and two days later they will be starting to dry. They also have good aeration through the pot while maintaining moisture deep down using this mix.

I have mine sitting along with my tropical sundews on my indoor growshelf under LED. I am getting a new fixture soon , but you can grow cephs even under some cheap $22 Yescom panels. I water mine when the top of the soil is dry and feed the pitchers with maxsea once they open.

I also have some recent propagations in a peat heavy mix, and another in pure LFS. If you are careful not to overwater them these mixes work just fine, although they are not my preferred soil mix/soil dynamics, so I repot all the cephs I buy once they start putting out adult pitchers.

Thanks for all the help, I'll be getting my first ceph soon from California Carnivores.

WARNING: Don't buy Cephs from Pearl River Exotics in Georgia!!!
See here for one buyer's very sad experience: https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/pea ... ld-1476583

I’ve bought from pearl river exotics with a great experience. The description of the plant and picture was exactly what I received.

Looking at that report, the plant description doesn’t state anywhere that the picture that you see is the exact plant that you’ll be receiving. Most sellers have eye candy pictures for attention and what the plant will look like when fully matured unless stated otherwise.

If that buyer chose the size option of juvenile pitchers, that’s pretty much the size of cephalotus where it’s small.


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Yeah, I think that bad review is just someone with anger management issues who doesn’t know how to grow CPs. They probably need to go to AA too

I wouldn't hesitate in ordering from PRE. Pearl river never said the plant would look like that specimen. I've only heard good things about Pearl River Exotics. I may order from them soon.

I remember that guy complaining about his order. He got exactly what he ordered, but expected to get adult pitchers due to the advertisement picture...and many people put a nice pic of a mature version of the plant for their sales. He should've read the description before buying or did some research about the difference between adult and juvenile cephalotus pitchers.