# What does it take to get them to flower?



## Khamul1of9 (Oct 25, 2005)

Is it true that you need to submerse them and then emerse them at different times of the year to get them to flower? Or can you grow them emersed the entire year and get them to flower. Thanks.
:bathbaby:


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## Kai Witte (Jan 30, 2006)

No, that's a myth - they don't need seasonal changes in water level to flower. Actually, many crypts seem to flower when *they* want to: be it in emersed or in submersed culture... 

Here's a thread with some more suggestions but don't hold your breath either! 
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/crypt-nuts/32304-how-can-i-get-my-crypts.html


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Coincidentally perhaps, Xema and I have had the exact same Crypt flower almost at the same time.


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## Khamul1of9 (Oct 25, 2005)

Thanks guys! I'll have to look up some info on that acid.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

I don't think it's true crypts NEED to have a shortening of the days to flower, but I will say thatr mine outdoors always flower in the fall.

The Bromeliad people have a trick to induce flowering - put the plant in a bag with a piece of apple - the outgassed ethylene gas will force a flowering (usually).

Brown wendtii flowering:

http://images.aquaria.net/plants/Cryptocoryne/w/WEN/brown/emerse/


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## Khamul1of9 (Oct 25, 2005)

Shortening of days! I thought it was a lenghtening of days. 
I grow mine in tanks that contain amphibians. I'de rather not expose then tp ethylene.

I like your _C. wendtii_ flower!


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## DelawareJim (Nov 15, 2005)

I don't know how much, if anything, day length affects flowering. From what little I remember from Earth Sciences back in high school, considering most Crypts are found between the Tropic of Cancer (at 21' latitude) and the equator, I would think they are growing under basically 12 hour days and nights. 

If I remember, the angle of inclination of the earth is about 23', which means that the earth between the Tropic of Cancer at 21' north, and the Tropic of Capricorn at 21' south has about a 12 hour day length regardeless of the season.

Someone like Kai or the folks in Indonesia can probably correct me if I'm wrong here.

Cheers.
Jim


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

See the article, below. It was reprinted in The Aquatic Gardener, Vol. 8, number 5, Sept-Oct., 1995. The authors grew C. lucens and C. beckettii emersed with plenty of fertilization, and got only one C. beckettii flower in untreated plants, but got 10-12 beckettii flowers and 4-6 lucens flowers in plants sprayed with 250 and 500 ppm of gibberellic acid solution. The plants were grown 32 weeks before the GA treatment



Kane, M.E., G.L. Davis and T.D. Hoffner. 1995. Gibberellins promote flowering in two Cryptocoryne species. HortScience 30:380.


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## Kai Witte (Jan 30, 2006)

Gibberellic acid? That doesn't make much sense with your crypts: First you need decent growth and then most of them will do flower - especially the Sri Lankan crypts are fairly free flowering!

Moreover, GA can result in distorted inflorescences, especially if applied in too high concentrations...


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## Kai Witte (Jan 30, 2006)

> I don't know how much, if anything, day length affects flowering.


It obviously has an effect but in most equatorial crypts I presume it's more about having any change at all rather than some specific stimulus - note that most other parameters like water level, light intensity, temperature, etc. are often kept fairly constant in typical tanks...



> From what little I remember from Earth Sciences back in high school, considering most Crypts are found between the Tropic of Cancer (at 21' latitude) and the equator, I would think they are growing under basically 12 hour days and nights.


Not all crypts are born equal! Quite a few (with very obvious examples from, e. g., the crispatula group) react very strongly to changes of photoperiod: they go through programmed "seasons" as experienced by the specific population they're coming from.



> If I remember, the angle of inclination of the earth is about 23', which means that the earth between the Tropic of Cancer at 21' north, and the Tropic of Capricorn at 21' south has about a 12 hour day length regardeless of the season.


At the equator, you have a day length varying roughly between 11:45 h and 12:15 h. That may not sound that much of a difference but it's easily detected by the plants.


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## Khamul1of9 (Oct 25, 2005)

FOund this on Geberrilic acid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberellic_acid


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

DelawareJim said:


> I don't know how much, if anything, day length affects flowering. From what little I remember from Earth Sciences back in high school, considering most Crypts are found between the Tropic of Cancer (at 21' latitude) and the equator, I would think they are growing under basically 12 hour days and nights.
> 
> If I remember, the angle of inclination of the earth is about 23', which means that the earth between the Tropic of Cancer at 21' north, and the Tropic of Capricorn at 21' south has about a 12 hour day length regardeless of the season.


True but this all presupposes they've lost the ability, through evolution, to not react to photoperiod.

From what I've observed in my backyard this is not the case.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Only at the equator is daylength a constant 12 hours all year long. At 10 degrees north, Daylength varies from 12.58 to 11.42 hours. See http://www.orchidculture.com/COD/daylength.html


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## DelawareJim (Nov 15, 2005)

Cool, learn something new every day! Thanks for clearing that up Kai.

Most of the photoperiod work I did with plants back in college was all with temperate plants like Poinsettias where there where significant differences in photoperiod during the various seasons.

Cheers.
Jim


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