flowers in the winter! - Cryptocorynes

Aaron · 01-30-2006, 05:04 PM

...one of a few advantages of living in Hawaii, I guess. The weather is always good enough to grow fish and plants outdoors all year round.

Here is a picture on my usteriana in bloom. There seems to be thoughts out there that this plants "needs" to be submersed to be happy. I have simply not found this to be the case. Cs got this plant for me about 2 years ago and it has produced dozens of runners and has been flowering for me once a month for a little over a year now.

here is my nurii in bloom! It has been in my possession for about 3 years I think. I can't say it is thriving, as it has not grown much since it acclimitized to emersed conditions. It seems to only replace leaves that get old and die...
As you might expect, I was quite surprised to see this one flower.

ts168 · 01-30-2006, 05:29 PM

Hi Aaron, Very nice plant there.

Keep it up.

hsteve · 01-30-2006, 05:48 PM

Outdoor, eh?
I'm living in Colorado right now, so nuttin' blooms in da winter, mon...

HeyPK · 01-30-2006, 07:01 PM

Nice pictures, Aaron. Short days, 11 hours of light or less, seem to stimulate blooming. Even in Colorado, you can get crypts to bloom in the winter by keeping them on windowsills where they do not get artificial light, just light from outside.

Daphnis · 01-31-2006, 02:08 AM

Hi Aaron!

Outdoor would be funny here in Germany, there are now temperatures in the night about -20°C to -30°C (-4°F to -22°F). It would produce nice frozen flowers.

But yours are flowering very fine, I hope my will do one day, too. Today I started a new emersed setup, my old fishtank was too small, the new can contain 3 times more plants.

CU,

Sascha.

Xema · 01-31-2006, 02:12 AM

Hey!!!! awesome flowers!!!!

Only keeping C. nurii alive is a very impresive record!!!.

C. nurii is a forced sumerged growth plant, so its leaves in emersed culture always look in bad condition. I think, it only bloom during the low level of water season.
About C. usteriana, in my case, it´s growing very nice under soft and acid condition, same situation for aponogetifolio too... Both growing rather well.
Your pictures are an inspiration for me

Daphnis, glad to read you... In Spain having not so bad T. But I am living in the south only 6ºC over 0 inde night... Enought cold for me... and keeping 16ºC into my outdoor set up with a 5w aquarium heater.

Aaron · 01-31-2006, 03:16 AM

Xema,
funny you talk of inspiration... it is your postings here that refreshed my interest in crypts.
Have you considered growing usteriana, apono., and coronata in more alkaline conditions? It has been my experience that these three will take off when I use a "harder" substrate. I add a pinch of crushed dolomite in their pots and also use Seachem's Onyx sand as the majority of the substrate.

Xema · 01-31-2006, 05:25 AM

Actually, They are growing in more or less neutral soils but the water that it flows throught them is pH 5,5 and eC 300 - 400 mS. For these plant I use to add some grain of coral sand in the surface of the pot. C. aponogetifolia never grew like now... I was growing it in pure silica sand them I moved to the indoor set up with above condition they started to grow with very big leaves... same case with coronota.

Xema · 02-04-2006, 06:35 PM

What kind of soil are you using in nurii culture?

Mine are growing with little leaves in a high porous soil with acid reaction, expanded clay, aqualit, akadama, and a part of granulated peat... and some dried moss.

I allways thought nurii was a bad emersed grower and they would allway got little leaves in emersed culture... But recently I found some pictures from a Japanese grower which give me hopeness in a beutifull and with large leaves nurii.

Aaron · 02-17-2006, 01:19 PM

Xema, that Japanese pic of nurii is unbelievable! Holy smokes, talk about shoving some humble pie down my throat!

My nurii is growing in a mixture of #3 lapis Lustre blasting sand, peat, topsoil from my back yard, and lychee leaf mold (my substitute for beech leaves...) It is topped with a number of local mosses. My other nurii are growing in ADA aquasoil/ powersand, and another mixture similar to the first but with Seachem Flourite instead of the blasting sand, respectively. Neither look as healthy as the one that flowered. This is something I did not expect and I dare not speculate why that is.

On another note, my usteriana has been flowering regularly fo quite some time and I have noticed a number of seed pods at the base of a couple of the mature plants. Anyone know how to collect them? Do I just clip them and break them open? Would be an interesting project to pursue...