About the experiment:
I am a college student living in Columbus, Ohio. My apartment is rather small and air tight. In the colder months I would go for long periods without opening the windows. The heater in the apartment is a gas unit that surely is not helping with the air purity. Looking to alleviate or at least help with purity issues I found a study done by NASA in which they documented the use of indoor plants as air purifiers.

According to NASA one of the top contenders for the purification of Benzene, Formaldehyde, and Trichloroethylene was Sansevieria trifasciata. With that information I set out to collect six of these plants, two for each room. Then I ran into an issue.

Not only is Sansevieria of any kind seemingly impossible to find seeds for online, even cuttings seem hard to come by unless you know someone with the plant. This requirement is where you come in.

I am looking for any members willing to give or sell me some of their precious Sansevieria trifasciata cuttings or (less likely) seeds. I need enough to successfully raise 6 plants so there must be some sort of margin for error(meaning I will likely need more than 6 cuttings). If you have a plant and can help or have any tips as to where I can find a plant, please let me know. Thank you for your time and help.

NASA article for those interested(PDF Format): http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930073077_19930 73077.pdf

For those who might ask, "Out of all of the plants listed why the Sansevieria?" for a few reasons.

1. Long life span
2. Ability to survive abuse(not that I will abuse it, but knowing it will not die easily is comforting)
3. Low light requirements
4. Minimal watering therefore lower humidity levels and lower likelihood of producing mold.
5. The physical appearance of the plant is pleasing

Best sources for Sansevieria in wholesale quantities was once south of Homestead Florida. (I was once working on a masters in Sansevieria propagation and got sucked into hi-tech.) You did right by posting here. Try Florida Gardening Forum - GardenWeb and House Plants Forum - GardenWeb.

Thank you for the links. I was browsing the house plants forum earlier. I am debating employing passive hydroponics on the Sansevieria. I would enjoy lower maintenance and easy clean up. The humidity it produces would be a concern. What are your recommendations?

Stush2049,

Unfortunately, the local Home Depot wanted close to $17 each for 6" plants. I ended up going through Ebay, where I found them for $9 a piece shipped at 2'. I already have the pots so that is not a concern.
Living alone, I find myself with too much free time. Living in an apartment, I don't even have my own lawn to mow. If I end up growing fond of these plants, I don't think it will do me any harm. Thank you for your concern though!

Shopping for other things, I went by the plant section again in Home Depot. The store wanted $37 for the fully grown Sansevieria. They weren't in a special pot or anything so I was quite turned off by that. Rooting around some of the other plants however, I did manage to find a smaller Sansevieria hiding beneath all of the others for $9. It is now in my living room patiently waiting to be repotted. The other six should arrive from Ebay sometime next week. The seller has almost all positive feedback lauding the quality of his plants so I should be in good hands.

"employing passive hydroponics"

what does this actually mean?

I ask 'cause I grow some Hydro Sans. which pix can be seen at this forum if you look around for my handle 'Pirate_girl'.

If you're worried that the humidity in your apartment is so low that you'll need to be watering all the time, then that'd be another matter... Most of my hydroculture plants are in 4" or 6" pots, in a mixture of environments (ranging from a bathroom, to fluorescent lights at 25-30% humidity, to a sun room at 40-60% humidity depending on the outside weather). The 4" plants under lights need to have the reservoir refilled every couple of days; by contrast, some of the hydro plants in my sun room take a couple weeks to dry down. Four days seems about typical. If your apartment is one of those ultra-dry ones I hear about during the winter (under 20% humidity) then you might have watering trouble under hydro.

In specific terms of hydro Sans, I'll bow to Pirate_girl's experience; she's been playing with Sansevieria in this medium longer than I have. :) I've been doing hydro with other plants for a couple of years, but my first hydro Sans was about six months ago. I've generally been pleased, though -- enough so that I'm considering moving all my Sans to hydro.

I am referring to the method you use.

There are two categories to hydroponics, passive and active. Active hydroponics is when you supply the nutrient solution directly to the plant using a pump. Passive hydroponics on the other hand is when one puts the nutrient solution below the plant and allows the plant's roots to seek out the nutrient solution on its own(illustrated by you in the useful link at the bottom of this post).

