# Crypt updates anyone?



## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

A while back, Dr. Prescott of Fishvet.com had a few species of crypts that were pretty rare in the US. I was curious to see how your plants were doing... The same goes for those who bought plants from Roland from Greenchapter. (bullosa Art?) There was quite a bit of action here in the beginning but it's been pretty quiet for a while. Anybody still working on this fascinating genus?

From Dr. Prescott, I still have nurii and gasseri. This is the longest I've ever had nurii (over a year) but the plant is small. The gasseri is doing great and have a number of plants now. It recently flowered too. 
From Roland, I have coronata and bullosa. My aponogetifolia melted and has not yet come back  It has been a while so I'm writing it off. The coronata is turning out to be a monster in emersed culture, it dwarfs the usteriana that grows next to it. It is also putting up a runner so I'll finally have an extra plant to play with in submersed culture. The bullosa is real slow and on the small side. I probably should change something but I am not sure what.

Other plants I have:
affinis- I was able to get both the classic and red types again and am growing them both emersed and submersed. They aren't growing as fast as I remember though.
usteriana- growing nicely with many runners and currently showing off a nice yellow flower!!!
cordata siamensis, blassi, griffithi, and rosaenervig all doing okay and have doubled in size since May. No runners or flowers on these guys.

Let's get the discourse going again and share your experiences with your prized crypts...


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

I received several plants from Roland about a month ago now. I received plants of C. affinis, nurii, griffithii, longicauda and Lagenandra thwaitesii.

I planted all of the above in a specially setup 2.5g with 8 pots. The pots are filled with ADA Power Sand and ADA Aquasoil (made sure there was some left over of each after setting up my new 75g). After a severe melt, the C. nurii and C. affinis are beginning to put out new leaves. The C. griffithii and C. longicauda are also producing new leaves, but, in general, all plants are quite small. The three other crypts growing in this small setup are C. albida, C. cordata var. blassii, and C. pygmaea -- only the C. albida and C. cordata var blassii have gotten significantly larger since setup (about a month ago).

All my other hardier, more robust Cryptocorynes are growing in a propagation tray with 32 pots. Here, I am using Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil and General Hydroponics fertilizers. This setup is about 2 years old. There is extremely vigorous growth, and I recently got a flower from a C. wendtii 'green'. Plants include pontederiifolia, moehlmannii, x. willisii, x willisii "lucens", petchii, beckettii, undulata, walkeri, wendtii "green", "red", "Tropica", "Mi Oya." Most are between 6-12" tall with many glossy leaves.

Carlos


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## fishmaster#1 (Apr 10, 2005)

I have been looking for rare crypts to grow emerse. What do you have available to share.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Carlos,
I assume you are growing these emersed? Do you have any water movement on them? Looking at pics of biotopes, alot of them seem to be in moving water. I've always wondered if it would make a difference... especially something like nurii, which in all the pics I've seen grows in swift current. 

I have all of my plants growing in a mix of flourite, mineralized soil, and leaf mold which is topped with live moss. I plan on using ADA stuff on certain plants once I have more material to work with. Are you using any additional ferts on the rare stuff? I've been using a weak mix of miracle grow once every month (prescribed by HeyPK) and it seems to have worked on a few plants in a positive way, on others it had no effect. 

Fishmaster,
Sorry none to spare at the moment.


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## fishmaster#1 (Apr 10, 2005)

DOH!! Darn!! I have about 9 more spaces in my crypt chamber I want to fill.


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## lorba (Feb 4, 2004)

I am growing uenoi, ferruginea, nurii, wendtii green gecko, yujii, coronata, usteriana, aponogetiifolia, affinis, griffithii, blassii, parva, costata, tonkinensis in my little emerse set up. Bullosa was dead! 

Plants are small sized as I believe my set up has too little air flow and space for good growth. Well, have to keep it that way as there is mosquito virus spreading these days.

Grifithii is my smallest crypt, very difficult to grow it well.

I grow all ADA soil, crypts seems well in it.

Thinking of getting c. keei recently. 

There are quite a lot of usteriana and coronata at this moment. They melt really easily in package, but grows back strong and fast in the tank, especially the usteriana. I am wondering if my daily dosage of K, liquid ferts helps this round as I always failed to grow usteriana in my tank.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

KEEI! KEEI! KEEI! KEEI! KEEI!

C'mon Roland, You can do it!!!

Lots of usteriana and coronata? any aponogetifolia? 

For usteriana and coronata, I have them growing in Seachem Onyx with some peat and top soil and they grow great. In the past, I've even used beach sand (calcium carbonate) and have had good results. These really like it on the alkaline side. (affinis too)

Sorry to hear about your bullosa. I really want to change my approach on this one but I fear I will kill it so I leave it alone. 

Regarding the lack of circulation, I too have that problem, but it does not seem to affect my plants much. Maybe me opening the cabinet once a day to let some fresh air in for a couple of minutes makes all the difference. What kind of temps are you getting inside your box?


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## lorba (Feb 4, 2004)

My box is in the kitchen, i guess around 28C. 

Guess what, I put the half dead rhziome of bullosa into my tank, and I found a new leave today! hehe. Guess daily dosing of K, fert and N weekly helps a lot!

No aponogetiifolia this round. But well, its a rarity to get a phillippines shipment here in Singapore. Usteriana seems to be common in Europe and America?

I found that by opening up the box for a short period each day, the growth is better.



C. keei is available, anyone interested just PM me.


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

Aaron,

I am growing all of my Cryptocorynes emersed, yes.  

I actually tried recreating water movement in one of the trays at one point. After about 4 months of this treatment, I noticed no difference between tray A compared to tray B which did not have the added water movement. I used a small bio rio powerhead. I think its more trouble than its worth, really.

For my more demanding Cryptocorynes, I tried dosing general hydroponics at first but that turned out to be a disaster. I changed all the water to dechlorinated tap water. Better, but very puny growth.

Now, I am using water from my aquarium to add to the small crypt setup. Now, I am noticing much better growth and larger, more luxurious foliage.

The other/easier crypts get full blast fertilizer. Their size and number of leaves seems to depend on how much fertilizer I am adding.

Carlos


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## lorba (Feb 4, 2004)

Here are some of my emerse cryptocoryne grown in pots.

Cryptocoryne keei


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## lorba (Feb 4, 2004)

Cryptocoryne ferruginea


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Hey Roland!!!

Wonderful pictures of keei.... i cann´t see the composition of the soil.... You know, I was doing research on keei habitats, my own interpretation of the pictures that we can see in internet.

http://www2.neweb.ne.jp/wc/i-ueno/C keei.html

Some pictures from Rayon Vert Aqua on the keei´s habitat





































And a picture from RVA too, on a healthy growing keei in a pot with gravel.










And some water paremeter: PH7.6 GH6 KH1 TDS 102ppm WTP25.8

Studing this pictures, i think keei likes soil with sand and gravel of several sizes, and grows in a very fast flow stream, so the movement of the water made a very oxygened water. So I know by intuition that keei will need a very aired soil and with a very good dreinage, and the wather of the bottom will be very oxygened. Keei is a plant which doesn´t like grow emerged, so to get success you must provide a very higth humidity enviroment. Attending to the water parameters, I think that keei is a more adaptative crypt than uenoi, bullosa and striolata, plants which grow in similar enviroments but with more acid water.

It´s my opinion...

Greetings from Spain...


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