FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I bought some cephalotus seedlings on eBay and placed them in my terrarium alongside my other ceph, my mexican pings, my recovering N. Spect x Aristo, and my heliamphora minor. Everyone else at this party appears to be quite happy, except the baby cephs. What am I doing wrong? I've only had them a day or two and they just look... awful. They are still in the container/media in which they were shipped.

Thanks all.

I think the growing medium looks like there would not be a lot of drainage.
maybe plant them in the same mix as you other cef.
And you did you get the cefs from tissue culture?

BTW. Your P. Pirouette looks nice!

I think I saw those online and thought it was a little risky buying Cephs that small.

Were they bare root or were they shipped in the sphagnum? I think I would make sure that the sphagnum isn't saturated but is holding some moisture then place a cover with holes poked in the top to keep the humidity up until I saw new growth. Possible temperatures in the 70s but defiantly wouldn't let them get to hot and I would place them under grow lights or out of harsh sunlight.

I hope they recover well for you. It looks like you have a few plants that could be used for trade in a couple years.

All you sphagnum and plants look great by the way.

plantman1001 wrote:I think the growing medium looks like there would not be a lot of drainage.
maybe plant them in the same mix as you other cef.
And you did you get the cefs from tissue culture?

Yes I thought that the medium they arrived in looked a little too wet for them... Honestly I was a little bit afraid to touch them though as I have never re potted a ceph. I have some FTS growing medium on hand. Should I leave some of the current medium attached so as not to disturb the tiny roots? I'm not sure if they're from tissue culture.

This is where I got them. The seller has 100% positive feedback, and was very nice.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cephalotus-Foll ... true&rt=nc

plantman1001 wrote:BTW. Your P. Pirouette looks nice!

Thanks! It's one of my favorite pings.

I would not worry about repotting them.
The roots should be fine, There may be only one or 2 roots for each plant.

Should I leave some of the current medium attached so as not to disturb the tiny roots?

If you want to do that it should be fine.
You may see some leaves die but this is normal, They will look bad for 3-4 weeks and the they will look nice
once they start growing again.

jwbates26 wrote:I think I saw those online and thought it was a little risky buying Cephs that small.

Were they bare root or were they shipped in the sphagnum? I think I would make sure that the sphagnum isn't saturated but is holding some moisture then place a cover with holes poked in the top to keep the humidity up until I saw new growth. Possible temperatures in the 70s but defiantly wouldn't let them get to hot and I would place them under grow lights or out of harsh sunlight.

I hope they recover well for you. It looks like you have a few plants that could be used for trade in a couple years.

They were shipped in the container/medium that they are currently in. I thought it was a little risky as well but figured that since they were shipped potted I'd be OK. I'm not happy with their current setup. I'd like to have them in something that drains well but I don't really feel comfortable re potting them though that may be their best bet.

Currently the hottest the tank gets is 80F, though that is rare. Mostly it remains around 72F with humidity above 50%. Temperature drops into the upper 50's, low 60's at night. I have 6 x 24 Watt 6500K T5 bulbs over them for 14 hours a day.

jwbates26 wrote:All you sphagnum and plants look great by the way.

Thank you. I mist them every night and they seem to like it.

And like jwbates26 said,I too would put a cup with a couple holes on them.
In 2or 3 weeks I would make another hole in the cup and after that I would do this;
Every 4 days put a small hole in the cup in till there are about 10 holes.
Then in 4-7 days I would remove the cup.

SEWinans wrote:This is where I got them. The seller has 100% positive feedback, and was very nice.

Yes those are the ones I saw. I guess if you had the money to take the chance you're getting a decent deal. Its only $25

SEWinans wrote:The seller has 100% positive feedback, and was very nice.

I looked at that too and it all peaked my interest but with all the misspelled words and bad grammar it through up a few red flags for me.

SEWinans wrote:I don't really feel comfortable re potting them though that may be their best bet.

I wouldn't feel comfortable re-potting them either. You could always try it with one of the seedlings and see how it does. I would do it just like you planned. Try to get a little of the moss around the small roots with out disturbing the roots. and place it in a peat mixture or chopped up some of your live sphagnum and us it. If you re-pot I would suggest, again, to ring out all the excess water and cover it with some plastic or humidity dome with holes in it until you see new growth then acclimate it to lower humidity.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Here it is, the lone survivor. Many months later it is alive but not very impressive. It is so small that my camera will not focus well on it.