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Re: Call for observations: Deficiency/toxicity symptoms
Are some plants more susceptible to certain nutrient deficiencies than
others?
If so, could these plants serve as early warning signs that some
corrective action need be taken? For instance, when I moved some
aponogetons from a tank containing reconstituted (with Kent's ro Right)
ro water to one with straight well water (with almost the same amount of
co2, and kh, gh and ph, as the ro tank) they did not fair very well even
though the E. species, and many others such as Rotala macrandra (sp?),
were thriving. The aponogeton leaves were not growing and were riddled
with brown spots and slowly decaying. They had been very robust plants
in the other tank. The only differences between the tanks were that the
well water tank has a laterite substrate and the reconstituted ro tank
was getting a daily dose of assorted mineral salts with the water
changes. About 10 days ago I tried adding ro Right, with an added
teaspoon of epson salt for magnesium a few days latter, to the well
water tank and the aponogetons perked up and are still doing allot
better. Is it possible that the aponogetons are more susceptible to
whatever is missing in the well water than the other plants? Would this
hypothesis fit with the observation that some plants seem to do better
in water from one location than another? Being that whatever a
particular plants nutritional needs are, they are satisfied to varying
degree by the nature of the water their in. I think a strategy for
successful aquatic plant propagation, mentioned here on the list, is to
try many different plants and then stick to the ones that grow the best
in the water available to them. Could this same idea then be used to
identify what the water is lacking by what will not grow well? Could
plants that are more susceptible than others to specific nutrient
deficiencies be utilized as a diognostic tool by the symptoms they
display? I realize that the inadvertent experiment describe above is
not at all definitive, considering the many variables, but it does seem
to suggest a correlation and, with some careful planing by those who
know how, may be easily repeatable, by many with the necessary controls
and patience <g>, and yield usable data. Then again, maybe not. <g>
Ed Hengel