FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

francisfaustino wrote:FTS Cephalotus update - I started foliar fertilizing last December and this plant has really started to take off. There are 2 growth points. In the photo, the left plant does not have adult pitchers yet, but the right plant sprouted 3 adult pitchers all at the same time which all just opened last week. You can see the peristomes still darkening up. Initially, I was fertilizing every other waterings. When I started fertilizing, parts of the pitchers, which were all juvenile at the time, began to darken up. I thought that it might be fertilizer burns, but now, I'm not so sure if it's burns or just getting older. In either case, I reduced foliar fertilizing to once every 3 or 4 waterings.

IMG_1882.JPG

Darkening is just the pitcher aging...nothing to worry about at all.
Your ceph's look GREAT!!
I would show you my EB but it's still embarrassing to look at for what I paid for it.............

Nancy wrote:Darkening is just the pitcher aging...nothing to worry about at all.
Your ceph's look GREAT!!
I would show you my EB but it's still embarrassing to look at for what I paid for it.............

You mentioned to me before that you were going to start foliar fertilizing on your EB. Is it getting any new growths? What do you think is wrong? At least it is alive. I guess sometimes all we can do is keep them alive long enough until they start growing again.

francisfaustino wrote:I just finished re-potting the Cephs in 6"x6" x 8" high square plastic pots. 5 months ago, when I put them in the small FTS plastic pots, I was planning to keep them in there for at least a year. I didn't think they will grow fast. The FTS Ceph especially has deformed pitchers where it got squished as it ran out of growing room at the edge of the pot.

I tried my best not to disturb the roots but I snapped some really fine roots for both the Eden Black and FTS Cephs. I really hope it doesn't set them back too bad. I also planted the root cuttings in the pots just in case they strike.

The 6"x6"x8" pots are actually a bit bigger than I wanted for my indoor display but it's what I have available. I have also spent quite a bit of time on eBay and Amazon looking for the perfect size pot for my display but I can't seem to find any for what I am looking for. Looking at the re-potting though, I'm glad I went with tall 8" pots. I think the plants should be ok for at least the next year or two in them.

Hi Francis,

Nice Cephs you got there and though people said Ceph grow so slow but you are doing a great job there, congrats. I would want to buy a FTS Ceph also but FTS always pot plants in full sphagnum moss which I don't like, especially with Cephs. You did repot your Ceph into a more airy mix, do you do that immediately after you got the plant delivered to your mailbox or you wait like 1-2 weeks then repot it into the different media?

Thank you

silvercomet wrote:Hi Francis,

Nice Cephs you got there and though people said Ceph grow so slow but you are doing a great job there, congrats. I would want to buy a FTS Ceph also but FTS always pot plants in full sphagnum moss which I don't like, especially with Cephs. You did repot your Ceph into a more airy mix, do you do that immediately after you got the plant delivered to your mailbox or you wait like 1-2 weeks then repot it into the different media?

Thank you

I would recommend to wait a few weeks and until you see some growth before re-potting. Until then, just make sure you don't over water because the sphagnum moss does retain A LOT of water for quite a long time.

The EB could have actually stayed in the same pot for at least a few more months but I display them indoors, side by side, and I want the uniform look.

I think part of the explosion in growth on the FTS Ceph is because it is so clumpy and densely packed to begin with. I'm not sure, but I think the clumpiness is due to it being tissue cultured. Once the roots catches up with the foliage, the growth rate really takes off.

Finding good pots is hard, if you're still looking for a large one I would advise CA Carnivores' bog pot, I use it for some sarracenia, dionea, drosera, and pinguicula, and while that is very different from a cephalotus (which I too possess, though not nearly as large), if you also potted some live sphagnum moss (or other moss) the pot would both look full and you would likely not have to re-pot for at least 2 years (though congratulations if you do ha ha ha)

It's been 10 days now since the re-pot and it has really set back the FTS Cephalotus. The smaller of the FTS Ceph has a lot of yellowing and drying pitchers. The bigger FTS Ceph didn't lose/discolor any pitchers but it noticeably stopped growing. The Eden Black on the other hand didn't seem to notice the re-potting.

