# my ignored emersed setup



## egementt (Jun 27, 2006)

Hi all. I was out of town for 2 months and I decided to leave some plant clippings emersed. I used an old 100lt aquarium and had to lay it on its side because I have the tiniest balcony. So to be able to keep the water in, I siliconed a piece of a insulating pad. I filled it with regular potting soil and I closed the open side of the aquarium with streching film to keep it humid. (that is something you should do if you want it to stay wet for 2 months). I left no openings for fresh air for it to last 2 months. So if there were holes, it would probably last less but with more vigorous growth. By the way I live in istanbul and the average temp. was probably 28C here. There may be some shifts and drops in temp because I found out that some plants grew really well at first but then died. Anyway I was astonished to find a beautiful garden with flowers. I am sorry that I have no initial photos of the system but you can imagine that all the plants thrown there were like trash and very little in amount. Here are the pics.
















































































































































In the pics the following species and a few species unknown are present

hygrophila difformis(all propagated from leaf cuttings left on soil)
glossostigma elatinoides(flowered)
rotala rotundifolia
heteranthera zosterifolia
java moss
java fern(windelov)
echinodorus madalengensis
ammania gracialis
sagittaria subulata
ludwigia repens(flowered,seeds ahead)
one unknown(flowered)
riccia fluitans
cryptocorne beckettii


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Looks great for being neglected! Then again, it would be great if I could get emersed plants to look like that WITH care!


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Looks awesome! I do have to say though, that's why we always need to be careful discarding of our plant clippings


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Wow! It really turned into a jungle. What a great idea that was very nicely done.


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

Amazing! I'm inspired to try a miniature setup on my own porch!


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## lailastar (Aug 28, 2006)

Thats incredible! They look so healthy! I am observing that one advantage that your setup gave your plants is that they had really no predators. I don't see any leaf damage from insects or anything. Maybe sometimes they do too much to submersed plants and they are just exposed to too much (other lifeforms)for them to be as healthy compared to yours.


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

very nice. are you going to attempt to transfer them back to emersed?


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## egementt (Jun 27, 2006)

Thank you all for your comments. I tried to keep things as simple as possible and it worked out. No fertilisation, no fancy substrate and most of all no care and this the result. Nature always finds its own way. I'll be using the system to fill my 300lt aquarium with plants.


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

Sweet plants and sweeter pictures.


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## bioch (Apr 8, 2006)

more pictures!


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## czado (May 26, 2005)

Wow. What a great setup.


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## egementt (Jun 27, 2006)

I have pruned some of the emersed plants and put them back in my aquarium next to the submersed ones. You can see the great difference between them in leaf and stem formation. The ones with stronger stems are the emersed ones.









Rotala rotundifolia









hygrophila difformis









ammania gracilis


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## DaFishMan (Dec 4, 2005)

Wow you've done really well with that setup, quite the jungle


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## egementt (Jun 27, 2006)

My setup still goes with the most neglect. It's winter time but still going strong. It has even survived a snowfall with no problems. I took some new pictures. I have done a lot of harvest during the time passed and forgot to water it for a month so some plants may look a little yellowish like an autumn scene


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