[neilshieh]

on an unrelated thought... would splitting the mother plant work?

 

[AaronT]

on an unrelated thought... would splitting the mother plant work?

It might. Do you really want to try it and find out it doesn't work?

 

[neilshieh]

Redid my setup over the weekend. Thought I'd take some pictures of how I setup my emersed tanks for anyone interested. This time I added a layer of sphagnum peat moss for the hell of it. Maybe it'll make things grow better.
First layer is cut up sphagnum moss which absorbs water and keeps everything moist/humid.

next I scatter some osmocote fertilizer into the sphagnum moss so when the roots do make it down there, there's some nutrients.
then i lay down a layer of sphagnum peat moss by miracle gro


then I add the main substrate: turface! It's super easy to work with and when I'm working in the tanks it doesn't get messy like dirt does. The turface was just washed so it's wet.

put on my cover which is really just a plastic sheet and a pane of glass and add some water and I'm set! I add enough water so the substrate is moist but there's no water line. Too much water just leads to fungus and bacteria. After putting in some water I leave it for an hour or so for the moss on the bottom to soak up all the water and then add more if need be. the moss on the bottom basically acts as a sponge for all the water and is useful to prevent overwatering.




the light is just a typical cheap work light that I modified with some wire so that it has a neck. I use 19 or 23 W daylight bulbs in them and the tank is a 6 gallon bowfront.

 

[h4n]

nice man!

 

[asukawashere]

It might. Do you really want to try it and find out it doesn't work?

...That's precisely why I'm terrified to split my P. 'Kalimantan'-even though its rhizome is far more similar to an Anubias than P. perakensis's is and I know people have split them successfully, in the back of my head I'm convinced that the second I touch the thing, it'll fall apart and die a horrible death. '

 

[neilshieh]

...That's precisely why I'm terrified to split my P. 'Kalimantan'-even though its rhizome is far more similar to an Anubias than P. perakensis's is and I know people have split them successfully, in the back of my head I'm convinced that the second I touch the thing, it'll fall apart and die a horrible death. '

I saw some of Inspire91's photos, his piptospatha has really long rhizomes. I think when they get to that point it'd be safe. But with the piptospatha everything grows together... so it'd be kinda like trying to split a head of romaine lettuce.

Piptospatha is doing well in the new setup. I see 3 new leaves forming LOL I think I'm going to need a bigger tank for this soon....

 

[neilshieh]

update!
Pulled out my 46 gallon and set it up for emersed plants again. I plan on transferring the piptospatha over soon.

Meanwhile... the small plant has taken its sweet little time growing but it's finally putting out a second leaf.

 

[neilshieh]

Been a while since the last update, plants have been growing steadily... in fact they're quite large lol. Here they are in the 46 gallon bowfront. Unfortunately I took a break from the hobby and neglected to water them hence some of the yellowed leaves, but they've since recovered.
I wonder if these guys will ever flower.... would like to pollinate them.

here's a shot of the smaller pipto. I bet it's much happier now that it's out of the tennis ball can LOL

shot of the larger plant's leaf. Beautiful patterns

 

[neilshieh]

sorry for the old broken links, they were hosted on another website that became a paid service.
Anyways now I host on flickr things should be around to stay for a while.
This is what the plant looks like after 2 years of neglect because of college. Lots of yellowing but the main thing is that the plant is HUGE now. space is becoming a real issue that I need to resolve soon.

 

[Crispino Ramos]

Hi Neil, Thanks for referring me to this link. That's one huge P. perakensis, I think it got so big because it's planted in a good amount of media. My piptospatha is planted in a 3 inch plastic pot and I don't fertilizer, the media is ADA Amazonia. One flower formed seeds and germinated but grows quite slow.

 

[Crispino Ramos]

Hi Neil,

In the left picture above, there are two flowers that I pollinated (your idea). Less than a week later, they formed seeds.

Thanks for the idea.

See the picture below.

 

[neilshieh]

That's really cool! Do you have any details on what kind of brush you used and what parts of the flower//the timing of when they were opened. I dunno if you read through the entire anubias thread by Surick that I sent you but for anubias atleast the male and female parts mature at different times so if the timing is off you won't be able to pollinate the stalk. Congrats on more seeds though!

 

[Crispino Ramos]

That's really cool! Do you have any details on what kind of brush you used and what parts of the flower//the timing of when they were opened. I dunno if you read through the entire anubias thread by Surick that I sent you but for anubias atleast the male and female parts mature at different times so if the timing is off you won't be able to pollinate the stalk. Congrats on more seeds though!

I didn't use a brush. I just rubbed the stalks when their covers fell off.