# Growing Crypts on live moss...



## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Bastmeijer said me i should probe the growing on live moss... really I was growing on live moss many time ago. I use it to root the rhizome and get a lot of plants.

I got a big amount of seedling of Sri-lanka from crypts of this way.










Two month ago I divided the rhizome of some pontederiifolia in several parts and putted on a moss bed and then covered.

Some weeks ago, the fist littles leaves are coming up...


















At the moment this method goes good for rooting, so i want test it with a long term culture. This week i potted some seedling of spiralis and balansae (2 of that easy crypts which i have many problem with emersed culture) on live moss as soil. I potted a sensitive crypt like longicauda too, to see the results about this sensitive crypts with soil mix...

Bastmaijer told me that is a common practice from Japan... so I searched info in the net.... i found some interesting pics i want to share with you.

Really is not live moss... seems died spahgnum moss. It´s a cordata var. zonata.









This cryptocoryne sp. seems grow a mixture of sphagnum moss and tree leaf litter

















Any experience, opinion or something?


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## Happy Camper (Jul 22, 2004)

Hi Xema

Very interesting method indeed. Did you divide the Ponte Rhizome and just place in the moss? Is the Moss attached to driftwood or do you have a shallow tray covered with moss? I would like to try this method for sure with my Ponte, did you add any ferts to the moss or is it plain?
How long did it take from placing of the rhizome to first leaf? Did your Rhizome have small shoots before planting or was it just a plain rhizome?
Just when I think I had seen it all along comes Xema with another brilliant idea  Cheers and thanks for that, very interesting stuff. Gotta love Crypts 

Kindest Regards
Cameron


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## Rafael Diogo (Feb 2, 2005)

Hi, folks

I just saw an interesting thing happening with some C. cordata i have.

I didnt make a pot to this C. cordata that i keep it floating in a tank i have outside my house...in this tank i have, besides other plants, a rock with lot of Fontinalis antypiretica.

Today i saw the C. cordata near this rock..when i got the Crypto, it was rooted to Fontinalis and with about 4 or 5 little plants borning from rhizome.

Well, for accident i 'found out' a new way to get crypts fast...i'll try to do the same method with some C. parva and C. becketii petchii i have...

Im also doing this experiencie with Java moss that Xema told....Now i only gotta wait the results..

Best regards


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Hello Cameron,

I am glad you like my post.

The rhisomes are cutted and putted on a moss bed placed on a plate, them i cover it with other moss layer, no attached, only putted on. After i add some water and cover the plate with a transparent plastic film for some weeks, when i can see the frists new leaves i remove the plastic cap.

Probably moss will be a anti-fungi and bacteria power, and i think the great porously of the moss (many air into), improve the root growth. 

the fists leaves doesn´t take a lot of time in get its first sunligths (depending to the sp.) if the temp. is rigth probably no more than 3 or 4 weeks). Sri-lanka from crypts are faster to get its first leaves.


Rafael, i wish a lot of luck in your attemping with this plants

Greeting from Spain


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

my longicauda growing on live moss.










Greeting from spain


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## Rafael Diogo (Feb 2, 2005)

Hello, Xema

Welldone!!! =D> =D> =D> 

But, i got a little doubt...what did you put, besides moss? This 'brown' layer, under the moss at the photo of C. longicauda?

Another thing...like i told you, i´m trying the same species with 2 different ways...moss and 'xaxim'(like a peat moss)...with moss 100% or near of the parts of rhizome that i put born...at the xaxim this number is about 60%..you have the same experiences?

Once more, congratulations! Nice Crypt 

Greetings from Brazil!


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Rafael, that 'brown layer' looks like peat moss/coconut moss.

Xema, what's the ratio of live moss to peat moss in your pots?


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## lorba (Feb 4, 2004)

Hey xema, I've tried it on my longicaudas and yujiis and i must say the result looks positive. Hope to post some pictures later on.


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

> But, i got a little doubt...what did you put, besides moss? This 'brown' layer, under the moss at the photo of C. longicauda?


That brown layer, is simply died sphagnum moss.



> Another thing...like i told you, i´m trying the same species with 2 different ways...moss and 'xaxim'(like a peat moss)...with moss 100% or near of the parts of rhizome that i put born...at the xaxim this number is about 60%..you have the same experiences?


i cannt answer to you this question, i never tested xaxim (by the way, that in spain is known like xaxim, is not the same that you are using, xaxim is a litter of ferns roots here)



> what's the ratio of live moss to peat moss in your pots?


Not a special ratio, i putted it beacause i haven´t enougth live moss (vesicularia dubiana), and i seized a bit of died sphagnum moss from my orchids. Nevertheless, i will test in a few weeks the culture on died sphagnum moss.

Roland,.... I am impatient waiting your pics.

Greeting from Spain


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

I do this with my Crypts, the moss is growing on the top and the lower area is soil/pumice.

Crypts seem to respond well to Hair grass, Moss, Gloss and other plants growing around them.

It seems to prevent melt and reduce pest. 
So I do it for a few reasons, but the main one was simply aesthetics.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## Mowgli (Jul 15, 2005)

and they will grow without nutrients??..(normally they get it from the soil..but in this case?)
or you add some kind of ferlilization on the water?

and other question: do you use some kind or artificial light?..or just sun?...o nothing?


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Of course.... I need add nutrients at the water, but crypts can grow with a little amount of fert, they live in poor mineralized waters.

I never used artificial light with emerged crypts.

Greetings from Spain


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## Mowgli (Jul 15, 2005)

thank you, Xema..in this moment i'm copying your set up :^o ..jejejeje


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

As an aside here, a few months ago when I thinned out a large wendtii stand, apparently a tiny rhizome got stuck in the uptake of my filter. I saw it there and left it. By the time I got it off the intake, it had developed into a plant which was about 3 inches long with the roots running into the intake pipe.


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

At the end got recopalate all info of my "moss experiences" in a only one doc.

My crypts notes

yes, I know, it´s in spanish... give a few weeks to get it translated.

Greetings from Spain (the land of the eternal spring for the cryptos)


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## Mowgli (Jul 15, 2005)

in spanish!!


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