FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Anyone have any luck using Osmocote 14-14-14 on ceph pitchers? I've tried a single pellet in pitchers over the last few months and had a few pitcher deaths. I think out of 5 pitchers across 4 different cephs I tested on of various clones, only 1 hasn't withered yet. However, I'm using old pitchers for my tests that may already be on their way out, so maybe my tests are a bit unfair for the fertilizer. I did recently do one test on a new pitcher grown under my care and that one withered away while the unfed pitchers were fine, so I'm a bit suspicious now.

It's weird since I use the pellets on a Nep with very tiny pitchers and the pellet doesn't do any damage at all. Same with Helis.

Recently I switched to feeding with MaxSea instead and the pitchers have been fine through multiple weeks of repeated doses. I might do one more osmocote test. If it kills another pitcher I'll probably stop using it for cephs, which is unfortunate since I currently have a whole container of the stuff.

I've been trying that for the last three years or so, and I can only conclude that cephs do not appreciate Osmocote 14-14-14 haha. It seems as if whenever I try a pellet in a pitcher the pitcher browns in a few days. I can't even get my cephs to like Maxsea, so I just feed mine fish flakes and mealworms. My helis and neps appreciate it Osmocote, also.

Ive heard of people trying soil fertilization with moderate success. Something I've done over the last week (I borrowed this from Matt) is I have been keeping the pitchers topped off with Maxsea. So far I haven't had any pitcher deaths (which actually surprised me, not even the oldest). Hoping I'll see some response from it. I want to try it on my new eden black but I don't have the guts man. Not until I see it growing vigorous enough on its own.

@Nepenthes0260, What I've done for foliar feeding with Maxsea is I use a fine mist bottle like https://www.amazon.com/Beautify-Beautie ... 85fb77bc58

I don't spray it hard enough for runoff. I did that one time and it burned out the crown of one of my cephs. Lighter sprays on a couple sides with that bottle hasn't given me an adverse effect though.

As Apollyon mentioned, I've been topping off my OG Black pitchers pretty much every day with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. It seems to like it. I've also used Osmocote pellets in the past and it is hit or miss whether or not they cause the pitcher to go black. I've always used the high-nitrogen Osmocote pellets and most of the time they work just fine without any negative effects.

It could be that an Osmocote pellet is too much fertilizer concentrated in one small spot, while the diluted MaxSea liquid spreads the fertilizer across the inner surface of the pitcher.

I haven't used Osmocote but I've had great success with using 20-20-20 orchid fertilizer diluted to 140-160 ppm (always nice to have a TDS meter). I use this to fill the pitchers on my Neps (plus foliar feeding), Heli, and Ceph every 2-3 weeks. This dilution seems to be strong enough to promote growth without burning any pitchers. The extra plus for dry climate growers is increasing pitcher longevity thanks to the additional fluid.