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Mangroves



Back in late August, I was looking for some Mangrove seedlings. They are
next to impossible to get here in Canada (at least in my experience). Dave
Grim was nice enough to offer to obtain some in the U.S. and ship them on to
me. They arrived in early September, in the middle of a heat wave. The poor
propagules looked beat - on most of them, the growth point was blackened and
appeared dead. Out of the 10 propagules that Dave sent me, only 3 still had
any green tissue on the top end. But on the advice of both Dave and Julian
Sprung, I planted them all anyway - using crushed coral substrate that I had
left over from an old reef tank (I washed out the salt).

I just repotted the three propagules which were the least damaged by the
heat encountered during shipping. Not much top growth (only a few small
leaves on each plant) but boy, what a nice surprise when I examined the root
systems. Lots of nice fat white roots. From what I could find online, it
appears that they spend most of their energy building up a good root system
before they spend much time growing leaves. The propagules must act as an
energy and nutrient store for the young seedling.

But I also took a close look at the other 7 seedlings - the ones which
didn't look so healthy when I received them. Still no signs of top growth,
but the propagules are still green and firm and when I uprooted them
carefully, they ALL have at least some healthy white roots. Hopefully, they
will be able to develop a second growth point on the propagule sometime soon
and my mangrove swamp will be on its way.

If anyone else is thinking of trying mangroves, I guess you should just be
patient and don't give up on them too quickly.

James Purchase
Toronto

P.S. Thanks again Dave.....