What is the best media or mix for Cephelotus ?

John Yates

Carnivorous Plant Addict
What a mine field, some say peat and sand , others peat and perlite, sphag and perlite , just peat , by peat i mean sphagnum peat , now we looking at just perlite only , so what is best ? 1 thing is100% certain never use coco products in your ceph mix EVER ! after growing cephs for the last 50 years or so , its more about your climate , water and micro climates you have and temps, and many dont use the correct air flow a open lid in a tank or open door to a grow room will not do , Air flow is actual air flowing around and over your plants , I have a large fan on 24/7 in my Green house just for that reason.

The late Phil Mann always said that the perfect temps for cephs is 20 to 25 c in grow season in AU that is October to round April for our season spring and summer ,he grew his in a small G/h just in natural soils from the sites , so a advantage of being there in home ground and right seasonal temps , lighting is a factor too , cephs like bright sun light and all when not cover by natural scrub and grasses and weeds grow in full sun ,with good clean water filtered from surrounding hills are all going mainly under ground , cephs in the wild dont live in heavy water bogs or rivers , more in natural peat and sand soaks usually where water is following some ares there just a bit higher that the water seeping through in any volume, so even in wild they dont like to be knee deep in water ! all the cephs i seen in the wild only 1 area was water logged but that was at the end of winter too, and that was 1 of the two peoples bay sites .
My personal preferred mix is Te-EM peat and find zero ph find sand or fine perlite works just as well , my 2 year working with just perlite has had mixed results, my good friend Jacky Chem in Vietnam has had extortionary results there with just perlite tubs, it eliminates a few things, over watrring and root rot and root scale that will kill or set your plants backwards quickly. now experimenting with Akadama mixed results so far , seems the peat and sand or perlite with akadama on top of that mix is working best so far,not sure why ? in pure aka the were slow to respond in growth but eventually did mainly to there environment more than anything i think .

There are many pros and cons to what media or mix to use, I believe most do not matter its more about there growing involvement , if you get that right where there happy and have right light , temps and water, and now adding the Mycorrhiza to the mix will have the best results , if your using lights , make sur you have the correct kelvin or Led the manometers ,cheap lights as just that ,not the correct lights and the plants will not do well , use clean rainwater, or RO water, good air flow , and right temps your plants will do better , its not easy to make a micro climate , if your not sure what temps and climate you need look up the weather charts for Albany in Western Australia, will give you a full list to temps , weather , there you can look at .

if you see some info here you want to expand on, please feel free to expand or ask , there are no silly questions ,its all about experience, what works for Fred and not work forJohn , so experiment, as most have different climates seasons and temps ect ect . local knowledge is gold
cheers john

Lloyd if you want to clean it up spelling ect feel free to :)
 

John Yates

Carnivorous Plant Addict
There is a lot of chat all over world on should ceph be put in water or stand in water in your grow area, interstingly , my good friend who has also grown cephs for over 40 years grows his out side cephs in water trays and his cephs in the dry green house not in water trays ? both do exceptionly well , he is allso a bit more higher in altitude than me giving cooler conditions in summer ? yer if i put my cephs in water they dont do well ,mine like it a bit dryer , out side, and wetter inside the green house ,how that works is a mistry to us both ? many German growers also grow there cephs in water as do many others in EU and UK , ,I think Charles B grows his in a G/h on benches ,but nt sure if in water trys or not, J Harris also grows his in G/h and in water trays i think ,must ask him ? so still its what works for you that counts . finding that sweet spot can take some time and experimentation.
 
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