FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello! This fall I embarked on my first set of leaf pullings from my VFT collection, I had great success with only losing a few pullings out of 40 or so.
Now I want to try a leaf from my prized Cephalotus but am very worried about damage to the actual plant. I have read that leaf pullings from a ceph can leave it succeptible to a bacterial infection at the pulling site and it is best to just do a leaf cutting, but leaf cuttings will have a lower success rate. My ceph is mature but it was a very expensive purchase and only had about 5 mature pitchers and 5-6 non carnivorous leaves.

Basically I would be devastated if I ended up killing the plant, thanks for the advice.

Here are a few pictures of my VFT leaf pulls with their new growth.
UPDATE:New growth showing through! Very excited.
New growth as of 7/20/17, about 6 months after I pulled the leaf I believe, you can see how quickly it has grown in 2 months now that it is established. I have moved this to a new pot and placed it in my kitchen window with all my other Cephs, hopefully it adjusts ok. One thing I have learned about Cephs is they do not like rapid changes in light or humidity!

I cant offer advice on the ceph but i am interested to read others views on the matter. Congrats on your vft pullings. They look great.

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I have taken multiple leaf and pitcher pulls from all of my cephalotus without any negative affect on the mother plant. My suggestion is that you reach in as close to the growth connection when you take the pullings.

Pathogens can still enter a cutting, basically wherever there is a wound. I am not sure if it makes a difference whether the wound is on the rhizome tissue (with pullings) or petiole tissue (with a leaf cutting).

However I have never heard of a ceph dying in this manner, so I would imagine that the likelihood of infection is extremely low, so much so that it really doesn't matter. For all we know, whoever reported that could have killed their ceph by some other means.

Benurmanii wrote:Pathogens can still enter a cutting, basically wherever there is a wound. I am not sure if it makes a difference whether the wound is on the rhizome tissue (with pullings) or petiole tissue (with a leaf cutting).

However I have never heard of a ceph dying in this manner, so I would imagine that the likelihood of infection is extremely low, so much so that it really doesn't matter. For all we know, whoever reported that could have killed their ceph by some other means.

Ya I kinda like to think that also, I read it on a blog or something by Barry Rice I believe, he didn't say that he killed a Ceph in this manner just that he didn't reccomend leaf pullings due to the possibility of infection and I believe he recommended the leaf cuttings because the wound is above soil and less chance for infection. It seems like sound logic but i think I will try for the leaf pull this evening and hopefully all goes as planned!

I have thought about doing this but am nervous. I do not want to loose my ceph. Its my only one and it got squashed once already. I actually found this video on this forum...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v0VbYl2zGbQ

I watched it and thought i would take the plunge as well. I did a pitcher pull on mine. Good luck with your leaf pull. Please post your results.

Sry for the thread hijack. Not my intent.

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Personally cephalotus leaf cuttings have failed for me, but pullings or even leaf cuttings with chucks of rhizome attached have worked very well.

Branmuffin wrote:

Benurmanii wrote:Pathogens can still enter a cutting, basically wherever there is a wound. I am not sure if it makes a difference whether the wound is on the rhizome tissue (with pullings) or petiole tissue (with a leaf cutting).

However I have never heard of a ceph dying in this manner, so I would imagine that the likelihood of infection is extremely low, so much so that it really doesn't matter. For all we know, whoever reported that could have killed their ceph by some other means.

Ya I kinda like to think that also, I read it on a blog or something by Barry Rice I believe, he didn't say that he killed a Ceph in this manner just that he didn't reccomend leaf pullings due to the possibility of infection and I believe he recommended the leaf cuttings because the wound is above soil and less chance for infection. It seems like sound logic but i think I will try for the leaf pull this evening and hopefully all goes as planned!

I love Barry's site, but the info on cephs there is extremely outdated.

Well I gave it a shot and used a pair of tweezers to pull a leaf, it actually popped off much easier than expected but unfortunately doesn't appear to have much of any rhizome attached, maybe I get lucky but I will try again if not!

Well, it took a long time but we finally got some new growth showing through! Good to know Ceph leaf pulls are not much more difficult than VFT's, first pulling and first strike so my ratio is fantastic this far! I will probably pull a few more once my Ceph has finished flowering. This did take a little longer than expected, somewhere around 14-16 weeks to see some growth.

For the record I placed this leaf pulling in pure LFSM, and the container has been at 100% humidity for the entire 14-16 weeks.

Updated with new progress, finally moved it out into a new container, growing very well since May!