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Quick question regarding new plants

siddaa1

Member
Joined
1 Oct 2013
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38
I've got some UG, some HC and some harigrass planted in tropica substrate topped with aquarium gravel. Im not convinced the plants which I planted last night are reaching down into capped substrate yet and am worried they might wilt and die although I am misting them daily. The idea was to dry start. Can I mist them with weak EL ferts I've bought or would it be best to top up tank and does the column properly.

I was hoping to do a dry start while i finalise a few things but I dont want to lose my new plants before they've rooted.

Thanks
 
Hi all,
I've got some UG, some HC and some harigrass planted in tropica substrate topped with aquarium gravel. Im not convinced the plants which I planted last night are reaching down into capped substrate yet and am worried they might wilt and die although I am misting them daily.
Just add some more water until they are established.

cheers Darrel
 
I don't think adding ferts in water which would be used to mist the plants in a DSM is a good Idea, I often hear that people suffering from burning and melting due to the ferts. As time goes by the plants should start rooting into the substrate and take nutrients from there. You must keep in mind that most carpeting plants have small root structures which may take time before they develop enough roots to go into the substrate.

If it was my setup I would probably leave it alone until I can see the plant is doing bad and perhaps added some root tabs or Osmocote which is a slow release fert that will be released depending on the amount of water received which should work quite well in a DSM. Others may correct me if this theory is wrong.

Here is a thread which may give some insight towards your problems: Lots of Dry Start Method questions! | UK Aquatic Plant Society
 
Thanks for the replies, the tank is covered to keep humidity up yeah, Michael I think I'll have to leave it and see how they go like you say, if they deteriorate I'll just have to get some proper topsoil type of substrate which contains nutes and replant in that, I really can't see them getting thru the couple of cm of fine gravel too quick and hitting the tropica.
 
Hi all,
Thanks for the replies, the tank is covered to keep humidity up yeah, Michael I think I'll have to leave it and see how they go like you say, if they deteriorate I'll just have to get some proper topsoil type of substrate which contains nutes and replant in that I really can't see them getting thru the couple of cm of fine gravel too quick and hitting the tropica.
I wouldn't worry about the gravel, in fact you can ignore nutrients during the initial growth phase of DSM, the important factor is that until the plant is rooted it is losing water through its leaves that it can't replace from its roots.

If you spray with dilute fertiliser, or the roots enter a salts rich environment, you make things worse, because added to the evaporation loss you also have osmotic effects which remove additional water from the leaves or roots.

Semi-aquatic plants have few adaptations to counter water loss and can't close their stomata when the gradient between the internal relative humidity (always 100%) and the atmosphere becomes large enough that water is lost more quickly than it is replaced. This is why we need to keep humidity as high as possible, with the water level right up to the top of the substrate and nutrient levels fairly low, or we get wilting and leaf death.

In the case of Utricularia graminifolia it is a carnivorous plant, and it comes from nutrient (particularly N) poor environments naturally.

If you have a steeply sloping substrate you'll need to maintain 100% humidity, or mist the upper plants fairly frequently, again just to counter water loss.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel, that's some great advise and I'll take your word for it :)
 
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