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Swords in hard water and Pearling



Subject: Swords in hard water

Kare Randall wrote:

> >I would be interested in hearing how many people in harder wate
> >areas are able to grow Swords well without using soil.  

Hoa wrote:

> I have three large Swords (2 E. bleheri and one that looks like 
> parviflorus but is about 18" tall) growing well in liquid rock f
> years.  My GH is 18 (329 mg/L) and KH is 8.4 (150 mg/L).  Substr
> coarse gravel with peat moss plates, and laterite balls inserted
> year the largest sword showed signs of decline.  I started injec
> Flourish into the root zone and after a few weeks it was back in
> form.  I have harvested many baby swords from it, raised them an
> to the stores, and the mother plant is still going strong.

Thanks for the report!  Sounds like the peat is serving the same 
purpose as my potting soil (which, of course, contains a lot of 
peat)  Anyone out there growing Swords in hard water?  Anyone have 
them doing well without soil or peat?

 ------------------------------

Subject: Pearling

> Karen wrote:
> 
> Crypts and Anubias "pearl" regularly under good conditions.  
> Crypts most often from points of leaf damage, Anubias most often
> from the flowers.

Alok wrote:

> 	OK... I don't have any anubias in my tank now, and in some 
of m
> other tanks, they never flowered. The bubbling from my crypts ma
> just be masked by the bubbling from the lileopsis and E. tenellu
> well as the larger plants.

Possibly.  I think another problem with Crypts is that people 
assume since they tolerate low light levels well, that they _need_ 
low light levels.  Many of the grow bigger and brighter when not 
shaded by other plants. They probably also photosynthesize more 
strongly in brighter light.

Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA