Here’s a good example of the ‘mutation’ that an over dose of Gibberillic acid can cause.
On the right you see a normal spathe. On the left, one that’s been deformed by an overdose of Gibberillic acid. You can see the limb of the spate is greatly enlongated, and the spathe itself is much larger with an enlongated kettle and tube.
Well, its been about 3 weeks now since I applied Gibberellic acid to my plants. There were several observations I’d like to report:
1) If the plant already had an almost mature spathe present, the spathe opened up prematurely.
2) If the plant had a immature spathe, the spathe had a growth spurt, and then slowed down. In some cases, it then melted.
3) Some plants showed spathes starting to develop within days of the application. Within this group, some spathes proceeded normally and opened up just fine. In other cases, the spathe was deformed.
4) In some plants, the petioles have elongated about 33% – even on existing leaves.
A few case examples:
In the C. elliptica pictured here, immature spathes opened up early. But then other spathes came up looking normal.
The C. alba pictured above had a spathe develop more or less normally, though I think its smaller than it should be. Not that I’ve ever flowered this plant before. Just a gut feeling here.
C. minima spathe pictured here is clearly deformed. The limb is greatly elongated.
It hasn’t opened up yet in this picture.
In the C. zukali pictured here, you can clearly see a twisted malformed immature spathe.
This L. narii ‘Red’ had a spathe develop more or less normally.
So, what’s the conclusion? It seems gibberellic acid does work, both on crypts and lagenandra plants to induce flowering. However, this acid should be used with caution, with a much less concentration than I used if you are to prevent malformation. What that concentration is? I’d start with 25 mg/l vs. the 250 mg/l that I used.
Gibberellin an extremely active naturally occuring plant growth regulator. Gibberellins are involved in numerous plant development processes. Horticulturally, Gibberellin is used to increases flower size, flower numbers, uniform flowering, increased stem elongation, and a decrease in time to flower.
At the AGA Cryptocoryne
I’ve been doing a lot of reading online regarding general plant health. I came across an article mentioning Mycorrhizal fungii. They’re fungii normally found in nature living smbiotically with the roots of plants. These fungii product fungal threads which coat the roots, sometimes penetrating the root cells even and tapping into the plants nutrients while benefiting the plant at the same time. Some plants as far as REQUIRE these fungii in order to grow properly. In the presence of these fungii, root mass nearly doubles, the plant has increased phosphorus and nutrient uptake. Plants with mycorrhizal fungi are less susceptible to diseases, both of the roots and the rest of the plant. Some of the effects must be due to improved nutrition of the plant, while others may be related to substances given off by the fungi, natural antibiotics which keep disease organisms at bay.
If you look online, you’ll find plenty of additional information and pictures, but
let me share atleast one ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture with you…
Redwood seedlings with (right) and without (left) mycorrhizae.
Photo credit:
Mike Amaranthus, USDA
Where can I get some?
Well – its found in nature. So almost any undistrubed natural area should have some in its soil. BUT before you run out and start digging, read on.
There are MANY kinds of mycorrhizal fungii. Some help provide resistance to pathogens, others improve nutrient uptake, while others help with drought resistance. You best bet is to buy a commercial mix of a wide range of mycorrhizal fungii.
So – I’ve bought a commercial product. It should be here next week. I’ll be setting up a series of experimental pots to see what kind of effect, if any, these fungii have on crypts. I’ll keep you posted.
[EDIT]
Looking around some more I found the following article on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza
Note the picture:
Ectomycorrhizal beech
New beech leaves, Grib Forest in the northern part of Sealand, Denmark.
This looks like the environment in Jan’s backyard in Emmen. Take a look at the pictures from ECS 07 in this blog. Coincidence? Probably. But, maybe, just maybe I’m onto something.
Some additional clues from the Wiki article. There are generally two types of fungii – ectomycorrhizal and endomycorrhizal. Endomycorrhizal are found in 90% of plant families. The beech trees have Ectomycorrhizal fungii – which are found in around 10% of plant families, including members of the birch, dipterocarp, eucalyptus, oak, pine and rose families. Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 17 genera and approximately 500 species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. Dipterocarpoideae: the largest of the subfamilies, it contains 13 genera and about 475 species. Distribution includes the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, India, Southeast Asia to New Guinea, but mostly in east Malaysia, where they form the dominant species in the lowland forests. North Borneo (Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak) is the richest area in the world for dipterocarp species.
To date, I havent used any laterite ammendments in my soil mixtures. Thinking back to the basics, I think I’ve mistakenly overlooked this simple additive that has good potential for enhancing growth. I’ve ordered some Laterite – I’ll try it out in a new mix with some longicauda and some ideii to see how growth is affected.
Its time to repot anyway. Overa period of about a year, the leafcompost / aquasoil
mix degrades and gets mucky. Plants seem to not grow as rapidly any more. In the pots I’ve recently repotted, I’m now using ADA Aquasoil Amazonia exclusivly. It should hold up better. So far the plants are responding well. When my Laterite arrives, I’ll add that to the ADA and see how the plants do.
I don’t know why I didn’t really think of this earlier – but Sphagnum moss has a natural ability to acidify water. We all know that peat moss (granulated) has the ability, albeit short lived, to lower the pH down to the 4’s. What about LIVE moss? A little reseach online shows promising articles. Live Sphagnum removes nutrients from water, to the point of water quality being like distilled water. It also actively remove Ca++ ions and releases H+ ions, acidifying the water down to the 3’s and 4’s. Best of all – it grows well in the conditions we want for our blackwater crypts! A few months ago, I’d taken a few handfuls from a bale of long fiber sphagnum – dead as can be. I soaked it in water, then layed it out in a tray with a dome. Humidity quickly rose to 100%. There was no standing water per say – but everything was sopping wet. I put the tray under a flourecent light fixture, and soon the dead moss started taking on a greenish hue. A few weeks later – I could make out little green heads of live sphagnum starting to grow. A few months later – I had a huge mat of live sphagnum! I’ve taken this matt and broken it into several segments, and stuffed it into my crypt tank, in between the pots of crypts, with the moss just above the water level. We’ll see what happens! I’ll record the TDS and pH of the water as it exists right now in that setup and report back. Hopes are high.
In the almost 1 year now, that I’ve been keeping crypts emeresed, I’ve tried out several different substrate mixtures.
Mix #1
Leaf Compost + Aquasoil
This is my most successful mix to date for both blackwater and freshwater crypts. It consists of leaf compost + Amazonia Aquasoil in a 3/5 ratio and most plants in this mix have done really well!
Mix #2
Leaf Compost + Aquasoil + Fagus leaves
I tried this mix out on a few crypts that were not doing so well in Mix @#1 – namely C. pallidenerva. Unfortunatly, the plant didn’t like this mix either. Its still alive, but just barely. In addition, this mix doesnt seem to be as stable and attracts algae like no other. Maybe due to something the leaves are leeching?
More later..time for breakfast.
The Cryptocoryne cordata ‘blassi’ pot was getting a little too crowded, so i repotted it. Apparently, the ‘fruit’ didn’t like that move and it melted into mush the next day. Now I’m beginning to wonder if the pollination was successful or not. The fact that the ‘fruit’ not only survived for 14 weeks after the flower died, but also grew leads me to beleive the the pollination was indeed successful. Gah! No more repotting.