Lego's 20g Crypt setup - Page 5 - Cryptocorynes

legomaniac89 · 01-06-2010, 04:47 PM

I do use Jobes root tabs about once a month and usually mist everything about once a week with a dilute Monty's fert solution. I'm not sure if the foliar misting helps at all, but I like to think it does

legomaniac89 · 01-21-2010, 02:53 PM

Since that C. pontederiifolia has been flowering freely for the past couple months, I finally got brave and sliced open the most recent spathe.

Pardon the quality. It's the best my 18-55mm lens will give me

legomaniac89 · 01-31-2010, 12:25 PM

One new spathe every 10 days. That's how much that C. pontederiifolia has been blooming lately. The poor thing is exhausting itself, so I sliced the new spathe off before it could open. Since my last pic of the inside of the spathe was so bad, I tried again with much better results.

Tuiflies · 02-10-2010, 09:21 AM

Very cool. I wish I had room for another tank!

legomaniac89 · 02-13-2010, 04:12 PM

Lots of new spathes are popping up all over the place. I hadn't even noticed this one coming up. I opened up one of my tanks and the first thing I notice was the smell of death. That's the first sign of an open spathe.

Here's the second sign:

This is one of my C. wendtii x "Hybrid" plants. It's been growing really well for the past few months. Notice the really long limb on the spathe. It's taller than most I've seen before

As a bonus, my C. beckettii is sending up two spathes also. You can't see the second one in this pic. This one should open in a day or two

My second C. wendtii x "Hybrid" in a separate tank also has two immature spathes on it. Those should open in a few days.

rjfurbank · 02-13-2010, 06:05 PM

Very cool--thanks for posting the pics. I've recently set up a tank for emersed crypts and am hoping to see some spathes in person some day. . .

looking4roselines · 02-13-2010, 06:47 PM

Do they really stink that bad? I took a sniff at the c. usterenia spath but I cant really smell anything.

I think this stench is used to attract beetles in the wild for pollination?

legomaniac89 · 02-14-2010, 03:57 AM

Thanks rjvurbank! Crypts are quite addicting when you really get them growing.

Roselines - Every spathe has a different smell. IME C. wendtii is one of the stronger smelling ones, but some don't have much smell at all. From what I understand, the smell attracts a fly into the spathe, and then it can't get back out due to the valve closing. It gets coated in pollen while trying to find a way out, then the valve opens back up again, and the fly visits other crypts, completing pollination.

Or something like that. I haven't read up on it for a while

Chris Noto · 02-14-2010, 12:42 PM

Nice stuff, Lego! Thanks for continuing to update this thread.

legomaniac89 · 02-16-2010, 03:11 PM

Well my C. beckettii bloomed today, and when I saw the spathe I was...well...a bit disappointed. This isn't a C. beckettii at all. It's another C. wendtii morph.

It's weird though, this plant has really long petioles and relatively short leaves (for a wendtii). Most of my C. wendtii morphs develop short petioles and very long broad leaves, but this one's different for some reason.

It's a cool plant regardless. I'll have lots of this one to share later on this year.

I also have at least 4 more C. wendtii x "Hybrid" spathes on the way, from 3 different plants