# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Didilpis diandra 'Blood Stargrass'



## imported_Ghazanfar Ghori

_Didiplis diandra_: *Didiplis diandra* Blood Stargrass

First a close up: 









Second the plant only 









Third: a pic that shows the potential: 









*Some Information:* 
_Light_: Hight light. 3 WPG +
_Growth_: Fast growing plant, branches profusly
_Demands_: HIGH! Needs alots of light and CO2.
_Pruning_: Top the plant and replant the tops with space between
the stems. If ligth doesnt reach the lower leaves, it'll turn black under
the gravel, rot and float up.
_Water hardness_: I'm growing it in 4KH, 6GH 
_Propagation_: Easy propagation via cuttings.

_Experiences_: I had tried this plant in the past with 2 WPG and
it didn't grow at all. All of it simply rotted away at the gravel line.
After upgradign to 3WPG, I tried it again and its growing beautifully!

_Planting_: Needs to be planted spaced apart. Once it tkaes off,
it branches every few inches to give you a bushy look.

*ORIGINAL POST BY GHAZANFAR GHORI*
http://www.aquabotanic.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=2687

[This message was edited by Ghazanfar Ghori on Fri February 07 2003 at 07:55 AM.]


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## tsunami06

Three months ago, I introduced nearly a dozen
new species of plants into my lower tech 55 gallon to see if they would grow or not, seeing
how well so many others species did in the
tank under the care of my mom.
Conditions: 1x96w PC bulb w/reflectors, DIY
CO2, 5 mL Flourish weekly.
Well, its spring break now, and I'm back home.
One very pleasant surprise was the Didiplis
diandra. It was thriving! It was a healthy,
bright green bush (I had only originally
planted 5 stems, now it was more like 20).
The tank was incredibly overgrown to the point that the bottom half was incredibly dark, and plants were popping out of the water. I thought
this was a wimpy stem plant that was the
first to decline from crowding.

Carlos


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## imported_Ghazanfar Ghori

My didliplis died. I was getting good lush growth for months
without any problems but then for no apparent reason the stems
started blackening from the bottom up. Lost it all. It's done
this to me in the past too. I'm beginning to wonder if this
is normal for this plant to do this.

-
Ghazanfar Ghori


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## tsunami06

I have been trying to grow this plant for
quite a while in my 20 gallon long. I could
not understand why it could grow in my 55 gallon and not in my 20 gallon (the 20 gallon
had more light and CO2 after all...). After
a few weeks of slow, green growth it would
begin to look bleached with brown spots.


Well, I increased Trace additions to see what
would happen. Nothing.

Then, I increased Seachem Iron from 15 mL
a week in my 20g long to 20 mL a week. This
time, the diandra began to grow in green and
grow faster. I increased the iron/trace
additions in unison even more, pushing them
to 30 mL a week. All I can say, is wow! What
a difference! The diandra doubled in leaf size with shorter internodal distance between the leaves. Coloration is now shifting from green
to orange.

So high iron seems to be really important for this species at higher light levels (~3 w/g +).

Carlos


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## Robert Hudson

Didiplis is a North American native plant, and I believe really thrives in cold water. When I keep this plant for sale, I keep it in unheated plastic tubs, fully submersed. Its lasts forever this way while being totaly neglected, low light, no C02. When I keep it under normal conditions, it thrives only for a few months.










It grows from Texas to as far north as the canadian border

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## JaredtheAquamaniac

Interesting to hear that Robert.

I've got some going in my tanks now for just shy of a year. It grows rather slowly, but throws lots of side stalks. Tanks 78*, and it has more of an orange tint to the leaves than green. Really pretty actually.

Stay Safe....Specs in profile


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## IUnknown

Jared, you sure you don't have ludwigia arcuata. They seem like very similar plants.


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## JaredtheAquamaniac

They could be. I bought D.d. from Aquabid, and Im getting some L. Arcuata later this week from a friend. I'll have to compare.

Stay Safe....Specs in profile


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## imported_Svennovitch

My Didiplis diandra:










Sven

[This message was edited by Svennovitch on Wed February 25 2004 at 01:04 AM.]


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## Vicki

Sven, that's amazing! I've never seen it so colored up. What conditions are you growing it in? Light? Water chemistry? Inquiring minds want to know!

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## imported_Svennovitch

I am doing nothing really special, Vicki.
Only 2.25 wpg.

