Cephalotus Tips

Friskybiscuit12

Friskybiscuit12

Plant
Just received my Cephalotus and I absolutely love it! It's gorgeous, probably my new favorite plant, especially since it's this cultivar is named "Toby" after nursery cat!

But I need tips to be able to tell when it is dry/needs water. I watched California Carnivores videos on it and was expecting it to come with sand to be able to use to help me tell... But those videos were years ago and they now come with moss it seems, and I can't really seem to tell when pressing into the moss if the plant is too dry or not.

I know these guys are finicky with water so I just wanted to double check before potentially messing them up lol

Picture is my plant and the moss :)
 

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I was planning on just putting them in a tray of water with drying in between but the moss through me off lol I guess I could just do every 3-4 days and watch it, but I only worry since I've heard once these guys start to rot its usually too late to save them
 
Here is mine that i got as a seedling circa 2017.

Best is to use a tall pot if possible so that you get years of growth without having to disturb the roots too much as they hate it. Media needs lot of drainage. Mine has been in peat, perlite and sand, with maybe more sand in the mix. I kind of finished the soil above the pot in a mound pattern (as if you'd plant the cephalotus in the middle above the top level of the pot edge.

Seemed to keep the crown of the plant drier a bit I'm guessing. The pot that I have has a hole at the bottom on the side to water plants as some sort of self watering system. I drilled holes at the bottom and placed some sphagnum moss to prevent media and sand to get out. It also helps me to stick my finger to check if the moss is sort of moist or more on the dry side. I always top water it and stop when i see water coming out at the bottom, just like a nepenthes pretty much. I leave whatever water that's left but it's never sitting in water in my case.

It's been on my windowsill with no special care and as you see, it's getting the time for a repot as i have to water it more often now.

I water about once a week....not saying that it's a tip per say but when a few pitcher lids are closing on my ceph i water it and in less than a few hours lids are going back up so I guess that's how i often know when to water...lol

here are some pics from around the pot.
 

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there seem to be many ways of caring for those...the only thing that usually comes out is that they are more prone to "sudden death" syndrome which i think fuels the idea regarding keeping the roots from being too wet...

but again with Lloyd's situation, it doesn't seem to bother it...pretty cool as i didn't hear about this method much before ! I'm guessing that while wet...it keeps fungus away and usually still is pretty airy around the strands...from what i see in the type i grow anyway...
 
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