emersed cultivation

[mor b]

hi there, im a new member here, got a link to your lovely forum from aquaticplantcentral...
i just built a greenhouse for cultivating waterplants emersed. the set up is 200*200*200cm room with semi sun light , no artificial light.
other specs:
1. hydrophonic cultivation - power head takes water from a sump n spray it on a containers with rock wool as substrate. i dose regular garden ferts with extra iron n pottasium.
2. temp - 26-30
3. humid 40-80
4. trying to cultivate mostly sensitive plants
5. can i grow there mosses in this temp ?
6. im thinking of getting fan n waterfall to cool thing out
7. thinking of adding foggers
do u have good tips for me please? - the hydrocotyles, the rotala rutondifolia , eleocharis, polygonum and bacopas are growing well - cant grow eusteralis and ludwigia inclinata cuba though....
any special needs for this two?

[FC]

Dear baruch mor,

You should be able to grow the Lud. cuba. I had bought them in emersed form where they were grown on the ground. The stems were curvy and creeped on the ground. However, it transformed dramatically when grew in submerged, see pic (taken on Mar 04) on far right:


I had seen an artificial tropical garden in Germany, I think it was in Konstanz. It was a very successful garden with Orchid as main theme (Singapore's country flower, yeah :P ). I enjoyed the plants and the setup very much. The temperature was about 26 degree celcius and very humid. There were lots of midst sprinkler heads (hidden, of course) and activated very frequently. There was a stream that flow around the garden with some little bridge, adding charm to the little garden. I visited there in Spring 1997.

[mor b]

thanks for the qiuck response freddy, i grow it well in my planted tanks but i failed to grow it emersed (on wet rock-wool and ferts )
here my ludwigia inclinata in my tank- cuba and regular:





my problem is that im about the only person who hold this plant here in israel and i dont need it in my current setup. i would like to grow it for later use and maybe to sell it to other aquarists here in israel

[livionakano]

Baruch,

Have you ever tryied to add CO2 to your emmersed plants? Of course it will be a little hard to get a significative concentration in your bigger one, but you may build a small closed box where you can add CO2 to your plants, and try to mantain the most sensitive plants there

Regards,

Livio

[mor b]

sounds great livio and i even have a spare co2 tank n regolator - could u instruct me how to do it?
what is the best setup n size ? should i go for artificial light or sunlight?
thanks
the plants i want to grow emersed are:
proserpinca plustris
ludwigia inclinata
l. i. cuba
ludwigia pantanal
eusteralis stellata
bacopa sp
ammania bonsai
rotala macrandra

one more question - did any of u tried to grow rotala with fine leaves emersed? (wallichi / vietnam / nanjean)

[TyroneGenade]

That red ludwigia is the most incredable plant I have seen on this forum. I will not be able to sleep tonight as I dream about in one of my fishtanks...

[mor b]

to be honest , ive menneged to take this photo when the plant was in its best condition, usualy its orange n not that red.
this photo is lying in the PLANT-FINDER of aquatic plant central web site with a few other plants of main.
just to make sure - i never bought any commercial fertilizer nor special bulbs for aquaria , i keep it simple n cheap and still best results
here are a few more red plants of main
http://www.freshreef.com/forum/forum...?TID=3656&PN=1

[livionakano]

Hi Baruch

Well, I am still learning and experiencing. I´ve added DIY yeast CO2 to a tranparent plastic box, with bout 60 liters, posicionating upside down, and closed, just with the CO2 hose entering in the box

Of course smaller boxes will need less CO2 and larger ones, more CO2, but I don´t have a scale or anything like to control it. I´ve just added and tested. As a closed system, it will keep not just the CO2 levels (moreless since always we might have small openings), but also the humidity very high.

One special problem in this setup might be the temperature, that may raise if specially under direct sunlight (that I usually avoid). I am managing this issue having some ventilation near the box, and keeping some water above the box, that lower the temperature while evaporating.

This is my experience until now... maybe later I can add more advices

regards

Livio

[mor b]

thanks again livio, could u show some pictures , they say 1 picture equals to a thousand words