[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Emersed Echinodorus "Rose"


Folks,

A few months ago I posted a question about growing Echinodorus "Rose"
emersed.  My plan was to grow a plant out of shallow water in a fish bowl
as a desk-top decoration for my office.  I wanted to use a fairly large
Echinodorus and ended up with E. "Rose", which I knew nothing about. Hence
my post.

I thought I'd let the list know how it went.  It didn't.

The plant initially lost all of it's leaves.  It eventually grew new
leaves, but the new leaves remained no more than about 2 inches long.  
As of yesterday I moved the plant to a 10-gallon tank where I expect it
will rebound.  I'll probably need to move it again soon, or get rid of
it.

When I removed the plant I found that all of its original roots -- which
were trimmed to only about 1" long before I bought it -- were dead and
rotting.  There was some new root growth and even a new side shoot with
some miniture new leaves, but not much.  I suspect that the trimmed roots
were the basic problem.  They weren't sufficient to keep the original
leaves supplied with enough water to live emersed, and then the loss of
the original leaves made it difficult for the plant to repair it's damaged
roots and rebound.  An anaerobic substrate may have been part of the
problem, but I'm gambling that it isn't

I'm trying again.  This time I'm starting with a much smaller plant that I
can fully submerse in the fish bowl.  If it get's established then it
should find its way above the water rather quickly.

The plant was one of several small Echinodorus in one tank at the shop,
and the only label on the tank was for "Oriental swords".  I understand
from the Tropica site that Echinodorus "Oriental" is a variant of
Echinodorus "Rose" that doesn't actually look much different from "Rose".
My E. "Rose" has dark veins and the (admittedly dwarfed) emersed leaves
were light green with dark flecks.  The new plant is homogeneously light
green.  Can anyone tell me what small E. "Oriental" should look like?


Roger Miller