Water chemistry:
pH: 6.8
KH: 5
GH: 9
NO3: 10-20 ppm (never under 10 ppm)
PO4: 0,5-1 ppm

I think it is mostly the traces that color up this plant. Have no clue what the iron concentration is, don't test for it.

Sven


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## imported_molahs4

Sven-

What lighting do you use? What is your miracle trace mix? That's easily the most beautiful d.d. I have ever seen.

-Scott
tank specs and bad pictures


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## Vicki

Well, THAT'S totally unfair.







Your water conditions are almost identical to mine, and I have considerably more light (although it is a 24" deep tank)! Guess it must be the traces. I wonder if you have iron in your tap water? Do you know?

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Guest

Sven,

Can I see more pictures of your tank or other shots of the same plant ?


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## imported_Svennovitch

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by molahs4:
> Sven-
> 
> What lighting do you use? What is your miracle trace mix? That's easily the most beautiful d.d. I have ever seen.
> 
> -Scott


Thanks, Scott !

My miracle trace mix, LOL? It is just a trace mix I bought online from Homegrown Hydroponics (formulae of Conlin&Sears).

About the lighting: i have 3 fluorescent tubes over my 40G.
Two Philips 6400K (nÂ°86) and one Sylvania aquastar 10.000K.

I don't know what I am doing special to get that kind of color out of it...
It is the best growing plant in my tank, have to prune every 10 days








OTOH, I have Eusteralis stellata that doesn't want to color up at all, always stays green. Imagine how I feel when I see the ES James Hoftiezer has, *sigh*

Sven


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## imported_Svennovitch

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Vicki:
> Well, THAT'S totally unfair.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your water conditions are almost identical to mine, and I have considerably more light (although it is a 24" deep tank)! Guess it must be the traces. I wonder if you have iron in your tap water? Do you know?


My tank is only 40 cm deep (don't know how many inches that is







), but I wish it was a little higher (to much pruning to do).

Water report for my tap water (Word-document I got from my water company last year when I asked for it):
tmvw2001_brugge.doc

As you can see, almost no Fe at all. Maybe you noticed my tapwater is really hard, so I am mixing it up with 75% rain water.

Sven


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## imported_Svennovitch

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Jay Luto:
> Sven,
> 
> Can I see more pictures of your tank or other shots of the same plant ?


I will try and take some this weekend. But the picture above is from a few weeks ago, now the tank is a bit neglected









I am having difficulties to find a plant for the forground I want to use, still searching for the right one...

Sven


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## kherman

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Ghazanfar Ghori:
> My didliplis died. I was getting good lush growth for months
> without any problems but then for no apparent reason the stems
> started blackening from the bottom up. Lost it all. It's done
> this to me in the past too. I'm beginning to wonder if this
> is normal for this plant to do this.
> 
> -
> Ghazanfar Ghori


Same story for me. high light/CO2. For the first month, it took off into a nice plant and got bushy. Then I noticed it's starting to die afte a month. Maybe what robert says ...


> quote:
> 
> Didiplis is a North American native plant, and I believe really thrives in cold water. When I keep this plant for sale, I keep it in unheated plastic tubs, fully submersed. Its lasts forever this way while being totaly neglected, low light, no C02. When I keep it under normal conditions, it thrives only for a few months.


... is very true.

All my other plants are doing well.

I put normal stargrass (not blood) in at the same time and that's thriving nicely.

Interesting ....

------------------------------
Karl's Parts And Construction Journal 
Karl's 125 aquascape


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## Gomer

I have had this in my tank since september. The tank got as high as 82-83 during the end of summer/beginning of fall. Most of the time, the tank is around 76Â°

This plant grows like a weed for me. Always healthy and never a sign of distress.


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## Josh Simonson

I got some emersed grown didiplis from the LFS on a trade, it has roundish emersed leaves and I thought it was rotalla indica at first. The emersed leaves all fell off and it languished for a bit, then took off. Now my stand is a 20" tall background plant. It's not lost any of the lower leaves and looks really nice. It seems to grow faster since I changed the temp from 78' to 75' (2"/week), but it wasn't suffering at 78'. I give my 55g 1ml flourish/day and occasionally top off the nitrates/phosphates. PH 7, kH and gH 5-6. 

My didiplis also grows tons of little 'berries' on it's stems. They're probably flower buds of some sort.

