The Conference was really good.
Had a chance to met many new people and many old friends.
The AGA BOD worked like dogs to put the event on as well as the local club.
About 15 people got a Fluval Edge tanks fully scaped and ready to go!
Some nice field trips and hosting.
A number of members here showed up and introduced themselves.
Talks all went well and offered a range of topics. Neils had a good sense of humor and it showed.
Kris was doubled up with 2 talks.
Many braved the Sandy Hurricane aftermath post mayhem to attend.
Spoke with Cavan, Kris and Aaron from GWAPA on native plant collecting and will likely work more with them to promote this and encourage/promote the vast no# of native species we have available.
Getting people to try out nice new plants seems like an easy sell, but that is not the case.
Neils showed many pictures from south East Asian streams and rivers that had higher CO2(many cave and spring fed systems). He stated that they are weeds. They are a mess in terms of what to call many of them in nomenclature.
Some other comments: most Crypts do not invest much into the leaves..........since once the water level rises, the silt acts like sand paper and grinds the leaves up.
So a large rhizome becomes essential for long term persistence to get through the wet season.
I suspect this is also true for sword plants as well, as they come from similar habits.
A central theme to Neil's talk and also Cavan's: a large number of freshwater tidal systems had plants. So the East coast as well as South East Asia have many freshwater tidal systems.
Tidal systems like ours in CA, often scour and have quite high flow rates in/out 2x a daily. This brings in new CO2 rich water and exposes the leaves to the air for a few hours each day.
Think about it like a water changes 2x a day. A lot of the tidal waters deposit mud on the leaves, while they are in full sun or shade, this reduces the sunlight the leaves are exposed to greatly.
Neil's has done nearly 1000 back crosses to determine species and relationships between the Group, which is a lot of work, maybe 10 % were successful artificial hybrids, so perhaps 100 hybrid Crypts.
I had one from many years ago from Alexi, a walkeri x usteriana. I'm not ever sure if walkeri is a valid name.
We have similar issues with Ludwigia in the USA and pondweeds.
Perhaps some can be crossed, but that opens a can of worms if they get lose into the wild.
Florida Aquatic nurseries was very generous. Had a chance to talk awhile with Brandon.
Got to meet a few folks that are ardent non CO2 folks. Dorothy Reimer made it!
A good meeting.
Had a chance to met many new people and many old friends.
The AGA BOD worked like dogs to put the event on as well as the local club.
About 15 people got a Fluval Edge tanks fully scaped and ready to go!
Some nice field trips and hosting.
A number of members here showed up and introduced themselves.
Talks all went well and offered a range of topics. Neils had a good sense of humor and it showed.
Kris was doubled up with 2 talks.
Many braved the Sandy Hurricane aftermath post mayhem to attend.
Spoke with Cavan, Kris and Aaron from GWAPA on native plant collecting and will likely work more with them to promote this and encourage/promote the vast no# of native species we have available.
Getting people to try out nice new plants seems like an easy sell, but that is not the case.
Neils showed many pictures from south East Asian streams and rivers that had higher CO2(many cave and spring fed systems). He stated that they are weeds. They are a mess in terms of what to call many of them in nomenclature.
Some other comments: most Crypts do not invest much into the leaves..........since once the water level rises, the silt acts like sand paper and grinds the leaves up.
So a large rhizome becomes essential for long term persistence to get through the wet season.
I suspect this is also true for sword plants as well, as they come from similar habits.
A central theme to Neil's talk and also Cavan's: a large number of freshwater tidal systems had plants. So the East coast as well as South East Asia have many freshwater tidal systems.
Tidal systems like ours in CA, often scour and have quite high flow rates in/out 2x a daily. This brings in new CO2 rich water and exposes the leaves to the air for a few hours each day.
Think about it like a water changes 2x a day. A lot of the tidal waters deposit mud on the leaves, while they are in full sun or shade, this reduces the sunlight the leaves are exposed to greatly.
Neil's has done nearly 1000 back crosses to determine species and relationships between the Group, which is a lot of work, maybe 10 % were successful artificial hybrids, so perhaps 100 hybrid Crypts.
I had one from many years ago from Alexi, a walkeri x usteriana. I'm not ever sure if walkeri is a valid name.
We have similar issues with Ludwigia in the USA and pondweeds.
Perhaps some can be crossed, but that opens a can of worms if they get lose into the wild.
Florida Aquatic nurseries was very generous. Had a chance to talk awhile with Brandon.
Got to meet a few folks that are ardent non CO2 folks. Dorothy Reimer made it!
A good meeting.
