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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V1 #28

>From: Thomas Price <tprice at u_washington.edu>
>Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 11:01:11 -0700 (PDT)
>Subject: A. Crispus flower spike
>In a message dated 95-10-23 15:52:23 EDT, you write:
                    <snip>
>After a couple of weeks it died (the flower spike).  The 
>second one I let get out (my top covers the top of the tank pretty well) 
>with similar results.  The third is going now, and looks just like the
first.
>
>How do I get seeds?  Does the flower spike need to be in the light?  I 
>can let it stick out above the water, but then it will be above the 
>light, as well.  Should I lower the water and let the spike become 
>emersed beneath the glass?  Also, I am having some trouble figuring out 
>when to pollinate the flowers with a small paintbrush.  The end stage for 
>all of my flower spikes has been when the white tip develops a regular 
>pattern of rough places, which I think want to be flowers.
                          <snip>
        My crispus flowered recently and I did nothing to help save pulling
the flower up behind the lights so it could emerge.  It eventually plopped
back into the water anyway.  I think that you may have had pollinated
flowers, but you didn't let them develop.  When the inflorescense is white it
has flowered (I believe).  Mine developed the green bumps (young fruit) just
like yours and eventually the green turned into a brown skin which surrounded
a seed.  The stem and everything started to decay.  Someone wrote that if you
cut the stalk off at this point and put it in some water the seeds will
develop. I just let mine go until the bumps (now fatter) opened up their
brown skins and spat out their seeds.  
       I think that you are on the right track, but need to let the plant do
its thing.   By the way, my plantlets are doing fine and seem to benefit from
being placed into the substrate about 1/8 inch (I'm trying to be metric, but
its hard) or 3mm(?).

-----Now some questions for the pros-----
       By the way, does flowering preceed the "dormant" stage of Apos ?  If
so, do the seeds naturally sit at the bottom and wait for conditions to be
optimum?  Should I have rested the seeds in a dark place for a while or would
the embryo consume the cotyledon too quickly? The babies are doing fine, but
could they be doing better (ie, growing faster)?
           Tony Thorpe