Growing HC emersed with sunlight and potting soil?

[Revision17]

I have 2.... "frags".. of HC in my planted tank. The one I've attached to my driftwood closer to the lights seems to be doing quite well, with pearling, etc. The other one is growing a bit more slowly (it pearls a little, but not as much as the one that's closer to the lights). So, I'm thinking of expediting the process a bit and growing it emersed, but out of the tank.

I have very little terrestrial plant growing experience, but here's what I'm planning (attempting to save money by using stuff I already have):
1) Fill the long pot on my window sill with miracle gro "moisture control" potting soil.
2) Taking little bits of HC and placing them evenly.
3) Water with old fishtank water daily to keep the soil moist and the HC fertilized beyond what the soil can do.
4) Once the pot has filled in with HC, take out about 3/4s of it (evenly) and let it grow in again.

This window gets about 4 hours of direct morning sun, and weakish indirect light for the rest of the day.

Does this sound like it would let HC grow fast enough to be worthwhile?

 

[Dusko]

Read through this Sticky please, its gonna give you the idea.

I am not sure potting soil is good, in contact with leaves I mean (NH4), and you will need to keep the moisture, so placing a glass pot over the HC would be a great idea. Tom is suggesting 1.5-2 w/g so direct sun light might be too much, so indirect light might do the trick.

Regards, Dusko.

 

[Tom Barr]

Sun light works fine for me, but they are just set up like terrariums.
I used ADA AS.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Revision17]

Ok, just planted a pinch of HC (which was floating around my tank anyway). I'll try and keep it moist while I'm in the room and see how it does before I yank any more. It's such a small piece that if it dies, then no big deal.

 

[Revision17]

I found this thread while googling, so I figured I'd give it an update...

The HC seemed to be surviving ok for about 4 days. Then I forgot to water it over the weekend, and it dried out and died. The potting soil I was using didn't retain water nearly well enough.

I wouldn't recommend this method to anyone.

 

[VaughnH]

The plants which grow submersed are almost necessarily either submersed only in nature, or are bog plants that can grow emersed, but only in very wet conditions. I think that is true. If it is, your HC experiment might have worked well if you had used enough water on the soil to totally saturate it, enough that any more would just be standing water on the surfacee. Then if you had covered it with some plastic wrap or equivalent to keep the humidity at near 100%, and to retard evaporation, it would almost certainly have worked. These are not plants to be grown as ordinary garden plants, where you need to avoid having the soil too wet.

 

[Dusko]

I wouldn't recommend this method to anyone.

One shouldn't give such statement after just one test

I am growing HC emerged for 2 and a half weeks now, and it is spreading just fine. Not adding any extra water because the aquarium is sealed (not air proof though).

I am also growing Eleocharis acicularis (same method) without any problems. I also mowed the Hair grass (emerged) and it regrow very fast (3-4 days).

I will try this emerged method with most of the popular foreground species and post back to you.

Regards, Dusko.