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kotrexkie

cyrtospeerma johnstonii, how to keep the red lines sill brights

kotrexkie
14 years ago

why the red lines on my cyrtosperma johnstonii's leaf veins become fade?, and what is the best soil for cyrtosperma johnstonii to make the red line more brights and evenly spread on their leaves?

Comments (2)

  • exoticrainforest
    14 years ago

    International Aroid Society board member Julius Boos has published two articles which give helpful hints on growing these marginal aquatic aroids. You can find his articles in the IAS journal Aroideana Vol.16 and in Vol. 20. The articles include general information on how he grows grow all aquatic aroids. Some growers just grow this species in rich soil and keep it saturated with irrigation.

    You can download his articles for a small fee directly from the IAS website. Just do a search using the search at the lower right of the page.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The International Aroid Society

  • exoticrainforest
    14 years ago

    I found this useful advice on growing aquatic aroids from Dan Levin who is a former International Aroid Society president. I copied this from the IAS forum Aroid l which can easily be found on the internet:

    "I've been growing aquatic aroids in plastic mesh pots set into a pond for many years now. The pond is inside my heated greenhouse (in the SF Bay Area) and the water is further heated by a immersion/ aquarium heater and constantly circulated with a submersible pump with the return to the pond flowing over a small waterfall.

    As you posited: water/ O2 circulation inside mesh pots does appear better compared with using conventional nursery pots for this application. I offer this assessment based upon faster growth rates and reduced die-back of new growth (i.e. sometimes a new shoot will rot out) in my given conditions.

    The media mix I use in my mesh pots:
    4 - washed Monterey sand (#2/12 screen)
    2- pumice
    1- red lava (5/16" clean)
    1- coarse/ chunk peat moss (Sunshine, blue grade)

    Good light, good air circulation and regular fertilization with majors AND minors are also key to good culture.

    The one major downside to using mesh pots: Aquatic plant roots are quite brittle- so repotting is not all that practical, since much of the root system will naturally be growing out through the holes at the sides/ bottom and easily snapped off if you monkey with things much.

    I suppose one could always cut a mesh pot away from it's denizen and attempt a new/ larger pot but it wouldn't be pretty. Especially if prickles are involved (e.g. Lasia, some Cyrtosperma, etc).

    I've personally opted to not repot my aquatics at all. I simply let them be. My media is 90% inert anyway and functionally serves only to anchor the plants and act as an Osmocote receptacle once the plants reach adult-like sizes. FYI: in my pond I'm using 10" or 12" square pots to hold plants a meter and more tall.

    Finally- in my experience using mesh pots one must still heed The Penultimate Boosian Precept of aquatic
    aroid culture: >>

    I never submerge my pots more than halfway and start them out even higher... eventually lowering the pots to their final, maximum 50% depth only after a lot of roots have grown out of them down into the water.

    Vertical positioning in my pond is accomplished by setting the mesh pots on top of 4" (or bigger) diameter slip ABS couplings set on end; with many large holes drilled through the coupling's sides to avoid anaerobic water conditions/ dead zones directly under the plants.

    For deeper and variable situations I've made pedestals by using two plastic drain grate-to-pipe fittings set in a back to back configuration with "x" length of ABS pipe (holes again, please) interconnecting them. No need to glue things, so you can use pipes of differing length to vary the pot depth as needed."

    Here is a link that might be useful: The International Aroid Society

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