Office Crypt Emersed Crypt Setup

[Savant]

I am thinking of converting one of my small ocean free glass tank into an emersed setup for farming crypt.... The tank has about 3-5cm of ADA amazonia soil....

I understand that a method of growing emersed setup would be to fill it with a fair bit of water and keep the top of the tank covered...

Is there an alternate way, can I grow it with just moist soil in my office windowsill, relying on the sunlight comming through?

Which would be a suitable crypt... alternatively, any other suitable plants?

[Savant]

Argh.. how do I edit away the unsightly title...

[illumbomb]

Just add a little bit of water till the top level of the soil is covered and start planting away. C. wendtii should be quite an easy and available species to begin with and is quite easy to flower. Relying on just sunlight should not be an issue.

Adding a transparent cover over the tank would reduce the need of constantly topping up the water which could be a chore long term. It will also enable you to try to grow some more exotic cryptocorynes which when bought are usually in submersed form and therefore need high humidity level when converting it to emersed form.

Have fun growing emersed cryptocorynes and hope you get deeply poisoned by it!!!

[Savant]

Sounds good... Can any bros guide me as to what crypts are available at C328?

[illumnae]

flip through auntie's oriental book, you should be able to order any crypts from there. however, there would probably not be any of the rare/expensive ones in that book.

[Savant]

Okie... I have a copy of the oriental book... not sure what to get tho... its a small tank... Since the soil is currently quite low, should I fill it up with abit more and what is recommended? Horti peat moss?

[illumbomb]

Don't use pure Horti peat moss, many of the particles are less dense than water and will float about, you will find it difficult to root the cryptocorynes.

It really depend on the species of cryptocorynes you are intending to grow when choosing the substrate, not all cryptocorynes require low pH. If you are getting C. wendtii which in nature are found in more pH neutral type of condition, I am currently growing them using a mixture of Horti Soil and Garden Soil (burnt soil) and they are flowering regularly. If not, I think GEX would work too. If you are getting some species of cryptocorynes which require low pH, you can consider Horti Soil instead which has some peat mixed inside already (I have just started trying this out too). A tank filled with sphagnum moss or any other type of moss could function as substrate too.

Maybe you should confirm what type of cryptocorynes you are getting first?

[Savant]

Ah... in fact I have no idea what types of Crypts I want to keep...

I wanted to try crypts for 2 reason... 1) the flowers is quite beautiful and 2) Often when I set up tanks and then decommission them, I throw or give away loads of my plants... and then when I restart my tanks I have to buy them again... so am thinking of cultivating them emersed so that I can have a better supply and not have to keep paying and paying...

Pls do let me have your recommendations...

[illumnae]

Hey bro, cultivate C. wendtii "Green gecko". one of the most beautiful variants of wendtii, which is easy to keep.

Crypts are slow growing though, so not sure if it's feasible to "farm" them