Ceph growth patterens

[jamesh]

I have my first ceph and it is currently growing one small leaf. I have seen photos of other people plants that do this so I know that they do I was just wondering what their typical growth pattern is. Do they grow these leaves and then start to grow pitchers after that? It looks happy in the conditions that I am offering it and I am very excited and just want to make sure that I know what to look for with this species.

[paulbarden]

In the winter, when day length is shortest, Cephalotus produce non-carnivorous leaves, and resume production of traps in the spring. I would think this is most likely what you are seeing. :-)

[coldcoffee]

Something really interesting I have noticed with my plants is that several times they have had an explosion of non-canivorous leaves followed immediately after by a growth spurt of pitchers. All 3 of my cephs have done this at least once. The hummers giant actually kicked out some really large non carnivorous leaves immediately before a growth spurt of larger sized pitchers.

[jamesh]

Can you use the non carnivorous leaves to start new plants once the new pitchers start to form.

[coldcoffee]

You can do leaf pullings with the noncarnivorous leaves in theory, assuming they are healthy. Often the non carnivorous leaves on my plants get crowded out by the pitchers or just plain die back slowly not sure which. I have never done a leaf pulling with q non carnivorous leaf. I did, however, successfully get a callus to form in a tissue culture using a non carnivorous leaf.

[jamesh]

I might have to try it later on this year and see what happens. I am setting up a twenty gallon long with the plan of using it for a greenhouse just for cephalotus.

[coldcoffee]

Not a bad plan, just make sure you get good circulation in there. Cephs can actuallly be pretty resilient to some counter intuitive conditions. What they are not very resiliant to is soil born fungus. Terrariums are breeding grounds for fungus so circulation is very key. I use a partially open top terrarium and have a circullating fan going in the room.

[jamesh]

it may sound nuts but I was going to put on a screen top. Or at least 50% screen top. I have my plant currently in a Exo Terra terrarium with a cool mist humidifier on a Zoo Med HygroTherm™ Humidity & Temperature Controller keeping the humidity at around 80%. I am planning on doing a similar system for the 20 long terrarium as it seems to be working well so far.

[sundewman]

Well, I'm not sure how much light ou're able to get them, but I think they can handle a decent amount of light. Granted i'm growing them under fluorescent fixtures...but I love the deep coloration they can get after a while:

My plant hasn't produced a non-carnivorous leaf ever since I used a photoperiod around/over 14-15 hours.

[fredg]

Don't forget you can get new plants fron pitcher pullings too ;D

[bobtheglob]

Showoffs! Just kidding

Those are some amazing colors on those cephs