Emersed plant diary - Glosso, Staurogyne Repens and Pogostomen Helferi

[threnjen]

Emersed plant diary - Glosso, Staurogyne Repens and Pogostemon Helferi

My newest experiment is to try my hand at some emersed growing! I have a great corner in my kitchen with big windows that gets tons of sun.

I bought a Jiffy seedling starter tray at Walmart for 6.88 and some organic potting soil.

I used one pot of glosso (I bought two, but it went a long way when it was all separated!!) and two small hydroponic cups each of the S. Repens and Pogostemon Helferi. The Glosso was $4, Pogostemon $5 each and S. Repens $6 each so about $35 for my project.



Here is the tray with everything planted. I was not sure on best practices to plant the glosso, so I did some various things. The glosso from the store was rather tall, about 3 inches, not compact. So at the bottom of the tray I planted it in long chains, tucking the chain points into the dirt. In the top half, I cut off each individual chain point and planted that separately.

I'm not sure on the moisture level - too little, too much? I'm not sure if the dirt should be simply moist, or very flooded as you see here. There is a top on the tray too, of course, so it all stays wet and humid. I used tank water to flood the tray.

Hopefully in about a week I will have some growth to show!http://www.aquariumadvice.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Following to see! Awesome plant nursery.

 

[Niccobacci11]

subscribed

 

[CatfishRex]

Nice project, I'll be watching

 

[threnjen]

Has only been a few days, so no new pics yet. I check it every day. The glosso is growing up toward the light and looks really healthy. The pogostemon helferi looks dry I hope it will be ok. It's really wet in the tray and the cover is coated with humidity so it is plenty wet in there.
On Thur I'll post a progress pic

 

[CatfishRex]

Were they growing emersed when you bought them?

 

[threnjen]

They were in the tanks at the fish store, but I also know that they go through plant shipments very fast. So they might have been emersed and not had the chance to change to immersed before I bought them. Unknown.

Hopefully it is just the immersed growth going away. The tray is really quite wet and the glosso and s. repens seem quite happy so far.

 

[ImACoolguy]

I've been trying the same thing in flower pots. Need to try this in a covered dish though. I think my problem is the lack of moisture being an open top.


Caleb

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Cool experiment. What type of top are you using on it to keep it humid for the plants?

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[CatfishRex]

They were in the tanks at the fish store, but I also know that they go through plant shipments very fast. So they might have been emersed and not had the chance to change to immersed before I bought them. Unknown.

Hopefully it is just the immersed growth going away. The tray is really quite wet and the glosso and s. repens seem quite happy so far.

That's what I was hoping for you [emoji3]

 

[threnjen]

The top is a top that comes with the tray. It's a greenhouse tray by Jiffy from the gardening aisle, it is for sprouting seedlings indoors. It comes with peat pellets which the plants would have liked I bet, but our water is high ph and I didn't want to grow them in something vastly different, so I took the peat out.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

That's pretty neat. Had to Google image those trays to get a better idea. Maybe I'll try one sometime. I've been wanting to grow some emersed Utricularia graminifolia.

 

[threnjen]

Update time!!

This is fun

First a recap of the day I planted, this was 05-07-2015
20150507_140132 by Jenny W, on Flickr

Now today 05-15-2015
20150515_110048 by Jenny W, on Flickr

I seem to be getting some spots of white fungus. I need to check if this is dangerous or acceptable.

Pogostemon Helferi is doing pretty terribly. The leaves seem dry despite the fact that the tray might be TOO wet.

But look at the Glosso and S. Repens - WOW!! The S. Repens has almost doubled in size! The glosso is sending out runners everywhere and has "picked up" off the floor of the dirt and pointing upward, about an inch tall in many places.

Seeing these side by side it's really apparent that the glosso and s. repens are thriving here! I'm giving it more time on the pogostemon helferi, though. But in a few more weeks if no success I will swap that out with something else.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

That's great progress! What are you using for lighting?

 

[threnjen]

Just the window! It's a great corner of the house that points SW with windows through the whole corner. It is working so well I really want to set up another tray, I have the space and more glosso and s.repens that isn't even planted anywhere permanent.

 

[threnjen]

I wish I could get my hands on some hemianthus callitrichoides at my LFS, I really want to grow some of that...

 

[threnjen]

I'm so happy with this project so far that I've started another tray (hubby says, "sigh.")
It doesn't have any different stuff, but I still had a whole pot of glosso and a container of s. repens, so I just planted more of the same.

There's still more room in that window, but I might just let it be for now

Tray 2 2015-05-17 02 by Jenny W, on Flickr

 

[threnjen]

Whoops, I missed a week! So it's been two weeks since my check-in on the original tray.

Here's the original tray when I planted it on May 7:
20150507_140132 by Jenny W, on Flickr
And here it is today:
Tray 1 2015-05-28 by Jenny W, on Flickr

Holy moly, am I right?! The glosso is going crazy! And the pogostemon helferi is starting to bounce back, after a bad start.
Of note is a section of S. Repens in the center is not doing great. One of my cats tried to use this as a bed I don't think he was there long but of course he caved in the top and he was laying on the S. Repens for a while. Not sure that section is going to bounce back, it was more than a week ago.


Here is tray two. I planted this on the 17th: Tray 2 2015-05-17 02 by Jenny W, on Flickr

And today: Tray 2 2015-05-28 by Jenny W, on Flickr
The glosso here spent some time underwater in a tank waiting for use, and interesting that it is still not as deep green as the other emersed glosso that I planted straight away. It is definitely growing, but it seems slow. The S. Repens in this tray looks absolutely amazing.

I think at the month point on each tray or so I will cut some S. Repens and replant and see if I can propagate.http://www.aquariumadvice.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[CatfishRex]

Looks great

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Those plants seem held back not being submersed.

Just my opinion, I could be totally wrong, an update would help.