Cephalotus Leaf Pullings

The packaged leaves

I was lucky enough to win some leaf pulls in the post-NASC auction giveaways on Terraforums. The Cephalotus I had was doing quite well, until winter came and the house's humidity dropped to near zero. That did a ton of damage to plants, and ended up killing my Ceph.

Leaves from an 'Emu Point' Location

I'd been wanting to get another Ceph. I was planning on trying it in different conditions to see what worked best. Now, I will hopefully have a bunch of little Cephs to try out thanks to these leaf pullings.

One Pot of Pullings

Ultimately, I was gifted nine leaves from three different clones. I decided to run my own little experiment on what medium was best for rooting the clones. My first choice was a mixture of 50% sphagnum peat moss and 50% sand. 

One Leaf on a Mixed Media

My second choice was to use a mixed media, like one I discuss for adult plants in Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. I figured this would be the perfect time to see if such a media would work well for juvenile plants as well.

The Third Pot

My last pot consisted of 50% New Zealand long-fiber sphagnum and 50% perlite. This is another common mixture used for Cephs.

The Leaves

The first step, after mixing the media, is to place the leaves topside up on top of the media. Then, take a pinch of the media and cover the leaf base, exactly like you would do with a Venus Flytrap pulling.

Leaves in a Bag

Then, put the pot in a plastic bag and add a bit of water so the media won't dry out. (Above, you can see that I'm using a clay pot and saucer for this set of pullings. I'm not sure how that will affect the pullings from rooting. The water is water from my reverse osmosis filter).

The Final Product

Lastly, seal up the bag. Then, place  it in bright, but not direct, light. If temperatures stay in an intermediate range and conditions are good, I should start seeing plantlets in a month or two. Stay tuned...