David F wrote:Matt, these plants are from your store, I've had one division in my pot die similarly, and another member recently experienced a plant that looked very similar which I also believe you replaced. I think you may have some type of systemic fungi in your plants that is exacerbated during stress of the plants.
xr280xr wrote:I've wondered the same thing since Matt mentioned he's experienced it as well & suspects a bacterial issue.
That was years ago (2012, I think?) and only with plants in my personal collection that I was growing in a peat mix in a terrarium. I've not had any issues in the last 3 years with sudden death syndrome of Cephalotus. Since switching to the New Zealand LFS and growing them in open air, we've not lost a single plant and have not had any disease at all.
And all of the Cephalotus we are selling have been growing in our care for at least 10 months at this point, most over a year.
Seems much more likely that shipping stress coupled with cultivation errors are the factors causing the problems for any growers that are having them.
xr280xr wrote:FTS may want to consider letting them mature more before selling them if this occurs with any frequency. It didn't take long at all before my other one put out mature pitchers.
That's something to consider. Yes, we wait to ship them until they are just about near adulthood and are putting out vigorous growth. But the demand for them is high so we don't wait for them to grow any longer. And most people have not reported any problems. Fact is that Cephalotus are very unforgiving with any cultivation errors and as a result are just easy to kill.
In the case of the plant that is the subject of this thread, putting in that terrarium (which is the only place I've grown Cephalotus and had any problems with losing them) is almost certainly the cause of death.