# How long do you have to keep the plants in a humid environment?



## Thorald

Hi all,

Because I'm going to be starting a larger plants and I wanted to use some of the plants that are in my nano in that tank I started a small emersed setup to save some of my cuttings.

My setup is a small 3gallon tank covered with cellophane wrap and it's standing in front of a window.

I currently have 5 cuttings of Staurogyne Repens, 2 Hygrophila polysperma and 2 alternanthera reineckii in it for over a week now. I also have 3 Hygrophila polysperma and some hemianthus micranthemoides in it for a couple of days now.

The H. Polysperma and the Staurogyne are doing really great and the other plants are doing good. All of the plants are growing new leaves and the leave color is changing.

How long (if ever) do you think I'll have to keep the plants in the tank before they can come out and can stand in pots in my room? I would like to take some out so that I can put in more fresh cuttings when I get trimming again.

I now realize that I won't be saving up a big amount, but it's a shame to throw them out if I can use them later. It's also fun to try something new.

Click the pictures to see a larger version.











Alternanthera Reineckii: 9 days of emersed growth


Staurogyne Repens: 9 days of emersed growth


Hygrophila Polysperma: left 2 days of emersed growth, right 9 days.


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## Cavan Allen

That depends on the humidity of your room. If it's really dry, you may never be able to have a completely open top. They look established enough to experiment though. Open it a little at a time over the course of a week or so. You also have temperature to consider, but for the summer, you should be fine.


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## Thorald

Ok, I've opened the top by about and inch. All the plants are doing fine except for the HM, I don't think it's going to make it. I hope to get some of the plants out by the end of next week.

I also hope that my new tank will be setup before the winter


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## davemonkey

Thorald, I'm going through a similar scenario right now converting to an emersed set-up. I left my newly emersed plants completely covered (cellophane over the top of my tank) for at least a month before I started opening up a bit.

I think 3 weeks would have been good, as after that I started to get some fungal growth. Now that I've opened the top about 2 inches, that has stopped.

Of coarse, yesterday I introduced some new plants into the scape (plants that had been submerged) so I have to start over again. :loco: I'll probably go a full week covered and then start to creep it open again.

I did notice that with the top opened an inch or two, it was still humid enough for some of the plants to collect water droplets on their leaves. But it's in a taller tank (standard 55 gal) so that factors in as well.

-Dave


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## Thorald

I've also noticed some fungus, nothing to bad it looks like hairs or spider nettings and it's only on the Staurogyne.

The HM started to get a little dry so I just opened one corner of the cellophane instead of the entire length. Now everything is looking fine again. I guess the impact on my 3gallon is much larger than on your 55gallon.

I hope to take the Staurogyne and the H. Polysperma out by the end of the week. The Polysperma has growin a lot and I hope this will improve even more now that it has access to fresh air. Stauro doesn't grow that much, but the leaves seem to adept really well to the new environment. The Stauro leaves were light green when submerged and turned dark green just a couple of hours after being emerged.

Having a spare 55gallon would probably solve all my problems, but I'm just getting started with aquariums, so I don't have all the extra supplies laying around ...... yet


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## Cavan Allen

Thorald said:


> I've also noticed some fungus, nothing to bad it looks like hairs or spider nettings and it's only on the Staurogyne.


That is often a sign of too much humidity. But I think you're headed in the right direction anyway.


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## Thorald

I just opened it a little more. Maybe this will stop the fungus? I hope to take some plants out by the end of the week. The HM is putting out new growth, it looks like this plant has a different way of adapting to emersed.


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## Thorald

I moved them out of the tank on friday. I was having a lot of fungus on the Stauro, but that's now slowly fainting away. All the plants seem to be doing very well.

When I replanted them all of the plants already had some nice roots. Especially the Alternanthera, this one is also a heavy rooter in my tank.

Growth is not bad, but I was hoping for a lot more. Maybe the new more nutrient rich soil will help, it's humus with soil from my garden.

For anyone how has the same question, I could take my plants out after 3 weeks. This included 2 weeks in an almost completely sealed environment and then 1 week were I slowly opened the tank to let the plants get used to the new humidity levels. This would probably depend on the humidity in your room and the type of plants you have like Cavan Allan said.


Hygrophila polysperma emersed


Hygrophila polysperma emersed


Staurogyne repens emersed It's starting to grow some new plantlets 


Staurogyne repens emersed


Staurogyne repens emersed


Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia' emersed


Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia' emersed


Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia' emersed


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## jocky

your plants are inspiring. how often do you mist them in an open environment? whats the humidty level?


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## Thorald

Hi,

I never mist them and I don't know the humidity of my room. I live in Belgium, so it's probably not very high, but not very low either (lets call it average).

All the plants are doing really well, but I think this has more to do with the plants then with the environment. They all grow like weeds and are really hardy.

With HM I have no success outside the box, but in the box it grows OK.


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## Chuukus

HM is one of those plants that needs the high humidity. IMHO HM is not as hardy as
the others you have emersed. Rotalas are another one that need the high humidity. I have used mosses like java, taiwan and christmas as growing media for those less hardy plants like HM and rotala sp. I think the mosses wick up the moisture some and helps them grow in less humid enviroments. Im just speaking from my own experience. I hope this helps.


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## Thorald

Here are the last pictures I took of the emersed plants right before putting them in my new tank.













A day or two after submerging the Staurogyne I noticed that it was about to flower. It's a shame that I couldn't see that happen :-(


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## Gordonrichards

Oh wow! Excellent looking plants!!!


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## Thorald

Woow, I made the front page! :bounce: This is amazing!

Can someone please change the terrible fault in the first post? It's so embarrassing


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## Amazon_Replica

Its amazing when you think about it, how adaptable the plants are, they just want to live lol. THey look incredible, good job.


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## Thorald

Currently all those plants are in my new tank. Now they are adapting again, but this time back to submersed form. So this is the end of this experiment. I hope to grow some staurogyne emmersed again, once I have some excess cuttings.

Here are the pictures of the plants in my new tank:

You can find the hygro and alternantera in the right corner. The staurogyne is in front of the wood behind the lilaeopsis.


A closeup of the staurogyne. There also are some submersed plants in this picture. A lot of debri gets trapped in the hairs on the leafs of the emersed plants. Some submersed leafs are already sprouting.

After all this was an interesting experience and I learned something new that I can do with my plants.


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## mellowvision

you should give willow hygro a shot, rotala indica and HC as well. I've had good luck with those in set ups like what you have going on. 

The hygro didn't seem to like open air as much, but I may have rushed it. It can get a little tall for a 3 gallon, but if you're transitioning them to a less humid spot, or using them for a riparium type set up, that shouldn't be a problem.


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## Thorald

Unfortunately I don't have any willow hygro in my tanks, so I can't try it.

I recently got bacopa monnieri and from what I hear it should do well emmersed, so maybe I'll give that plant a shot.

I also had a minor problem with my H. Polysperma getting brown leaf tips every once in while. Maybe the air in my room was too dry? But the plant kept showing good growth.


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