954baby

I've been really sick lately so I've been slacking on updates

C. usteriana , I am loving this color!





C. wendtii 'red'








C. albida

Cvurb

Wow, I love the albida spathe! Looks awesome, I will have to get some from you some time!

MiamiAG

Hey,

Congratulations on growing such nice specimens!

For the most part, Cryptocoryne do grow very well emersed and in our South Florida weather. In my experience, controlling the sun was the biggest challenge. Certainly, the high humidity helps.

Be careful with pests. I had some crickets feast on a beautiful stand of C. wendtii.

For ID, I would highly recommend Jan Bastmeijer's the Crypts Pages. http://www.xs4all.nl/~crypts/Cryptocoryne/index.html

954baby

Thanks! I've really been trying to learn as much as possible about crypts. I've been to Jan's site numerous times, it's such a great resource. I love looking through all the spaeths and seeing which ones I want next. I've been very luck to have a great backyard to grow in. My patio faces the west and is blocked from the east. I get direct sun from 10:30am-3-4pm, I have a lot of palm trees blocking the sun in certain areas so I place my humidity domes accordingly. It's so funny because I am constantly moving them around to the optimum spots it's like a bunch of gypsy camps.

I have so many types of bugs and all sorts of crazy looking things growing on my pots. I've had a lot of pests already, I've found a few frogs, caterpillars, and all sorts of microscopic bugs and random weeds. I want to try lady bugs.

Cvurb

Nice, I would love to find frogs in my things! Could you use tupperware for enclosures for the crypts?

954baby

Haha yea the frogs were a surprise to find. I found a bunch of them right when they were all changing phases from tadpole to frog. I guess when they were small enough to fit through the holes in the top of the dome. Then they got stuck, good thing there was a lot of random bugs for them to eat. I found a bunch of spiders too. Spiders are cool to find because they are like the size of a needle point and they have these little webs up trying to catch some bugs, so funny. I'll see if I can get some pics one time.

Yea you can use just about anything as long as the sun can get in from the top. I use styrofoam, nursery flats, fish tanks, basically anything that will hold water that you want to use is fine. I'm working on putting some soda bottles in some windows and see how those work out. I'd love to put some tanks on my window sills, I want to see if they get enough sun to support plants first. When I get the first proto type up i'll post a pic.

954baby

I did some water temperature analysis this week. The data is pretty shocking. I've seen a max of 100 in my high light areas while low light max at 86. I am going to see if placing styrofoam insulation under the setups reduces the temperatures. I logged good temperatures in my styrofoam setups and I think it's because they are insulated from the patios heat. I am really shocked that the temperatures can reach 100 and the plants do not show any negative affects from the heat. I haven't seen any melting or slow growth.

Here are some random pics.


I am pretty sure that the white discoloration on the leaves is caused by too much nitrogen, It was because I was neglecting that setup and failing to change the water.



This is my largest pot, It is mostly C. wendtii and C. unknown



I counted around a dozen spaeths right before the pic



C. wendtii 'Mi Oya' ..? I'll find out someday



Anubias Gasser



C. spiralis



C. lutea (new plant )



C. parva , I just got some new from the LFS (top) and the other pot is 8 months old and was started with just 1 plant.



C. pontederiifolia






C. undulata



another C. unknown sending up a spaeth





C. unknown spaeth, not sure if its the same plant as above, I think it is different



C. wendtii 'red'

ferchu22

What an insane growth!!! Your plants look realy healthy. Are you adding same fert that you mentioned before?
Regards

954baby

Yep same ferts. Some fox farms 'grow big', a little mL of seachem trace, and a few mL of seachem excel. I don't know that the excel works in delivering CO2 but I find it cuts down on the algae that will grow. I don't treat the hose water I use to fill the containers.

Cvurb

Nice, my spathe opened on the C. unknown too lol, wish I had a name for it!