Emersed Chronicles - Plant Physiology & Emersed Culture

NeonRob · 05-08-2008, 03:15 PM

Who: Rob, active SWOAPE member.
What: Got bit by the emersed plant growth bug.
When: Late February of this year.
Where: Cincinnati, OH
Why: I had some Glosso in a high-tech tank for a couple of years then it started growing vertically. Months of attempting to trim and replant failed. I wanted it out of my tank, but not gone forever, so I decided to try to grow it emersed. After setting up a 2.5 with some Glosso, I looked around and saw 5 more empty 2.5's and said, "What the heck, I'll try all of my plants!" This is when I got bit by the emersed plant growth bug. After setting up the 2.5's, I started looking around my house for more containers to put plants in. Another reason I think I went a little overboard is because this meant that I could have more plants around my house that my cat couldn't eat!

Attached are the original setups I started with. Going from left to right:

1) E. triandra & Java Fern
2) Riccia, L. aromatica, & A. barteri var. nana 'petite'
3) Glosso, L. aromatica, & Java Fern
4) Dwarf Hairgrass & A. barteri
5) HM & H. difformis

Setup

2.5 gallon tanks with glass lids
40W of shop light placed right on top of the tanks on a 12 hour cycle
3M Black Colorquartz (silica sand)
Water from planted tank
1 misting bottle

Water was filled to the top of the substrate. Some plants I planted vertically. Some I just threw in there. Some came from high-tech tanks. Some came from low-tech. I misted each tank once or twice a day.

More to come.

FilteredFun · 05-18-2008, 05:13 PM

This is when I got bit by the emersed plant growth bug. After setting up the 2.5's, I started looking around my house for more containers to put plants in.

Hello Rob,

I love that I found this. My wife and I are just starting out. We plan to purchase our first tank this summer. After seeing a number of open top aquariums, we just have to go this direction. We are dreaming of an aquarium with both wood and plants exploding through the water's surface and cascading over the sides of the aquarium with ceiling hung lighting.

Are we crazy?

We hope not.

Your experimentation with growing emersed plants in low water depths is exactly what we were considering. We wanted to see if we could develop a plant's height beyond the height of the aquarium by slowly growing it in a temporary container and raising the water level little by little as the plant grew taller. Our theory was to then take this emersed plant, once its height was above the water's surface in the intended aquarium, and then re-plant the plant in the aquarium. In doing so, it would remain emersed though planted 24" +/- deep.

We have no clue what to expect.

[Q1] Is this consistent with the pictured examples you posted on line?

[Q2] Have you been raising the water level as the plants grow taller?

[Q3] How do you deal with algae since water filtration and fish, shrimp, and snail assistance are not available?

We are very excited to see that you have this experiment under way already. It would open up many possibilities to create above water, flowering plants who cannot survive submersed but can happily survive emersed. It'd just require temporary quarters until the newly purchased, emersed plant had reached a height exceeding the aquarium depth.

How are things progressing?

Are we crazy?

We hope not.

Sincerely,
Matt and Kathleen

P.S. We live in NH so visiting the get togethers is unfortunately impossible.

NeonRob · 05-18-2008, 07:02 PM

Hi Matt and Kathleen!

You're not crazy, just thinking outside of the box. In your case, literally outside of the box.

[Q1] I think the difference between my experiments and the direction you want to take is that my intention is to take plants from a submersed state to an emersed state where only the roots will be submerged in water. I'm trying to obtain the terrestrial form. You want to start with the emersed form, right?

[Q2] So I'm reducing the water level, finally down to just below the top of the substrate. I have no intentions of filling any of tanks with water once the plants have transformed to their emersed form and have grown in.

[Q3] Algae is not an issue in my situation, since there is no standing water or puddles, ideally.

After Memorial Day weekend, I'll be updating my thread so that you can see the approaches that I'm taking and what my goals are. In a nutshell, I'm just trying to grow as many plants as I can completely emersed.

What kind of plants do you intend on experimenting with? Common aquarium plants? I've had Hygrophila basalmica, Bacopa monnieri, & Amazon Sword plants grow out of the top of my 75 before.

I'm really new to emersed plant growth myself, but I am having some success. I have some Glosso starting to run, some Althernathera reineckii taking off, a few others are doing quite well, and only a few setups have failed. I've been at it for a couple of months now and it's still exciting to see daily growth. I have no doubt that you will be able to grow certain plants out of the water surface.

Thanks for showing interest in my experiments and feel free to ask more questions.

NeonRob · 06-10-2008, 07:02 PM

Well, I hand misted the 2.5's usually twice daily and things as a whole didn't work out too well. I eventually ran the lights for 18 hours and then decided to throw in the towel, because things weren't looking good. Even though the lights were still running, I stopped misting. I couple of weeks later I checked to see what was still alive and found that I had HM flowers! They are microscopic.

I made some gladware container terrariums, like Guillerimo did in his windowsill experiment, using Schultz Aquatic Soil, indirect sunlight, and the same plants as in the previous experiment. The glosso grew well, but not horizontally. Elatine triandra, Alternathera reineckii, & HM actually grew and most others barely grew if anything.

Here's a bad pic of UG:

I have some more pics to come soon.

NeonRob · 06-11-2008, 03:52 PM

After the most recent SWOAPE meeting, which I did a presentation on emersed plant growth, one of our club members, Russ, had a 46 gallon bowfront tank with a broken center brace that he was looking to get rid of. He ended up asking me if I wanted to use it as a terrarium. I said OK! It came with a glass top. Then he offered to sell me a 192W PC light to go with it for $50. I said do you take PayPal, cause I'm broke? We made the deal, then I ordered up 4 bags of black flourite, 3 for this terrarium and 1 for some smaller ones. I will be using my plants that have been through the transformation stage in the gladware containers to plant this one up. See first attached pic.

The next pic is my new attempt at a nano tank with an emersed startup. It's a Tetra Water Wonders tank w/ black flourite, and the famous Home Depot 27W PC desk lamp for $19.99. This setup will be HC only and unlike all of my other emersed setups, I do intend to eventually fill this one with water.

The final pics are of emersed UG. This fancy setup is a large McDonald's Iced Coffee cup w/ peat moss, vermiculite, RO water, & indirect sunlight. The UG pic in my most recent post was from a month ago. This plant has grown a lot since I ordered it up back in March.

NeonRob · 06-12-2008, 08:15 AM

I put some plants in the big terrarium today. I didn't really have that many to spare, so it's sparsely planted. On the left side, I have Anubius barteri var. nana, Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia', E. tenellus, Elatine triandra, UG, HC, and the plant in the far left corner I haven't identified yet. One the right side, I have another Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia', Anubius barteri, var. nana 'petite', H. difformis, HM, & Glosso. If all goes well, it will be a battle of the foreground plants. Lights will be set for 8 hours.

MatPat · 06-18-2008, 05:15 PM

Sweet Rob! I'm glad you could get Russ' tank. The light has to be a big help too. Maybe I can make it down your way one of these days to see it.