FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello! I wanted to know if cephalotus can grow just fine in pure sphagnum, a few people say they like Sandy media but I use sphagnum for all my CPs and I want my cephs to match.

I'm not an experienced grower so take this with a grain of salt. I've had my cephalotus in pure sphagnum for over a year and it's been growing quite well. I water it with the tray method and let the water fully evaporate before adding more.

Yes, Cephalotus can do well in pure long fiber sphagnum moss.

There are a lot of different “orthodoxies” that come up when one person has success...they tend to get repeated as gospel. Pure Sphagnum, never Sphagnum, always wet and high humidity, never wet...personally I use 60:40 perlite and peat and have had good luck. What most have in common is that the mixes aren’t too heavy. All you can do is try it and see what works best for you!


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Bob Beer wrote:There are a lot of different “orthodoxies” that come up when one person has success...they tend to get repeated as gospel.

So true! Don't dismiss something because it is not exactly the same as someone else chooses for their plants!! Experiment a little. Figure out what works best for you and your growing techniques.

Matt wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:02 pm Yes, Cephalotus can do well in pure long fiber sphagnum moss.

Nice to know!

In my lower humidity/higher temp conditions, my cephs like a peat/perlite/sand mix. But like Bob said, different conditions mean that they'll do well in different soils!

Historically, I've grown Cephalotus primarily in a peat mix that is very heavy on 12 grit silica sand, somewhere around 2/3 sand to 1/3 peat. That is my preferred mix. However, now we primarily grow our Cephalotus out of tissue culture in New Zealand long-fiber sphagnum and they really enjoy growing in that as well.

The key with Cephalotus seems to be allowing the soil to stay as aerated as possible. They do not like compacted, anaerobic soil. Long fiber sphagnum stays "airy" naturally for quite a long time before breaking down and becoming anaerobic. And a peat-based mix is typically anaerobic by nature, but having enough sand or perlite in the peat mix (60% or more to 40% or less peat) will allow for good soil aeration that Cephalotus enjoy.

Matt wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:59 pm Historically, I've grown Cephalotus primarily in a peat mix that is very heavy on 12 grit silica sand, somewhere around 2/3 sand to 1/3 peat. That is my preferred mix. However, now we primarily grow our Cephalotus out of tissue culture in New Zealand long-fiber sphagnum and they really enjoy growing in that as well.

The key with Cephalotus seems to be allowing the soil to stay as aerated as possible. They do not like compacted, anaerobic soil. Long fiber sphagnum stays "airy" naturally for quite a long time before breaking down and becoming anaerobic. And a peat-based mix is typically anaerobic by nature, but having enough sand or perlite in the peat mix (60% or more to 40% or less peat) will allow for good soil aeration that Cephalotus enjoy.

Thanks a lot Matt! So it wouldn’t hurt to maybe add some perlite or vermiculite to the pure sphagnum? Just for save measures lol

Adrien wrote:So it wouldn’t hurt to maybe add some perlite or vermiculite to the pure sphagnum?

Nope, certainly wouldn't hurt at all and I'd highly recommend doing so if you have some on hand. It is just a bit harder for us to spend time mixing soil for each individual plant, so we don't usually do so. But I have mixed perlite and sand into the NZLFS for plants in my personal collection in the past and they loved it.