Cryptocoryne Blog

This plant has been flowering freely for the last few months. Its doing really really well. Planted in 100% ADA Amazonia. Just another picture..

Ghazanfar Ghori Spathes

I’ve been growing crypts for a little while now, but last night I noticed something a little different. While in itself, this is nothing remarkable, but since I’d never seen this in the past with crypts, I thought it may be worth noting.

New roots are coming in with a a little fuzz around them. I’ve noticed several plants doing this. Hopefully its a good sign.

Ghazanfar Ghori Observations

What a difference in 14 days….

What have I done in the last 14 days?

1) Sphagnum sp.
2) Rooting Hormone
3) Mycorhizzal fungus
4) Laterite
5) Big water changes to bring the water down to 200 microseimens from 1200.

Which one made the difference? I don’t know.

Ghazanfar Ghori Culture Info

It was time to repot one of my plants – Cryptocoryne ideii (A09), so I thought, maybe it would be a good idea to document the process.

Here’s the pot that is in desperate need of repotting.

First, lets gather the materials needed for the new pots…I use 3″ Hydroponic net pots with CocoTek liners as my standard pot.

The ’soil’ is an every changing mix undergoing constant experimentation. These days, the standard mix is using the following three commercial products.

ADA Aquasoil ‘Amazonia’

ADA Aquasoil ‘Malaya’

API First Later Pure Laterite

This is mixed in a ratio of 2:2:1 Amazonia:Malaya:Laterite

Now that the materials have been collected, its time to unpot the plant. The good thing about the CocoTek liner is that it’s biodegradable. In about 9-12 months, the material is soft enough to tear open by hand – a sissor or straight blade can help as well. Be careful not to damage the roots.

A little trick I use sometimes is to rinse the pot out in a bucket of water (room temperature). That washes all the soil out of the pot and leaves the root mass undamaged. Then its just a matter of coaxing the roots out of the liner. Each plant is untangled carefully and laid out. Roots are also trimmed back to jsut a couple of inches. Small plantlets can remain ‘connected’ to the mother plants, but any plantlet with more than 3 leaves should be seperated out.

Next, the new pot is filled a little less than half way with the soil mix.

The plant is placed in the center, with the roots splayed out somewhat.

Additional soil is filled in around the plant. Be careful not to bury the plant too deep or leave it up too high. A little trick I use is to bury the plant just a teeny bit too deep – and once the soil is filled in, I gently tug the plant out to the right height. The crown (point where all the leaves meet) should be right at the soil level.

Water the plant gently, with water again at room temperature. Some folks like to sit the pot down in a bucket and fill in water around the pot allowing the water to soak in. Its a good idea, especially if your potting mix has peat in it, which, in its dry granulated state, often doesn absorb water right away. Don’t forget the label!

From the one pot above there were enough plants to create 5 to 6 new pots. Looks like I’ve got some plants to share!

Ghazanfar Ghori Culture Info

A couple of months ago the local plant club placed an order from Oriental Aquarium. One of the members had ordered C. x willisii. However, the plant he got was quite large – 7-8″ tall. He gave me one, asking me to try and flower it so that he’d be able to get an ID on it. I planted it in 100% ADA Amazonia. Today it flowered – here are the pictures.

Note the yellow throat, texture of the spathe and color inside the tube.
Confirmed – Cryptocoryne x Willisii

Ghazanfar Ghori Spathes

I received my laterite this week. I’d ordered two different kinds from two seperate suppliers. One is from a large aquarium supplier, and its more like 2-4mm granules covered in a fine dust. The other is pure powder, very very fine. With the quantity I’ve got here, I should be OK for quite a while it seems!

Granular

Powder form

I think most folks use this as 10% of their mix. I’ll try it out soon in a series of experimental plantings. Stay tuned…

Ghazanfar Ghori Culture Info

Along with Cryptcoryne, a lot of collectors also grow plants from the genus Lagenandra. They’re similar to crypts in that they’re also Aroids from SE Asia. They’re found primarily in southern India. Here are a few from my collection.

Lagenandra thwaitesii

Lagenandra meeboldii ‘Pink’

Lagenandra nairii ‘Yellow’

Lagenandra nairii ‘Red’

Additionally, I have Lagenandra dewitii – but have not taken a picture of it yet. I hope to increase my collection of Lagenandra someday.

Ghazanfar Ghori Regular Update

Cryptocoryne elliptica is the only crypt known to be able to propagate from a leaf cutting – similar to African Violets. I received this plant from Aaron talbot a few months ago. After a short period of growth, the plant melted – I thought I’d lost it. But it came back – here’s a recent picture.

Once it has a few more leaves, I intend to try and propagte some out via leaf cuttings. Should be fun!

Ghazanfar Ghori Regular Update