# looking back



## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

Trying to get a handle on the culture theory on growing crypts. So I took a look in the biology book and we have:
Family Aracea
Subfamily Aroideae
and
Genus Cryptocoryne
or
Genus Alocacia

Well, I grow alocasia in a nursery set up.
I have alocasia growing in my grove as an invasive species. I can't get rid of the stuff.

Alocasia can be tricky to grow if you try and put it in a pot. Most people think they love wet soil and sit in water. Well sometimes but be careful. They will rot or damp off in a country second.
They really prefer to be wet yes but in well drained soil.

Will be trying some new techniques.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Sounds like Niko's ebb and flow suggestion might be the ticket. 

Fungus has definitely always been my biggest enemy growing anything emersed.


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## denske (Jul 28, 2013)

AaronT said:


> Sounds like Niko's ebb and flow suggestion might be the ticket.
> 
> Fungus has definitely always been my biggest enemy growing anything emersed.


Was thinking the same, i might give that method a try.


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

I think I have a bacteria problem so that is a problem. I better pull this sick cow from the heard. My mycorrhizal stress tolerators are not doing their jobs.


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

Decided to make some mycorrhiza tea. So I scratched up soil around some healthy alocasia to which I will soak in water. I will spray the liquid left over from slurry on my crypts. Hopefully I will introduce good bugs to my substrate.
Picture of alocasia showing healthy root system growing in leaf litter. This is a good thing.
Remember, this is a plant that will grow submerged in water for a period of time but it hates it. It prefers these conditions. Moist leaf mold but water table below the crown of the plant. Sound familiar?


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

most mycorrhyza are highly specific for species or at best genera of plants. Are you sure that Aroids even have mycorrhiza?


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

The more I read and view pictures of some crypts in their native environments, the more certain methods of growing become clearer. The crypts I have been looking at are mostly the bullosa looking types. The ideal growing conditions for some crypts seem to be a layer of leaf litter on top with wet mud/sand below, emerged with occasional flooding. Sounds simple but trying to duplicate this in a closed tank can be a head scratcher. One thing I have noticed nurii will grow well submerged but hudoroi seems to stumble.
I am going to try the tea just for the heck of it. The soil under the alocasia has a very sweet chicken poop smell.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

I sometimes wonder if moist (not wet) potting soil with 100 % air moisture wouldn't do just as well ...


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

Well doing what I like best. Dumping out substrate from pots to see what's up with the crypt root's zone...I guess I should say what is down. Ran into some soft mushy stool smelling globs of something to start off. That was a fertilizer tab at one time. Nothing happening in that area that I could see.
I am heading the opposite direction from muddy or things that get muddy. I seem to notice in my old crypts submerged planted in pots, the healthy white roots are on the outside of the pot growing through the drain holes. The top of the pots where detritus collects becomes a no root zone.
If I had enough plants to experiment with, I would try growing with no substrate in a hydroponic system. The hydro people have plant culture down to a science.
The one substrate I see the hydro people use is just perlite if they grow in a container fill/drain system.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

You know funny thing, at one point, being out of ideas, I worked for a company that maintained terrestrial live plants in offices, buildings, etc. You get to see all kinds of problematic environments. The worst are hospitals and malls (any kind of human discharges can be found in the plants). The office plant companies deal with the problems in a very elegant way - they trash and replace the plants as if there is no tomorrow and always blame the tech for all problems under the sun.

So, the first time I saw Alocasias in a hospital lobby I just shook my head. They looked like prissy little plants that will die either today or tomorrow. But the pretty little things were cast iron. I never had a problem with them despite drafty lobbies, A/C vents blowing on them, sun lit hot areas, etc. And the mandatory undersized planting pots of course.

It is pretty strange to look back and remember plants that had zero issues in bad environments and realize that often you can do every single thing you can but the plants just flat out refuse to do well. This is the time to mention something interesting: I've said that before - among office plant technicians it is common knowledge that plants need interaction with positive people. The first time I carefully mentioned my observations to some of my colleagues they showed mild interest and immediately told me that what I'm talking about is common knowledge but they do not discuss it often because sounds cookie. They told me about certain species of palms doing better if you touch them. And about a jaded technician killing all her plants being replaced with a nice tech that never had any plants dying on them. It is not all about watering and maintenance. My observations over and over and over have been that in an office where everyone hates each other plants do not last long. You can track that on paper by looking at the constant replacement orders for that account. As I said in the beginning - the office plant industry could care less about the plants so they replace them. In offices full of idiots the replacements are constant despite great conditions for the plants to grow. On a few occasions I'd go to a new account, see a sad dying plant and look at the person sitting close by thinking "I think I know you already...". The opposite is also true - if the people are gentle and get along well plants do grow in extremely bad conditions (under an A/C vent, close to a Southern window, and constantly lacking water because of the A/C blowing on top and the sun drying them up from the side).

One other hippie observation is that plants like to "belong". No plant does well in a corridor or a room where noone lingers. Transient places like that do not feel like "home" to the plants I guess. It is not a question of drafts or people dumping everything imaginable when no one is around.


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

I must admit, I spend more time watching my crypts convolute vernation than I do playing with my dogs. They are so slow, every new leaf is a major event and a sign all those hours spent are going to work out...I hope.


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## MissileBear (Feb 28, 2013)

king kong said:


> I must admit, I spend more time watching my crypts convolute vernation than I do playing with my dogs. They are so slow, every new leaf is a major event and a sign all those hours spent are going to work out...I hope.


That made me feel better about the time I spend in front of my emergent tanks....


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

I think I have a bad habit. I lifted pots with crypt up so they sit in .5 inch of water. ok but I have 2 spray bottles of ro water and fertilizer that get used way too much. In another words keeping plants too wet....is that possible? So the substrate is 100% saturated instead of 90% saturated.
I don't know if the root systems would know the difference? I got a feeling they do so I am going to hide my spray bottles. This is not going to be easy. I am a big believer in too much of a good thing is a good thing.

By the way, how often does one change the water in the tank?


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