FrostyNYC

Hi all. This is my first tank journal on this site. I have a 10 planted tank with several species which arent exactly flourishing, so I decided to test my plants emersed and see how there growth would differ.

Lighting: 16+- hours a day with a 13 watt screw-in CF
Substrate: Amazonia I
Ferts: None
Water: Daily misting with my soft/acidic NYC water
Flora: M.minuta, Hygro sp. 'bold', Java fern 'windelov', and Java fern 'needle leaf'

The M.minuta has always done poorly in my tanks, but emersed, Im seeing immediate growth. I've had this up for a week, and I have a number of new leaves. One of the new leaves came up segmented. As it transitions to emersed form, I expect more segments leaves and eventially tall four-leaf clovers. The Windelov is starting up two new leaves. It was melting in my 10 gallon after I added it there. Probably because the pH in my 10 gallon is 5.5. I pulled it out, put it in this emersed setup, and the melting stopped completely. And now the new leaves. The needle leaf is not doing much of anything. Maybe the water its in is too deep. I read that emersed java ferns need their roots in standing water. The hygro bold did nothing for 5 days, and in the last two days I have some tiny new leaves. Very maroon in color, and much smaller than the old leaves.






I'll continue to update as these things transition to emersed growth. They're some of my favorite plants, so this will be interesting.

ashappard

I haven't tried the java ferns emersed, but the hygro bold I have. In my case it broke the surface in a room with fairly low humidity. The emersed leaves were smallish and green and the stems became weak. Thankfully I got flowers before it went downhill. I think longer term I would have had to try a different approach. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. Nice start Frosty, keep us posted

FrostyNYC

Ashappard - The new leaves on the hygro bold are definitely smaller than the submersed leaves, as you indicated. Mine are very red, perhaps because of their proximity to the light source (a couple inches). The leaves are also located closer together, with a much smaller distance between nodes than submersed. I'm concerned that you said the stems became weak. I'll have to keep an eye on this. Thanks for the input.

marrow

The M. minuta will look like a field of tiny clover or not so tiny if it is quadrifolia or one of the others that are all sold interchangeably as minuta. Once it switches it grows remarkably fast and can tolerate fairly dry soil.