When people talk about the sensitivity of Cephalotus to root disturbances, I think it might be caused by the ease in snapping off fine roots especially with smaller specimens. When I re-potted, my plan was to take the entire old media and put it straight into the new pot and back fill. Because of the amount of Perlite, the media was very crumbly and as careful as I tried to be, it was impossible to get the entire media as a whole. After re-potting, I rummaged through the old left over media and I saw a number of really small fine roots in the FTS Ceph media. In the Eden Black media, I only saw one very fine root about an inch long.

A couple of weeks after I got the FTS Ceph, I initially re-potted it and changed the media from LFSM that it came in, to peat/Perlite.

The Eden Black was already planted in peat/Perlite which is why I think the media and root system on it has held up much better.

5-30-2017 update: I have stopped using a brush to apply the foliar fertilizer for a couple of months now. I'm just too lazy to do it. I still mist the plants and fill the pitchers with the same solution of 1/4 strength urea free orchid fertilizer two times per month. I have also become less stringent on how I water the plants. It's still the same watering schedule of 10 to 14 days. I top water until water starts to trickle out of the holes at the bottom of the pot. I do get the plants wet but I try not to get water inside the pitchers. I reserve the inside for the fertilizer. The photos shows the soil a day after watering.

For a few months after the last re-potting, the Eden Black didn't grow too much. I just kept up with the foliar fertilizing and after a few months, the plant had a growth spurt. It put out 5 adult pitchers all at the same time. One thing I noticed about the Eden Black is that it hardly grows non carnivorous leaves. I think I have only seen one or two leaves ever since I got the plant. The leaves have always stayed small and are quickly overrun by the pitchers.

The FTS Ceph on the other hand seems to be a much more vigrous grower. I think it is still putting out juvenile pitchers. The adult pitchers of the FTS Ceph are still much smaller than the Eden Black's, but the FTS Ceph has a lot more foliage.

Eden Black: FTS Ceph:

Nice cephs! Eden black is so dark...

Nice cephs!!! Hope my newly adquired cephies will grow up quick XD what temperatures do you keep yours in?

cpman wrote:Nice cephs!!! Hope my newly adquired cephies will grow up quick XD what temperatures do you keep yours in?

I keep them indoors at around 77F constant. The humidity these days is around 57% with a low of around 30's% during the cold months.

Eden Black - July 17, 2017 update: The plant is doing well so far. Since the last update, the first two adult pitchers have dried up. It seems to be about seven months life span for each adult pitcher. I do not know if this length of time will increase as the size of the pitchers increase since the first two adult pitchers were quite small in comparison to the current ones.

I find the Eden Black to be quite a vigorous grower. It is currently putting out nine pitchers that I can see right now, including the large one at the back in the photo. Five of the nine growing pitchers are visible in the photo if you zoom in. I notice that this plant seems to put out pitchers in waves. After each wave, there will be a lull of a few weeks when I do not see any new growths.

Eden Black: First update of the year! This plant colors up really well under LED lighting. I've had them under a cheap Amazon LED bulb for a bit over a year now. I just recently switched them back to CFL just to try something new. The problem with my setup, since I only have 1 bulb directly above the plant, there is not as much light hitting the plant from the sides. Evidence of this can be clearly seen by the lighter colored bottoms of the pitchers. My LED bulb is also relatively weak at only 12 watts. The bulb itself has 12 mixed red and blue LEDs. I also don't know how humidity affects the coloration. I have the plant indoors in Georgia's 7B zone. We typically get around 30's% humidity indoors for months during the cold season. Once we buy a house, I plan to setup something with more light and perhaps a controlled humidifier.

FTS Cephalotus: This plant is still producing quite a lot of juvenile pitchers 16 months after I received it.

Wow, great growing!

Pitcher burn from fertilizer. 11 days ago, I fed 2 pitchers 1 Osmocote pellet each. One pitcher is still fine but the one pictured is almost completely wilted. I've fed the plants Osmocote on a few occasions before but this is the first time a pitcher wilted. I was expecting this to happen which is why I only ever put Osmocote in a couple of pitchers at a time, once every year or so.