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RE: Aponogeton madagascariensis dormancy




>From: Stephen.Pushak
> It sounds as if you've had some go into the dormant state and then
> resume growing. Did you have to take any steps to initiate this
> transition to springtime? My experiments with maintaining a strict
> 12hrs of lighting have not succeeded in keeping them from dormancy
> and I've never had one resume growing after dormancy. I think the
> bulbs are large enough to do it and I think temperature is the
> trigger.
>

I haven't puzzled out the trigger, but it always amazes me when
I come home and find a lace plant where there was no plant the
day before. I only have three in the tank, they all come back at the
same time after about 6 months of dormancy.


> I've had a little luck with lowering the temperature but the tank
> is populated and I can't safely go much below 75 without risking ich.
> For me at least, the plant seems to be more active at 75 than 80
> and I've heard others comment that it doesn't grow well at 80. If
> that were true, it wouldn't be a good candidate for a discus tank.
>

I'm always in the 72-80 range.

> I'd really prefer to lower the temperature of the whole tank for
> a few weeks and then raise it again but that's tricky to accomplish.
> I'd have to capture all the fish and then somehow air condition my
> room down to an intolerable level. Brrrr! Alternatively, I could
> uproot the darn thing and put it in a separate tank which could be
> located kinda outdoors. Paul's idea of putting the bulbs in some
> kind of a container would be good because then it wouldn't be
> necessary to disturb the roots. These seem to get pretty large &
> long so would require enough room. If they were potted in with
> Crypts, I wonder how the Crypts would tolerate a rather cool winter
> period? Also I think they might prefer a richer substrate with
> manure than the other Aponogetons. The books mention using that.
>

That would be a good size pot! The bulbs I have are 2-3" dia with some
pretty good size roots.

>
> Somebody else commented on the flat bottom of the tubercle and
> asked about planting. The flat end down with the leaf sprouts at
> the top. Bury any roots and about half the bulb or enough to keep
> it from floating away. I've seen the two varieties too and I think
> they had different shaped tubercles. The larger, pinkish variety
> seems to have the flat bottoms while they others were tapered on
> both ends. I wondered if this flat bottom resulted from the
> grower cutting the bulbs for the purposes of propagation. Seems
> unlikely since I think you'd cut vertically not laterally...?
>

Hmm...mine are round, but they have been around a few years.
I've never had any problem getting them to push leaves to the surface.
Must be lucky.

> As for fertilization, I've used various fertilizer tablets and
> laterite-like fertilizer cones pushed into the substrate. If you
> have Flourish, you can use the plastic injector to feed the
> Flourish (or whatever) right into the substrate.
>

I tried this and noticed no improvement. I'm going to try the substrate
gold/liquid gold next. I'm a little tired of Dupla pricing.

Haven't we discussed Lace plants before?

Jon Wilson