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Re:- Roots all over the place
- To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
- Subject: Re:- Roots all over the place
- From: Paul Sears <psears at nrn1_NRCan.gc.ca>
- Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 09:17:11 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <199806261637.MAA21490 at acme_actwin.com> from "Aquatic Plants Digest" at Jun 26, 98 12:37:12 pm
> From: "Alysoun McLaughlin" <alysoun.mclaughlin at ncsl_org>
> Subject: Roots all over the place
>
(lots snipped)
>
> CM> Figure out where your nutrients are coming from first. If the liquid
> CM> fertilizer is the source, don't stop using it. If the substrate is the
> CM> source, you can stop fertilizing (or just slow it down). The
> determining
> CM> factor here should be the nutrient levels available to the plants. If
> CM> you've setup your substrate like Karen Randall, Steve Pushak and others
> CM> like them with soil nutrients, you'll only want to add specific
> nutrients
> CM> required in the water column (K, CO2, etc), which you may be able to do
> CM> without liquid fertilizer (water changes, CO2 injection).
>
> CM> If you're setup like George Booth, Paul Sears and others like them with
> CM> absorbing, but nutrient-poor substrates, you'll need to add a
> comprehensive
> CM> fertilizer on a regular basis to maintain the balance of nutrients.
> Both
> CM> methods are valid, both methods can get fantastic results. The first is
> CM> lower effort and maybe more expensive up front. The second is
> CM> measurable, precise and expensive in the long run.
I'm a bit baffled by this. My total expenditure on fertilisers is
about $35 CDN, for trace elements, and the supply will last many years.
I was lucky in that I got some of the stuff when it was thrown out of the
lab where I work, but even if I had paid for it, it would have added only
a few dollars to the total. I also spent about $200 CDN on a CO2 cylinder
and regulator. It is still supplying CO2, without a refill, over 3 years
later. What I'm doing has almost nothing in common with the Dupla method,
used so successfully by G.B.. I don't use laterite in substrates, and
just about all the fertilisers go in in solution form. With Dupla, the
drops are a _part_ of the system. G.B. published analyses a while ago -
if you can find them, have a look and see which parts of the system contain
significant amounts of which elements.
--
Paul Sears Ottawa, Canada