# Planting Aponogetons



## Tex Gal

I was in the LFS the other week and heard some people talking about the Aponogeton plants. They were saying that you don't plant the bulbs entirely in the substrate. I have always planted the bulbs and they have done very well. Now I am wondering if that was correct. I have several varieties, Madagascar lace, Crispus, Ulvaceous.

How do you all plant your Aponogetons?:-s


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## AaronT

The bulb can be buried completely in my experience. Take the advice of LFS employees with a grain of salt when it comes to growing plants.


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## hoplo

They might have mixed it up with the other african Crinums which need their bulbs to be exposed.


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## Robert Hudson

Generally speaking, when you bury any type of tuber or bulb in the aquarium, under water, there is the possibility it may rot. This happens when the substrate is very thick with decaying organic material and becomes difficient in oxygen. Besides, there really isn't any reason to bury the bulb. Just sitting on top of the substrate, it will form roots that will burrow into the substrate. Sometimes you might buy an Apongeton that has a very tiny bulb, a bulbet which is a baby bulb. The only way to keep the plant in the gravel is to bury the bulb. When this is the case, I just do not bury it any deeper than I have to, and once it is well rooted I pull it up some.

Aponogetons also may go dormant, and I have found when the bulb gets buried in silt that may even trigger dormancey. If you do not feed the plants while they are growing, it is likely they will not grow back after going dormant.


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## jazzlvr123

I have read that it is good to plant several smaller crypts around the aponogeton bulb to help support the aponogetons root system. Apparently the aponogeton roots thrive when it has others around it to latch onto this supposedly keeps them from going into periods of domancy. These other "supporter crypts" subsequently keep the soil where the bulb is planted "clean" Keeping the plants from rotting because of sitting in "dirty" acidic soil which can cause the bulb to rot People have suggested doing this to try and avoid these plants almost inevitable routine dormancy periods they seem to go through every 4-6 months. Here is some very helpful information given on another forum by Michael Eckardt for the A. mad.
1. plant near crypt roots,
2. plant only the bottom half of the bulb
3. ADA or any other acidic substrate (it is suggested that aponogetons root systems do very well with power sand at the bottom)
4. let the plant grow and don't constantly re-arrange it - hands off
5. plant in fine sand and take care not to damage the bulb
6. temp 70-75 (temperature fluctuation's induce dormancy)
7. give it a Jobe palm and fern stick every now and then, especially when it
comes out of its rest period.
8. don't remove the bulb from the tank when it rests - the bulbs come from
PERMANENT creeks and rivers that silt up in the rainy season. According to
C. KASSELMANN in AQUARIENPFLANZEN (Ulmer, 1995), the reduced light due to
the soil in the water triggers the dormancy. It is not, as usually assumed,
the disappearance of the water from the habitat due to the dry season.
Therefore, leave the bulb in the tank, and ignore it.


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## Javaman

nice info


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## kwc1974

I have had Aponogetons rot from being buried too deep for too long. It is not something that happens often, maybe 1 out of 10 (my exp.) but I have had it happen. Now if you do not care about resting the bulb and regrowing the plant, and you only want the plant to grow for one tank layout, then no worries. Just my 2 cents worth.


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## Tex Gal

Thanks for all the feedback. 

Robert & KWC: I think I will pull them out some. (I do worry about my plecos eating the bulbs.) They are all extremely well rooted. I have had one rot before. I have recently added new plant tabs in the substrate to them. They are just coming out of their dormant period and growing like weeds.

Jazz: thanks for your 1, 2, 3.... I have alse read about the "rest period". 1/2 the world says take them out, the other half says leave them in-tank. I have let mine in-tank and recently all but my madagascar came back. I still have it in there hoping to see it spring back to life. I hope it isn't permanently dormant!


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