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Re: Stagnant plants
On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Kelly Beard wrote:
> Well, a couple of months down the road everything is not well. My Barclaya
> is still alive and is producing flower stalks, but it is not growing new
> leaves. In my 20 gallon I did nothing special - I used PMDD and Seachem
> Florish tabs in the substrate. Here is a quick run down on the differences
> between my 20 gallon and 75 gallon:
>
> 20 gallon:
> 40 watts of GE Chroma 50s.
> 2" Pea sized gravel (medium)
> PMDD and Seachem Florish tabs
>
> 75 gallon:
> 220 watts of URI AquaSuns
> 4" "BB" sized gravel with DuplaRit laterite in bottom 3rd
> Duplaplant tabs at water change, Duplaplant 24 drops and Seachem Florish
> tabs
About 3 months ago (I think it was) I rebuilt the substrate in my tank
where I grew Barclaya. I uprooted the plants (huge things, at the time),
trimmed the roots and replanted. That shocked them a little, and their
foliage growth stopped for several weeks. I suspect that root regrowth
was going on at that time. When growth restarted above the substrate the
plant put out a couple of new leaves then a flurry of new flower stalks
(which I trimmed off); new leaf growth slowed after the flower stalks
started developing. Since then new leaf development has picked up, but
the new leaves are not as large as the old ones. I suspect that new leaf
growth is smaller because the new substrate is not yet mature; I think the
plant will eventually return to its old, tank-dominating ways.
You should probably wait longer before taking any action based on the
Barclaya's behavior. It was probably shocked by transplanting and might
resume normal growth if given enough time.
Also...
Terrestrial flowering plants respond to different fertilizers
with different types of growth. You can go to the store and buy different
fertilizers to promote robust foliage growth, get big flowers, or grow
heavy fruit. I've not heard or read any discussion to this effect, but I
suspect that the same thing will hold true for aquatic plants; different
fertilizers may stimulate different responses from the plants. Perhaps
the combination of substrate and fertilizers that your using now is better
for promoting flowering but not so good for producing foliage, and your
old PMDD system was better at promoting foliage growth.
I don't think I'd fiddle with the fertilizers unless I say an
unsatisfactory pattern of growth in more than one type of plant.
I understand that the Dupla products form a self-contained maintenance
system. Why did you chose to fold the Flourish tabs in with the
supposedly complete system provided by the Dupla products?
Roger Miller