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Re: which plants will jobes spikes help?
John Guild wrote:
> i have the following selection of plants in my tank and i was wondering which
> of them would be helped by jobes plant spikes stuck in the substrate near the
> roots.
>
> micro sword (lileaopsis brasilensis)
I've tried them with lileaopsis and noticed no effect
> crypt. walkeri
I've used them; they work but the effect wasn't very noticable
> java ferm (microsorium pteropus)
An attached rather than rooted plant. You need to give it
fertilizer
in the water.
> dwarf lily (nymphea stellata)
I've used jobes on nymphea with good results.
> blood stargrass (didiplis diandra)
I've used jobes spikes on d. diandra, but noticed no effect
> crypt. wendtii red
as with C. walkeri
> anubias frazeri
> dwarf onion (zephyranthes candida)
> water onion (crinum thaianum)
I don't grow these.
> anubias nana
I've used jobes spikes on a. nana; the plants show some effect.
A. nana is probably better treated as surface-attached plants
rather than as a rooted plant, and fed like java fern.
>
> also - do you put a whole spike in for each plant? how often do you replace
> them?
I use all of a spike, half of a spike or a quarter of a spike depending
on the size of the plant and the thickness of the substrate.
Most of us keep some plants that are either floating or
surface-attached. Those plants can't be effectively fertilized with
jobes spikes or any other substrate fertilizer. You need to use
water-column fertilizer for those plants, and all the other plants in
the tank will use the same fertilizer. As long as you have some plants
that must have water-column fertilizer then it's probably best to use
jobes spikes or other substrate fertilizers mostly to give an extra
boost to rooted heavy-feeders like big sword plants or water lilies, and
maybe as special treatments for special problems, like new plants.
Roger Miller