I will most likely use hydro clay like so: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/afrviolet/msg0716245331525.htm l

cliss,

I know it does get quite dry here in the winter but did not take readings a couple of months ago like I should have. D'oh. I am relieved the humidity has not been a concern for you, I hope I have the same results :)

There are a lot of amazing people on here. Evidence to that fact is that almost every plant related search I have made to Google has resulted in being pointed to a post on this website, often times with an answer! I am looking forward to hearing more from the experts! I will do my best to be sponge like and soak up all that I can from this community.

That's great that you were able to get your plants! I recently started feeding/watering my plants the passive hydroponics way and I am loving it. Keep us posted Experimental on your plants! Take care!

Do you give your Sansevierias that you have in passive hydro a water refill right after the last refill is finished? Over watering still concerns me a bit when using this method, so I take them out of the water for a while each day. Do you have yours in the water reservoir constantly?

Thank you for the reminder.

Thanks again Stush! Take care!

I try to never let the reservoir dry out completely, I think once one is growing 'em in water, forget about risk of overwatering, however, that IS only my opinion (& experience). Also, I don't change the water, I just top it off from time to time.

Of the 3 I've grown this way, including the oldest more than 15 months old, I haven't lost any yet. I'm just now rooting yet another like this (my 4th variety), a leaf of S. ballyi.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us... It's great to hear that they're doing well despite the constant water. If you ever grow a variegated one in water please share it with us Karen!

The only seriously variegated Sans I have (so far) is "Manolin" (or is that "Manolyn" with a y?), and I haven't tried moving it to hydro.

Two of my earliest transfers, though, were a "Hahnii Marginata" and a "Hahnii Jade Marginata", and they both seem to be doing fine, 7+ months in; one has even started to offset. I've recently tried moving a NOID I suspect to be "Black Gold" or "Black Gold Superba" over, we'll see how that goes.

Like Karen, I also always keep mine in a nutrient solution, never allowing it to dry out. Unlike her, I change the water out and flush the LECA medium once a month or so; my water's pretty hard, so I start getting mineral deposits on top of the LECA pretty fast if I don't flush regularly, and I hate to think what the concentration in solution would be. So far, the only transfer that's made me seriously nervous is S. dooneri -- it started developing yellow leaves shortly after the move, and otherwise looking like it was either being overwatered or suffering some kind of nutrient deficiency. It seems to be coming out of that now (a month or so in) but I'm still not confident it'll make the jump. All the S. trifasciata cultivars I've tried have come through with flying colors, though, so far at least.

Thank you for the great info! It's interesting that the Dooneri is recovering...Keep us updated Cliss, if you can. I'd love to know if she finally adapts, and if you decide to pass your (Manolin/Manolyn?) to hydro. Cliss, I've seen Manolin/Manolyn spelled both ways... I don't know which is right, I usually spell it with an i. Thanks again Cliss! Take care!

FWIW: I do now have a small, highly variegated S. guineensis in hydro, which seems to be doing well (it's busily growing new leaves after spending a year in soil doing nothing). Fingers crossed...

No they don't smell off...They're just turning really pale from the bottom up and are looking really weak. I am going to water them when dry for a while and check if the roots regain their color and strengthen up again.

That's great you have a variegated in hydro and doing well! Fingers are crossed Cliss! Mine apparently were doing great with the extra water...They were putting up new pups, all looked great from the top. Oh well... Take care Cliss!

Hi Karen!

Thank you for letting us know that yours still have good color in hydro! I have mine in small pumice stones instead of leca stones, the pot might be retaining too much water for passive hydro... Maybe the roots are too suffocated with the small pumice and all the water... I am going to change the pumice to a larger size and ease on the watering for a while. After the roots strengthen I might give passive hydro another shot with the larger pumice stones and see if it makes a difference... Thank you Karen! Take care!

I'll try to take some new pix of roots when I get a chance, but I just took my Hydro Sans. to a plant society meeting & ended up lifting one Sans out of its Leca stones to show the group its beautiful colored roots & how clean they are.

Lovemysans (LMS),

Thanks for the nice words. What kind of pot do you have this in? I think you may be making this overly complicated, don't think I understand what this means :

"the pot might be retaining too much water for passive hydro."

not sure there's a possible 'too wet' for passive hydro if I understand you correctly.

I have them in unglazed clay pots. Hahaha!!! I thought the same thing while I was writing it, but they just looked like they had been in water too long... Maybe the small pumice along with the clay pot isn't a good combination for this method?

Thanks for the help Karen! Looking forward to the pictures!

I apologize for inserting misinformation into the discussion.

The larger pumice didn't help... They're out of hydro for good. It's back to the good ole dry days for these guys!

Take care!