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Post by ng on Jul 6, 2014 21:06:50 GMT -5
The pot and soil that my current Cephalotus was in turned out to be questionable at best. I decided not to loose anymore sleep over the issue and replant the baby! I'm sure there are many posts on doing this but I decided to take some snapshots of the process anyway. Enjoy ! The Cephalotus in question. I named her Sheila. So my soil mix is going to be a 1 : 1 : 1 , Sifted peat moss : Coarse silica sand : Washed/Coarse sifted Perlite The peat always has a certain amount of bunk in it. I use a plastic sifter to sort things out. The perlite was rinsed and put through a coarse filter to get rid of all the powder foreign stuff. I read somewhere once that they sometimes spray contaminated water to keep the dust down in the 'perlite barn.' I prefer to rinse it heavily before hand as well.
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Post by ng on Jul 6, 2014 21:15:03 GMT -5
I dry mix all of the materials in a big ziplock bag. Be sure not to breath this stuff in, the silica sand yea not so good for the lungs. I was happy with the mix. Great drainage, won't choke the roots out but still wicks moisture while not compressing. So the wifey just made a crack about Close encounters of the third kind. Used tall pots for various reasons, space for the roots and conformity with my upcoming deck design plans... After the silica sand/Aquarium gravel topping. Ready for Sheila !
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Post by ng on Jul 6, 2014 21:25:39 GMT -5
I was far to apprehensive to take the time for a transplant shot. Here is the final product though. I soaked the pot through and touched up the top dressing. Not pressing things down to allow the roots space to find their new home. I made a mound of substrate as suggested by various forums for the top layer. Voila! I had a very interesting conversation with a fellow carnivorous plant enthusiast once about black pots and root temperature. He mentioned that in University they did experiments with different pots and sarracenia as the test subjects. The results convinced him to always try to get light coloured pots or insulate/keep them out of the sun. The results are worth the effort he mentioned so it's a step I decided to take. Hope you like the post! I'll give updates on the plants over the months to come.. ~Nol
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Post by nwflytrap on Jul 7, 2014 7:33:32 GMT -5
Great little photo log ng! I also mound my cephs. It's worked so far. It's interesting for you to mention root temp from the black pots. I just brought one of me trap transplants inside to grow in the terrarium as I think the sun is too warm for the pots outside. I want to compare the growth in the different environments. I've been thinking of how to get them more sheltered from the sun. I might try your approach.
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Post by ng on Jul 10, 2014 9:15:44 GMT -5
I was going to wrap each one but this struck me as more efficient :thumbup: I noticed a huuuge difference in soil temperature between the exposed black pots and the ones that I guarded with foam insulation. Hope this helps man! Nol Attachments:
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Post by canuk1w1 on Jul 10, 2014 15:57:23 GMT -5
Great tip re: insulating the pots. Thanks!
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Post by amanitovirosa on Jul 10, 2014 20:16:03 GMT -5
...would tin foil work instead and just reflect the light and heat away?
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Post by lloyd on Jul 10, 2014 20:51:40 GMT -5
Presuming the heat input comes directly from sunlight, then the foil should work as well as foam. If the air temperature was scorching and the foam set-up was air tight around the pots (hard to imagine) then foam might be better. As always experimentation with a soil probe would be ideal!
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Post by ng on Jul 10, 2014 23:05:48 GMT -5
The plant seems to be perking back up just fine. I was weighing out the bunk soil vs. the bunk time of year to repot a ceph. Looks like this time things are came up Millhouse! Thanks for the kind words!
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