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Low Tech Plants

Alan Fluxion

Member
Joined
17 Apr 2014
Messages
116
Location
Bydgoszcz, Poland
Hello all I am changing things up and making my 60L low tech and the 25L high tech with Co2 but I need some plants for low tech... maybe someone can recommend some plants.

Low/Medium light, no co2, some ferts in soil (natural ei)

I need some kind of grass (if possible), 2nd and 3rd plan. There will not be any Co2.

(Latin names please, I won't be able to find them otherwise)
 
current thread on low tec lawns
Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis is working well for me ATM.There's also Crypt Parva
Stems that have always worked for me include Hygro Polysperma,Lymnophila Sessiflora & Vallis
I also tend to use lots of Crypts,lots of different types of Microsorum pteropus ,especially the mini & minor ones.
Also Bolbitus Heudelotii
Not a comprehensive list, but something to start with
 
I've never really had that much success with Eleocharis the low-energy way either...it just sorta hangs in there for a while and then disappears. Conversely it grows like a weed in my injected tanks. IMO/IME I think that it needs more light than I can reasonably give it in a low-energy tank without incurring the usual penalty of an unbalanced system...loads of algae. Tom has had much better success in the various incarnations of Bucket O' Mud tho'.

That said for the most part Ed is right the Tropica "Easy" plant list is a good place to start - it's often a case of suck it and see - plant what you want and let them fight it out, it soon becomes apparent what will thrive, exist and decline in your unique conditions. If you're really stuck there is a plant list at the end of the tutorial linked below. All of these have done well in my low-energy soil substrate tanks.
 
Hi all,
I think the "Tropica" recommendations are largely about right.

One problem is that all the companies producing plants are interested in pushing plants that can be grown emersed, because it fits in with their production methods. Ideally for a long term low tech set up you want plants that are happy to grow submerged 100% of the time, so straight away you have some potential difficulties.

Long term you want what used to be described as "low light plants", others will tell you they are actually plants with a low CO2 demand. Most obligate aquatics are OK, this means Vallisneria and Potamogeton spp. for example, although Vallisneria doesn't do well in very soft water. Plants that are emergent, or have floating leaves, have access to aerial CO2, which means that they are usually easy to grow. So as well as the obvious floaters (Limnobium laevigatum, Pistia stratiotes, Salvinia "natans") there are Aponogeton & Nymphae spp.with floating leaves, and if plants like Hygrophila corymbosa and the stalked leaved Echinodorus spp. can grow partially emersed they do very well.

Ferns and mosses are also good, particularly the old favourites like "Java moss" (Taxiphyllum barberi), "Indian/Floating Fern" (Ceratopteris thalictroides) and "Java Fern" (Microsorum pteropus). If your water isn't really hard Bolbitis heudelottii is a good grower once it gets growing. After that Cryptocoryne spp. are good, and I like the larger Anubias types as well.

cheers Darrel
 
companies producing plants are interested in pushing plants that can be grown emersed
I didn't quite realize the validity of this, but ofcourse it's true. Sadly getting hold of other species get's harder and harder. I am always sad realising all the garden centre's are from 2 large companies now. They all have the same general varities. I long for the good old days where a gardencenter had a large collection of strange plants, often bought by the owner at the plants auction, rare ones, large overgrown forgotten ones. In short heavenly for real plantlovers. Nowadays gardencentre's are more about in house design in stead of plants:rage:
 
Hi all,
I didn't quite realize the validity of this, but of course it's true. I am always sad realising all the garden centre's are from 2 large companies now. They all have the same general varities. I long for the good old days where a gardencenter had a large collection of strange plants, often bought by the owner at the plants auction, rare ones, large overgrown forgotten ones. In short heavenly for real plant lovers. Nowadays gardencentre's are more about in house design in stead of plants:rage:
I think that really has "hit the nail on the head". Thirty years ago I worked as a nurseryman on what was then the UK's largest chain of Garden Centres.

I naively imagined that we grew plants because they were what people wanted, but I soon found that they were pretty ruthless at getting rid of products (plants) that didn't produce much profit, even if there was still a demand for them.

The company had based their success on realising that the general public were just looking to buy a container plant in flower, and that a Lavatera × clementii that sold for £2, but cost pennies to produce was many times more likely to sell than a Hibiscus syriacus that retailed for £5, but cost £2 to produce. It was a win win situation, you sold a plant with built in obsolescence for a healthy profit, and pretty soon most of the established nurseryman had gone to the wall or were following the same business model.

Since then things have got much worse in the UK, partially because the planning laws are different for shops from garden centres allowing garden centres to bypass many of the regulations that cover other retail outlets, even though they are now de facto department stores with horticulture as a very minor component of their business.

And the company I worked for? They eventually bit of more than they could chew, and control of the company fell into the hands of property developers who's only interest in the garden centres was in selling them for building land, and why did they want garden centres? Mainly because of the same derogation of planning regulations that had allowed the garden centres to behave as shops.

cheers Darrel
 
How can it be a surprise, that producing plants as a business........is business ???:confused:
I constantly hear the wining: "why aren't this and that plant prodced comercially anymore??"
-Basically because not enough costumers will pay the price, it actually cost to produce those more demanding plants!!
I don't know how things are done elsewhere..........but here in Denmark there's quite a lot of "happenings/markets" (some has become an annual or monthly tradition, and a place to meet other "nerds", some are only on www.), where private people trade or swap plants, they grow themselves. You even have a section here on UKAPS.
This is where to find " the good, old rarieties", that won't be marketed by business, because they don't "pay their rent".......[DOUBLEPOST=1408381313][/DOUBLEPOST]What I mean to say is: it's just too easy to blame it on others, to keep interesting plantsxavailable - it's actually the hobby, that has an interest in this, and could do it successfully !!
 
Well, it is the same old story if we talk about vegetables and fruits... I try to grow as many as I can in our family orchard. Good old varieties of tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc that are not suitable for agricultural business due to low yields or... Or just because companies cannot obtain royalties as they do with modified new ones. But seed banks and old farms are plenty of promissory landraces. This is the future, I'm sure!
Ups, sorry we are talking about aquatic plants

Jordi
 
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