Stem Plants in Ripariums

[hydrophyte]

Here's a close up of that Pilea sp.. It's a nice plant...

[hydrophyte]

Ok, like I mentioned earlier there are some pretty neat plants in this arrangement, so I return with a numbered picture to point them out. THis shot is 1000 pixels wide, so click it for the larger view to see more detail.

1. Ranunculus inundatus. I acquired most of these plants via trades with generous members here on TPT. Crispino Ramos sent me this one. It just sat in its planter for a long time--months--but now it's growing well. However, it doesn't have the best growth habit for riparium planters; it runs.
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2. Staurogyne sp.. I got this plant from zeek21 in trade for some livebearers. What a neat little plant. This one actually has a pretty sturdy stem and it stands straight up. Right now it is covered with flower buds and I am excited to see its flowers. Maybe I will be able to determine the species.
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3. Pilea sp.. This plant is in the nettle family, Urticaceae, and it has the general look of the wild nettles we have around here, but it doesn't sting. This is one of my new favorite plants. It has a perfect habit for planting on Nano Trellis Rafts. It grows great with its roots right in the water. It will probably do best planted in this was with regular water column dosing, especially for N and Fe.
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4. Alternanthera reineckii var. rosaefolia. gmccreedy gave me this plant along with a number of other vigorous emersed-grown stems. The pieces that he sent were a beautiful rosy red that I have failed to match. This is an easy plant to grow like this, but it gets leggy.
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5. Ludwigia sp.. This might be L. repens? gmccreedy also sent this one. This plant was very slow to start growing in the riparium planter, but now it is growing well. I saw a response when I added mineralized topsoil to the planter cups.
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6. Limnophila aromatica. From Crispino Ramos. This one has had performance similar to the Ludwigia. It is just now starting to grow better. I want to turn this one into a nice floating carpet.
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7. Hyptis sp.. This plant has been circulating in the hobby as Hemigraphis traian, but it's not a Hemigraphis. It grows well on the Nano Trellis Raft with its roots right in the water, as I have it here, but it grows sort of tall and leggy. I am going to see if I can encourage more bushy growth by pruning the growing tips.
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8. Bacopa caroliniana. I don't quite recall where I got this one. I was busy this summer and lost track of several new plants. I think that i might have purchased it at a garden center(?). I was disappointed in the initial performance of this one--it almost fizzled completely--but this one too turned around when I added MTS to the planter cup. This might be the magic solution for some of these plants. This plant develops as a very pleasing floating mat along the edges of ponds and streams and I am going to do my best to nurture these little stems along. It is a handsome plant.

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I am having a lot of fun with these plants. I am pleased that I have finally figured out how to grow stems well in a riparium setup.

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

Here's a close up of that Pilea sp.. It's a nice plant...

The cuttings you sent me looked pretty bad a week ago, but they are starting to send out new growth now. It does look promising, and it is certainly a beautiful plant. I think I saw that plant at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago, in a bunch of unnamed "house plants" in little 3 inch pots. That is one source of plants I have thought of trying - if I find room to do it.

[hydrophyte]

Yeah like I said that one doesn't travel so well, but it is otherwise hardy and a great grower. It makes a nice midground hedge for depth and for covering up the planters.

I have found some of the best riparium plants at Home Depot. I encountered a couple of good Spathiphyllum there and also got this fun surprise, Alocasia amazonica...



I was advised that this plant would not do well with its roots in the water, but I got several divisions from this pot and the ones in the riparium have grown faster and look better than the one in regular potting media in the greenhouse.

[talontsiawd]

That is really nice looking. I have some Ludwigia repens and what I believe is Ludwigia glandulosa growing emersed in my back yard. Not very much humidity but obviously alot of light. The Ludwigia glandulosa looks alot like the Alternanthera rosaefolia you have but with a bit more color. It took awhile for them to color up though, even in sunlight.

Thank you for constantly showing us your progress. It is very interesting and you have obviously inspired a bunch of people on the boards.

[hydrophyte]

Thanks very much. I think it would be interesting to explore how to get the best color from these emersed aquatics. Some of these that I have had much deeper hues when I acquired them, but they are a little more washed out in my setup. I like that Ludwigia too. It looks like a good one for making a floating carpet.

