[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Cabomba is ill
Peter has trouble with Cabomba loosing its lower leaves.
Peter, increase the potassium concentration in your water. Take it up to
about 30 ppm. Even if you are dosing with PMDD, you may be running low
on potassium. You may also be looking at a shortage of some other mobile
nutrient. In strong light, you may be short of nitrogen however in my
experience you can't add very much nitrate (or other soluble nitrogen
compounds) to the water without risking blue green algae and probably
encouraging filamentous algae.
For Cabomba, you should probably add a Jobe's stick or clay fertilizer
ball near the roots to keep it well supplied with nitrogen. Cabomba is
going to spend most of its time growing across the top of your tank in a
high light situation. You could try potting it with a clay soil with a
small amount of fertilizer under more moderate lighting to get it to
slow the growth rate down. In my experience, these type of fast growing,
fine leaved stem plants take a lot of maintenance to keep looking good.
You'll need to pull them up, discard the bottom and replant the tops
regularly. Myriophylum is an alternative fine leaf plant that grows a
little more densely but just as fast as Cabomba. There are some fine
leaved Rotala species that grow a little slower I think.
--
Steve Pushak Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Visit "Steve's Aquatic Page" http://home.infinet.net/teban/
for LOTS of pics, tips and links for aquatic gardening!!!