Raising up E. Bleheri - Best way to go?

Angel079

I have several (about a dozen by now) E. Bleherii daughter plants now I only have so much tanks to spread them across to raise them to a good size to hand off (don't wanna hand them off being 2-3" only) sooo I was wondering I have a clear plastic box & lid and a spare full spectrum light....Ya'll think it would be workable to add gravel & root ferts in it and raise them all to good sizes there from what I know they don't need to be 100% submersed so after they reach ~5" I could let them grow out of the box couldn't I?

aunt kymmie

I don't see why not. You'll have to add a heater, I think room temp might be too cool. My house is anyway. Also, when I did this I added an airstone just to keep the water from getting stagnate.

Angel079

Yea that's no issue.
The 3g runs' w//out air stone for weeks now and is going great, too great for the amount plants vs amount room in a 3g soooo I donno what I'll do with the extra plants I really start thinking I need to get arid of some its getting kinda sorta full around here

redchigh

When it gets warmer here I plan on starting a container pond outside and putting all my aquarium plants in it to grow out...

Just about anything that has the strength to hold itself out of water will grow well emmersed, and if growing emersed, there's no need for more than a couple inches of water. I'd say put enough water to cover the tips of the plants, throw a heater and light on it, and forget it.

Top the water off with aquarium water to replace evaporation... I'd imagine there's no need for water changes.
You can throw your extra stem plant cuttings in there for them to grow out too.

Angel079

Yea that's what I do in the 3g but its uhm well FULL now lol and I have more plants. I was just wondering since that box with the lid is uhm about 5-6" tall being so shallow with the t8 across it if that wasn't gonna get too hot with the light and heat? Maybe only use the heat at night? Cause that's also the only time my office really gets below 70's.

Byron

The easiest with Echinodorus bleherae is to grow them emersed as bog plants. The roots are planted in sand, soil or gravel and kept permanently wet, but the leaves will grow emersed in air, and a cover over the tank will keep it moist and warm in most rooms. Nutrients will have to be added to the substrate, if sand or gravel, as root tabs/sticks. Soil or an enriched plant substrate would probably be reasonably sufficient but added nutrients might still be necessary. This is how these plants all grow in nature, though E. bleherae does "prefer" an aquatic environment.

Of course the leaf growth will be the emersed form, but that makes no difference. Once planted in an aquarium (yours, someone else's...) it will revert to the submersed form. All nurseries grow E. bleherae this way.

Angel079

Thanks Byron! Good point on the soil but I rather not put up with the mess and use normal fine gravel as always and buy them root sticks.

Oh the will DEF not go into my tank's they're FULL - If mail between Canada-US was quicker / quick enough for plants I'd mail them all of your way with some Lotus but I'd be scared the mail takes too long between us fr the plants.

Byron

Thanks Natalie, but the last thing I would need is E. bleherae. As I think I mentioned in another thread, I have more than 30 plantlets developing right now, and I've no idea what I'm going to do with them. May take them to one of the fish sotres I deal with, as I'm sure they will sell. The parent plants must be "in season" as they sent out flower spikes in Dec/Jan that are multi-branched and 2 or 3 per plant...I've never had this many before. B.

Angel079

Maybe you'd make a bunch Canada-Planters happy if you posted them here in the Classifies for Canada only? I know there's been several on/off here that have a hard time finding plants in their area's they might like to get them off your hands.

How about 4+ ft'ers Vals then

Really I took in all the good advise when I lowered my light here to the less Kelvin but more lumens - Remember the thread - If only I had known it was gonna do THIS to my plants I wouldn't have. Good growth is nice (and important) but this is crazy. I mean even the low Narrowleaf Chain Swords we all incl me initially worried about with the low lights pffft forget it ... I even tried stop the ferts that I initially started after the algae attach in hopes it'll slow growth by now (lil over 2 weeks ago) nadda.