I read a post by Tom Barr from a few days ago and he was explaining that cooler temperatures and slight deficiencies of certain nutrients can enhance reds in stem plants.

[macclellan]

Lookin good.

Have you given Lindernia rotundfolia 'variagated' a shot? It grows very well emmersed for me, floating at the top of my 75g in an open top right by the lights, which is very low humidity. It's a lot like a Bacopa, but with nice veining. The various Polygonums also do well emmersed; very robust stems.

[hydrophyte]

I have not tried Lindernia, but it does sound like a good one. Do you ever have any extra for trade?

I have tried a couple of different Polygonum, but they were tricky. They grew well enough, but whenever I tried to prune them any stems that I cut would just decline and die.

[macclellan]

I could send some of the lindernia and Poly 'Sao Paulo.' It's best to let the latter get fairly tall so that some sideshoots develop before trimming, otherwise the bottoms die. Would trade for crypts. PM if interested.

[bsmith]

I have some of this that my wife and I purchased when we were trying to spruce things up when we put our old home on the market. Now they are just randomly placed around the new home. Very nice looking.

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

Yeah like I said that one doesn't travel so well, but it is otherwise hardy and a great grower. It makes a nice midground hedge for depth and for covering up the planters.

I have found some of the best riparium plants at Home Depot. I encountered a couple of good Spathiphyllum there and also got this fun surprise, Alocasia amazonica...



I was advised that this plant would not do well with its roots in the water, but I got several divisions from this pot and the ones in the riparium have grown faster and look better than the one in regular potting media in the greenhouse.

[hydrophyte]

Originally Posted by macclellan

I could send some of the lindernia and Poly 'Sao Paulo.' It's best to let the latter get fairly tall so that some sideshoots develop before trimming, otherwise the bottoms die. Would trade for crypts. PM if interested.

This sounds like a good idea. I would like to try that Lindernia. I'd like to take another shot at Polygonum too--I had it growing great before, but killed it off entirely by topping the clump. I'll send a PM.

Originally Posted by bsmith

I have some of this that my wife and I purchased when we were trying to spruce things up when we put our old home on the market. Now they are just randomly placed around the new home. Very nice looking.

That is a cool plant, and it seems to love growing with its roots in the water.

[hydrophyte]

I am sure that trimming methodologies would be an important thing to consider when growing stem plants in ripariums, just as they are for regular planted tanks. While some of the stems that I have tried grow more slowly than others, they are all bound to require pruning to control size and shape. The following photograph illustrates this well. This is the same Pilea sp. plant growing on a Nano Trellis Raft shown in pictures from previous posts.



Although I don't have that larger plant in this tank, I paired the Pilea with the Alocasia amazonica, which I am growing on for my 56-gallon tank, to get an idea of how they would look together. You can see that the Pilea stems have gotten to be long and leggy and that it needs a trim.

After shooting that picture I did top the Pilea and planted the new pieces on another Nano Trellis Raft. This plant is easy to propagate in this way because as it grows it develops many small roots all along the stem, even above the waterline, so you can just put cuttings on the raft without having to worry about maintaining high humidity while new roots form.

So, I have not had much practice growing stems in ripariums, but I offer as food for thought the idea that growing and maintaining them for pleasing riparium layouts will require some careful observation of the responses of individual plants and attention to variables such as speed of growth, responses to pruning and timing. It has been my experience that rosette-type plants (e.g., Spathiphyllum, Echinodorus, Cryptocoryne) are somewhat easier to manage than stems in riparium planters, but the great variety of aquarium stems plants that can grow emersed offer many colors and textures for the above-water area of riparium layouts.

[hydrophyte]

My little Staurogyne plant has flowers on it...



I added a few observations in a post in the Plants sub-forum...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/pl...tml#post928927

[hydrophyte]

I got a fun new plant in the post yesterday, Lindernia rotundifolia 'Variegated'.



These leaves are tiny, only about .33 to .75 cm wide. macclellan sent me this along with some Polygonum 'Sao Paulo'.

I am gong to try it out with the hanging planter + trellis raft combination and see what it does.

[hydrophyte]

This is the configuration that I used for planting up the Lindernia, the Small Hanging Planter along with the Nano Trellis Raft.



I am interested to see how well the stems root in the planter gravel. I put the whole thing into my 65-gallon setup, which I am also using mostly for propagation right now.