# Anubias nursery?



## 90gal (Jan 7, 2008)

My anubias barteri took a beating from algae; I trimmed a lot of the old leaves off but I read somewhere that they're actually a bog plant and will grow as long as the root is in water; and that it'll produces leaves much faster if they're grown out of the water. This got me thinking... Can I put them in a shallow dish of water in a window sill to grow strong and healthy again or is this a bad idea and I should just give them time and patience to return to strong, healthy plants?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

You need to cover them with a clear plastic housing (some type of container) to keep the humidity up or they dry out and die. Also, I totally disagree with them growing faster out of water, I've got a couple dozen growing emersed and several hundred growing submersed and over the last 3 years I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that they grow MUCH faster submersed. Probably 5-20x faster submersed. Also, they take forever to start putting up emersed growth if they have been growing in submersed conditions.

Check out my thread on emersed setups for info.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...929-beginner-s-guide-starting-your-first.html


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## medicTHREE (Feb 5, 2010)

In my experience they grow much faster emersed than submersed. I grew out some cuttings and in weeks had a ton of leaves where as the submersed growth had one or two.


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## Dryn (Sep 6, 2007)

How fast the plant grows has more to do with the _conditions_ that it is in than whether or not it is emersed or submersed.

Any plant needs a certain amount of light, CO2, ferts, and heat, depending upon the plant, in order to grow quickly. If an aquarium is injected with CO2, has an adequate amount of ferts, light, and heat the plant will grow very fast submersed.

If there is no CO2 added, the heat is lower than the plant prefers and the water is limited in ferts (the most common low-tech approach) and you compare that growth to an emersed plant that has fertilized potting soil, more light (no water to filter it), atmospheric CO2 (which is higher than dissolved CO2), and more heat that the grow will be much faster.

*Limit one of the factors, like heat, and the plant will only grow as fast as that limitation allows. *

Under ideal conditions, I've had anubias put forth 1-2 leaves per week and I've heard of people growing them faster (using foggers and CO2 in an emersed setup). Anubias do take a long time, like 4-6 weeks or more, to switch from submersed to emersed, but only a few weeks the other way around.

I hope this helps.


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