[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
plant cuttings die without chelated iron?? ;-)
George wrote:
> Oh, sure, not adding Dupla drops for a few weeks is VERY reasonable.
> Let me run right home and start killing my plants.
Now don't panic George! (note smiley, pls)
Are you saying that you believe that many of your plants which have
established root systems would die without any chelated iron additions
for 2 weeks? Perhaps you could resume the iron sometime between the time
the plants stop growing perceptibly and the time they turn to mush from
lack of iron!
Are you saying that the replanted tops from trimming might die without
chelated iron for 2 weeks? Well a few straggly clones might be a
reasonable price to pay for knowledge of the importance of iron in the
water. But suppose the cuttings root quickly and actually start growing,
maybe a little slower than usual. THAT could be well worth knowing.
Are there any other laterite users out there willing to "risk" a short
experiment? BTW, I seriously doubt that anything would happen except
that the plants won't grow very fast for a few weeks. Many of us plant
cuttings which root quickly even without much iron in the water, even in
the days of plain gravel substrates with NO additions at all!!! Wow.
But seriously, if Rotala macrandra and Hygrophila polysperma can
continue to grow rapidly for 2 weeks or more without chelated iron
additions to the water, I think this shows that these plants at least
are getting iron from the substrate. You could argue that they were
operating on stored iron reserves but the proof of that would be just to
wait long enough to observe a reduction in growth rates. Surely that
would not endanger the health of the aquarium plants.
Steve P in Vancouver ever so gently nudging George in the ribs ;-)