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re: Amazon Sword in declining health
> From: jellison at ceps_nasm.edu (Pat Jellison)
>
> We are having a problem with one of our amazon sword plants
> The problem is that new leaves are coming in chlorotic,
> gnarled and almost skeletonized.
> we use Kent aquatic plant food
This sounds a lot like calcium deficiency or severe nitrogen
deficiency. Unless you are adding some form of calcium
supplement to your water, it's very difficult to know how
much calcium is in it EVEN if your water is hard. One way
to find out is to get a water analysis from your water
utility. If you add a few ounces of water which has been
soaking some dolomite lime every few days for a month and
the amazon swords perks up, then you had a calcium shortage.
Don't add the dolomite powder itself to the tank and I wouldn't
use ordinary lime (calcium hydroxide & magnesium hydroxide)
since it is a strong base. dolomite lime is calcium carbonate
and magnesium carbonate.
You will see gnarled leaves on other plants like H poly too
with calcium deficiency and the recovery is much quicker
with these fast growers. You'll notice a difference in a few days!
Another trick you can try to improve the swords growth is
to break a couple of Jobe's plant stix in pieces and shove
these deep into the substrate around the roots of your sword.
Crypts also love this. Check out my fertilized clay ball recipe
in the archives too or email me for it.
Steve who loves lines shorter than 80 characters in messages ;-)