Perhaps since didiplis has such a wide range there are subtly different varieties in the trade that have different temp requirements. Could be the people without problems have plants that came from texas and the ones that can't get it to do much got plants hailing from farther north. Since it grows wild in north america a good portion of the plants in the trade may have been collected in the wild.


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## rwong2k

I saw this plant at my LFS a few weeks ago, I decided not to get it, but now I regret and and i'll have to wait until their next shipment of plants and hope they ordered it =)

good thing my LFS gets plants every 2 weeks =)


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## imported_Creature

I saw this in my LFS a week ago and I got a couple bunches. Plants were skinny with short, thin leaves. A week later they're already putting out new leaves that we're used to seeing. I forgot they turn red with bright lights. From the one pic on page one, it's gonna resemble my Ludwigia brevipes. I wanted a green plant to complement my reds, now I'll have one more red. I guess it's another trip to the LFS to see if they got anything green, that'll stay green. Haven't seen Ambulia around in a while...


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## Norbert Sabat

This is my good old DD







with 45cm high tank with 2.52WPG

KH 3
GH 4
pH 6.8-6.9
NO3 0-3
PO4 0-0.25

bulbs: 2x TLD840, 860, 965


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## Pete City

Norbert,
I notice that you keep your NO3 & PO4 relatively low, do you think the low NO3 is responsible for the great red color? 
Also, I may take another stab at growing this plant, I was unsuccesful in the past due to shaky fertilizer regime, but all is in order, so we will see.
Oh yea... BEAUTIFUL Didilpis diandra!


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## imported_shalu

I have grown this plant in a tank continuously for two years now, at high temperature(82-83F winter, 85-90F summer). So I think the diebacks are all due to some water chemistry issues.


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## Norbert Sabat

> Originally posted by Pete City:
> do you think the low NO3 is responsible for the great red color?


Maybe not exactly







. In that tank i add NPK in small dose everyday so NO3 and PO4 level was low but well..continue (?). I also add some fertilizer "for color" rich in *Fe* and *Mn* . Generally i can say that low NO3 and a bit more PO4 is good for color but sometimes that way we can have some "blue algae" so be carefull....


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## Paul Higashikawa

One more addition of this really great plant:


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## Jane of Upton

Hmmm, well, I recently got a few stems of this, and I'm trying it in a 10 gal El Natural (soil underlayer) setup with a 2x13 w retrofit AH Supply light (no reflector, fits into existing strip casing). I keep my tank on the cool side, comparatively, at around 73 F. 

Now I'm curious how it will do for me with the OK lighting, no fert dosing, and cooler temps. I might "cheat" and put a small ball of red clay (iron source) under its rooting spot. 

There are some LOVELY examples of it here. I'm just hoping it will live. I don't think I've seen the green form - only the red form. I wonder why? I'd kind of prefer the green, as it would stand a better chance in my tank.

-Jane


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## Pete City

I just acquired this plant as well. I've tried to grow it in the past but was unsuccessful.
I'm hoping it had something to do with my fert regime at the time.
From what I've read it seems that people are able to grow it in all types of conditions.
I've had it growing for a couple of weeks now and it looks great, I hope I'm able to do this plant justice.
Jane,
Please keep us posted on your progress.
I'll be posting some pics of my tank in a week or so as well.

Pete


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## Jason Baliban

It seems to grow in most conditions. I find that the most important thing is stable co2. It is a slow grower for me, but it is great looking.

jB


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## Jane of Upton

Well, nearly a month later, and so far, so good in a "low tech" tank! I actually just ordered some more (from Aquabotanic) because I really like the shape. 

I'm going to replant the ones I have, with the new ones, right under the lights. I hadn't realized it was sort of shaded by the Aponogeton longifolius, and the stems were kind of bending around. The leaf shape has gotten a bit longer, and I guess I got my wish - its all green, LOL!

So is there a "green variety", or is there only one, with the red color ability, and its just called "blood" stargrass to emphasize this? IS there a "green stargrass"?

Mine's pretty green now, but I really like the shape, so I want a larger bunch. *Sigh* running a "low tech" tank, I have to buy more, if I want it, or else play at making cuttings and propagating it for a LONG time before achieving a nice clump. 

I'm pleasantly surprised by it though! No die-off, just greening, and leaf-elongation. Interestingly, there does NOT seem to be any noticable increase in the internode length,. even where it bends around the Apon leaf. Perhaps it likes the cooler temps, too.

-Jane


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