FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone, yesterday I was doing research about the "pretty moss" one of my cephalotus was in. I found out it was a type of carpet moss that can be harmful to small plants and decided to try and remove it.
When I removed it, it was well over an inch thick all around and I'm sure was doing some damage and inhibiting growth. I did my best to remove it very carefully and I repotted my Ceph right away after removing the moss, when I came home from class today my entire Ceph was very wilted looking :c and the new growth seemed partly shriveled. It's possible that a few roots were damaged while removing the moss. Is there any way to help my Cephalotus recover from shock or is this something I just have to wait out? Any tips are welcome I am very upset about possibly losing it after it had put out a nice increase in growth recently :C

Here's the last picture I took of it while it was growing nicely and here it is when I got home today, you can see it is very wilted and the new growth is shriveled Close up This happened overnight!

I have moss like that in most of my ceph pots and have never had a problem with it

Cory wrote:I have moss like that in most of my ceph pots and have never had a problem with it

I searched it here on the forums and everyone seemed to say how annoying and bad it was for small plants. Matt seems to dislike it very much as well, in all the posts I've seen him reply to about it. I figured if Matt hated it then I should follow his advice and get rid of it. Here's his thoughts on it.

Matt wrote:Carpet moss is a real pain. It definitely can constrict the plants ability to grow and divide. Sometimes when I leave it and don't pull it up, traps get stuck under the surface as they try to grow because they don't have enough force to push the moss out of the way.

You may try placing a bag over it to increase the humidity. Since you've disturbed the roots its ability to efficiently take in moisture has declined. I'm assuming its losing more moisture then the roots can support and has shriveled up. Keep the soil moist but not saturated. Hopefully you'll start seeing new growth soon and once you do, you can slowly acclimate it to lower humidity.

Good luck and I hope it pulls through for you. In my opinion they're pretty hardy plants so it should make a come back.

jwbates26 wrote:You may try placing a bag over it to increase the humidity. Since you've disturbed the roots its ability to efficiently take in moisture has declined. I'm assuming its losing more moisture then the roots can support and has shriveled up. Keep the soil moist but not saturated. Hopefully you'll start seeing new growth soon and once you do, you can slowly acclimate it to lower humidity.

Good luck and I hope it pulls through for you. In my opinion they're pretty hardy plants so it should make a come back.

Thank you jwbates26! That sounds like great advice, I kept wondering If I should put a baggie over it but wasn't sure and didn't want to make things worse. I hope so too :/ I'm pretty worried about it.


*I forgot to put under my pictures that my flash was on and they are not as pale/washed out as they look.

The bag won't hurt it
I use this method to harden TC plants (mostly heli's) into terrarium humidity levels
Just watch for mold or funky media.
I would also remove the bag for a bit every few days to get some fresh air in there.

I agree that the carpet moss isn't beneficial to ceph's however I just pull what's constricting expansion and growth. I wouldn't try to remove it entirely for the same reasons you are having difficulty with.
Flytraps will take the monkeying with ceph's and some heli's get quite grumpy about it. Especially if they are small.

As you can see I just only removed what I had to.

Thank you for the advice Cory! and the picture for a visual aid. That's a great looking ceph!
Awhile back with my other Ceph I took all the sphagnum that was wrapped around it off and put it in some Fly trap store mix and it just kept growing without missing a beat, but this one really took it hard -.- I figured it was much larger and would be okay but now I know better.

Sensitive roots. Cephs hate to be disturbed. Every repot or soil shifting near the roots will stress the plant.

Your pitchers will die back alot. Leaving it alone will allow it to grow back to health.

Sent from my SM-N9005

I'm not sure if you have seen my post but I had a similar situation a few weeks ago. I thought I killed it for sure, but my Ceph is fine now, lots of new growth.
I think if you keep it in a good growing environment it should bounce back in a couple of weeks. The bag over it might help it out as well.

Thank you Tish & SundewWolf! You guys always have good tips and advice. I will leave it alone as much as possible and just keep an eye on it. So far it hasn't declined any further than when I first saw the damage.

I don't remember if I've seen your post SundewWolf (although I usually read every new post) I'll look for it now. Hopefully seeing your story will be encouraging lol ^-^

So for now I'll have my fingers crossed that this little guy makes it! I'll post back if there is any more decline in health or increase. Thanks for all the help everyone!

Here's the post I'm talking about- http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/cepha ... 22330.html

I haven't updated it but it has three new leaves now and looks like it's begging to pitcher again. I think yours should recover too.

EDIT 04/10/14: Just kidding! It's dead!