FlyTrapCare Forums

So in December I was lucky enough to pick up a cephalotus. I love these evil little thumbs and I want more. Problem is they’re expensive in general and even more so for me since buying from Europe or USA, converted in to South African rands, makes a very poor Brad.

So I’m attempting to grow some more from leaf, pitcher and crown cuttings.
I’ve planted 3 pots to try get the best success rate since I’ve never done this before and I’ve read it can take up to 9 months before I see any results. I don’t want to wait 9 months to find out I failed, then have to start over. So here goes.

Pot 1 has a mix of 50:50 peat and LECA. This contains one leaf and one pitcher.

Pot 2 has a mix of 50:50 peat and LECA as well. This pot contains 1 leaf blade and a small crown that was easily separated without unpotting. Lucky me, it even had some roots which looked nice and white

Pot 3 has a mix of 50:25:25 Peat, LECA and fine decorative gravel. This gravel is bigger than sand but I had no sand so I thought I’d give it a go. This pot contains only one single leaf blade.

They’ve been water all over and drained for a few minutes then sealed in a clear plastic Ziploc bag. (These were handy because they have a place to write comments and date on). I’ve read that this can take 1-9 months. I’m hoping for the former. I’ll update as I see progress.
I’ve left the bags on my shelf under my awning. I figure it’s a great place since over the course of the day, sun comes right under the awning but never quite reaches the shelf so it’s nice and bright, without and direct sun.

Wish me luck

My source of information came from
https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/ ... Cephalotus

Kept humid but not soggy they should root fine. Did you use any rooting hormone for the cuttings? I would say if the cuttings have a decent portion of rhizome tissue it should take around 2-3 months for them to root. Of course it takes a few more months longer until a new growth point forms, but once you have roots pop out of the cutting you are pretty much in the clear. Bagging them up like this is exactly what I did and keep it under CFL lights. I'm sure its possible these pics were taken later on in the day, but does it get any brighter? I've noticed that giving them good light helps rooting them, while shade increases the chance of them rotting. AS you know, sunlight can turn a bag into an oven pretty quick, which is why i used the CFL lights. I also noticed that for me the leaves rooted easier than the pitchers for whatever reason. Good luck.

That looks like a good propagation setup! One thing I would suggest- like SundewWolf said, don't keep them soggy. When my cephalotus get soggy they suffer from mildew. I tried propagatng cephalotus from leaf cuttings, but high temps made them shrivel up.

It’s great to hear from some experienced cephalotus growers!
- I didn’t use any rooting hormone. Do you think I should? I have a softwood rooting powder which I have had very little success with in the past (on succulents of all things)

- I don’t think I got much of the rhizome I tried pulling downward like the website mentioned but I couldn’t get to the crown easily. Probably why the say you can unpot it for better access. I’ve only had my cephalotus for a month though so I don’t really want to upset it. I’ve heard these little devils can be a bit fussy.

- The pots can still drain themselves into that bag so if you think they shouldn’t be too wet, I can always drain the water out of the bags? I figured leaving it there would ensure decent humidity.
- The pictures are a bit dim. We’re having some rain recently so it’s overcast. The shelf is on my porch and it does get nice and bright in that spot. The sun comes all the way in but there’s a small awning over my porch which protects anything on that shelf from sun so I’m pretty sure I’m safe in that regard. If the sun comes out today I’ll take a picture.

- Will opening the bags slow the progress?

Thanks for your advice guys. I appreciate all the knowledge I can suck out of this forum.

This is about the best picture I could get. About 10:40am. Middle of summer, not a cloud in the sky and that’s about as far in as the sun comes along the wall. As the sun moves around it comes deeper in and covers most of the table if not all of it towards 4pm, then starts to move out again. I would say wall faces just a couple degrees north of east.
In winter the sun comes as deep as the couch. Since I only put my shelf up on December last year, I have yet to see how much sun the shelf will get come July.
I’m not sure my picture will do justice since I took it with my cellphone and bright light makes photos so funny things.

I didn't realize that self was outside. As long as the bags are not getting hot it may be ok. I'm not 100% though as I've only ever tried rooting them under direct artificial light inside. I wouldn't pool water in the bag, it may keep them too soggy. As long as it's sealed and maybe one spray of water in there, the humidity should be high enough. The rooting hormone I used was just some standard one from the hardware store, nothing fancy.