Dear researchgate members,
I recently made two attempts to grow the aquarium plant Cryptocoryne wendtii emersed, i.e., outside of water. Unfortunately, both attempts failed, and I am unsure of what went wrong.
In the first attempt, I heated soil in the oven and shaped it into a cube. I then placed the aquarium plant into this cube. In the second attempt, I used rock wool instead. In both cases, I lightly moistened the soil and rock wool with aquarium water. Subsequently, I placed them in plastic bags and provided CO2 by exhaling into the bags through a straw. The bags were sealed with rubber bands and positioned under an LED strip light. The distance between the light and the plants was approximately 10 cm, ensuring that the light intensity was not harmful.
After one week, I exchanged the air inside the bags and provided more CO2 by breathing into them again. Unfortunately, after two weeks, I couldn't observe any positive results. Almost all the plants in both the soil and rock wool died. There was no growth observed, neither in the plants themselves nor in the roots.
I am very confused and frustrated, as I don't understand where the mistake lies. Do you have any ideas or advice on what I might have done wrong? Are there specific conditions that I should consider to achieve successful emersed cultivation of Cryptocoryne wendtii?
I would greatly appreciate your help and support! Thank you!
Andreas K. I think the issue might be with the plant nutrition as the rock wool is a blank medium for the nutrients, and for the soil, the source might be an important factor to consider. In our lab, we plant the normal plants in the autoclaved compost and sometimes provide nutrition by NPK spray. Please check the roots of the plants for any fungus as it could also be an important factor. In that case, you should try using a broad-range fungicide. Please share your results; it would be very interesting.
Uzair Khan Thank you very much! I have now put all the plants in loose soil, which I sterilized in the oven. The soil is clean so far. The plants seem to like it. But I won't be able to tell if the growth has been successful until 2 weeks from now.
You're likely running into issues of melting (If these were crypts originally grown underwater, they are very fragile compared to emersed grown crypts). Transitioning crypts from an submerged to an emersed state is difficult, and you may need to watch the entire plant melt back before it grows new emersed leaves.
Benjamin Tsang Sorry for the late reply. No, they are in-vitro plants. But these are generally very weak and fused, so you have to separate them. Unfortunately, this also destroys parts of the roots.
Try to use fluval stratum or tropica soil (fine grain), usually obtainable in a more specialized aquarium store. Keep the humidity high and just place by a sunlit window. Crypts dont like high light in general unless you're growing specialized versions.
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