How do you keep your plants that you aren't "using" in a tank.

[ShadowMac]

I have been looking into ways I can efficiently keep the various species of plants I have been acquiring that I may not be currently using in an aquascape.

What methods do you suggest for this type of thing?

I have seen some people do immersed cultures. Is this best, or only should be used for some species?

What I have been doing is using a 20 or 10 gallon tank and putting everything in there with minimal lighting and pressurized CO2. It works to keep them alive, but not the greatest for growing them out to usable quantities if I would like to use them in a scape.

Anyone have ideas or clever things you do like this? I would like to know a good method for keeping plants alive, growing well, with minimal effort or investment.

Mini greenhouses? I'm just throwing out ideas.

 

[chopsticks]

I put them in plastic containers filled with some potting soil and cover them with cling film, sort of what you do when doing the DSM. I have several of this containers in the backyard in an area covered with shade cloth. I live in the tropics so weather helps a lot.

Regards,
Juan

 

[Hallen]

I've tried several methodes, since I have a small tank and a plantfetish which doesn't combine really well. Here's what I found to work best cost and effortwise:

- Walstad based tanks near a window: Doesn't require alot of work due to the thick layer of soil, I tend to use somewhat shallow tanks in which the plants grow sub and eventually immersed, if I let them. Problem is not all species do really well immersed due to a low Co2 level and often high light from outside. You could make it work with a light bulb, but I like to use the sun since it's free and I like to see what the change of seasons their effect is on the plants.

- Greenhouse idea: Layer of soil, a high rv and sunlight, works pretty well once the plants are immersed. Adding submersed plants and letting them grow immersed doesnt always go well.

- A combined methode of both which I find to work the best. Closed tank with a thick layer of soil running down in a slope, the lowest part hold water. I plant submersed plants on the water part, once they've grown above the water I move them up until I find a suitable place. I love this methode, immersed plants are more easy to keep and propagate. (That's why the commercial plantfarms grow their plants immersed)

In the summer time I tend to grow some species outside in large dug-in buckets, especially Echinodorus and Crypto's seem to do real well outside. Added bonus, free food in the form of insect like mosquito larve.

 

[fjf888]

GWAPA local plant group I belong to did a workshop on cultivating plants using emersed setups. The basic concept was using covered seed trays. If done indoors you probably would need some supplemental lighting and heat if cold.

Here's a pic that is an example of what you might use. Need to keep wet and sealed to prevent evaporation

http://www.growgardentomatoes.com/image-files/growing-tomatoes-from-seed-11.jpg

 

[ShadowMac]

thanks everyone. I like the seed tray idea. I have purchased something similar with a heating pad and will give it a shot. It would be nice to have a place to store a little of each plant. I have an idea for how to grow them out into their submerged form. I recently made some riparium planters using a sturdy plastic food container 4"x12"x4" and then super glued some suction cups onto the back. It holds a few large peace lilies out of the top of my 29 low tech. I could use that same thing, but place the planter fully submerged and add whatever it was I wanted to grow out from the emersed setup.