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Heated Propagator: An emersed growing experiment . . .

Wookii

Member
Joined
13 Nov 2019
Messages
4,283
Location
Nottingham
For a while I’ve wanted to have a go at growing on cuttings and and baby plantlets emersed, to get larger and more robust plants quicker and with less maintenance, than trying to grow them on submerged. My inspiration was watching several YouTube videos of how Tropica and Dennerle do this commercially:







Then inspired further by @Courtneybst’s excellent thread (Buce Box) I asked the family for some kit for Christmas:


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So that’s the kit, a heated propagator on the left, some grow lights, ultrasonic misters and mini DC pump in the middle, and an aeroponics propagator on the right. I won’t use the latter until I have larger plants with some decent initial roots, so this thread will focus initially on set up the shallower heated propagator.


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For the growing medium I went with the Easyplug rather than rock wool, simply because they claim to acidify the water. I was concerned they may start to disintegrate when saturated, but fortunately they don’t, and they hold together pretty firm.

I expected that I was was going to have to make some modifications along the way, and the first issue I came across was the the planting tray is typically designed to sit on the base of the propagator.

I needed more depth below the tray as a) I wanted to ensure sufficient circulation of the water to ensure that additional nutrients added later on would be evenly spread to all plants, b) I also ensure that only the lower half of the tray was submerged, and c) I needed sufficient depth of water for the ultrasonic mister to work properly. So I made up some little stand-offs at work to lift the tray up about 30mm:


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That resulted in getting the planting tray to a better height:


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Next up I wanted to I wanted to get the pump working to circulate the water. I’m not sure how important this is on my scale - the commercial growers appear to pump their nutrient rich solution to all the growing tray, which makes sense given the size of their green houses, but I thought I would try and replicate in miniature.

The pump is a tiny 12v 1amp unit, but surprisingly powerful for its size. This is it operating on the lowest of its three settings - the other were too powerful:




Unfortunately I ran into issues getting the pump to fit under the growing tray, so had to remove the corner growing cube to accommodate it. However this also gives me easy access for dosing once set up.

I must caveat all this by making clear that I don’t have a single green finger. I have managed to successfully kill almost every house plant I’ve had a go at keeping. This whole propagator effort is an experiment and a nice little side project. Hopefully I’ll end up with a propagator bursting with robust healthy plants, but equally I could end up with a pile of soggy mush. Let’s roll the dice . . . 😂
 
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Excellent journal, your not messing about :thumbup:
Love these little projects....I would use Distilled water or RO in the growing tray!
 
Will be following this with interest.

I tried a propagator last year, just a cheap B&Q one which I lit with silly amounts of light. It grew dwarf hairgrass and rotala very well.
 
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Excellent journal, your not messing about :thumbup:
Love these little projects....I would use Distilled water or RO in the growing tray!

Thanks mate. Yeah, I’ll be using RO, adding a bit of GH (Mg and Ca) and the EI style ferts. As I don’t need to worry about livestock, I might experiment with ammonia based ferts too at some point to see if that can drive faster growth.
 
So the next step has been to get the ultrasonic mister working properly. I figured this was going to be important to maintain a high level of humidity. This meant losing another planting cube, but even with two gone it still leaves 75 planting sites!!


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The water level over the ultra sonic plate is a little lower than ideal, so I’ll have to keep an eye on the water level, but it still works.

However i encountered a problem straight away in that it caused a fountain effect which would spray adjacent plants:





So I modified the opening in the tray with a spare measuring cap off an old bottle, and the off-cut from a zip tie to hold it in place:





Here is it operating with the cover and lights on. I still want to modify it slightly, as more vapour is coming out on the right than the left, but that should be an easy fix.





So essentially now ready for planting. It takes about an hour to get up to upper 80’s to lower 90’s percent humidity, and I’m running the heater at 25 degrees C. I’m not sure if that’s the best temperature or not, but I want to promote growth as much as possible without risking cooking everything.

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Hi, no messing around here!

I’d be really interested in seeing the growth of a much more basic set up as a comparison. (storage box / or propagator with watering)
 
So I have an initial selection of plants to try.


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Crypt. Nurii Rosen Maiden (invitro)
Crypt. Affinis Red (invitro)
Crypt. Lutea Hobbit
Crypt. Crypt Albida Brown
Crypt. Parva
Crypt. X-Willisii (an impulse buy from PAH)
Buce. Red
Buce Kedang

To be added: Anubias Nana Petit/Bonsai/Pangolino

I know it might be a bit contradictory starting with shop bought plants, but I wanted to start off with plants already growing in emersed form, rather than try and take submerged cuttings from my tanks. I will try adding some submerged anubias cuttings also as they don’t tend to shed leaves during transition.

The idea being, these bought plants can be split into numerous tiny plantlets for the propagator. Once (if) they grow into larger plants, some can then be split again for further growing on, so hopefully it can be somewhat self sustaining in theory.

The invitro plants are a bit of a risk, but I thought it worth a try to see if I can propagate these rarer varieties.

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Thats it all planted out then apart from a few bits of anubias to add to the right. I initially thought I might struggle to fill it, but I broke the plants down as far as was physically possible, and the two pots of Parva went an awful long way!

I put the invitro plants in first towards the centre in the hopes that will be the most protected area in terms of temperature and humidity.

Time will tell I guess, so this is week 1, day 1:

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Hi all.
If the propagator is heated (or has a small heat mat under) there is no need for misting as it will evaporate water and maintain high humidity.
I used to run cheap seed trays with small heat mat underneath and apart from initial wetting the substrate never misted.I also like to have some needle holes on lid so its not air tight and there will be no need to open it for ventilation once you find the sweet spot with how many holes are needed.
Will try to dig some pics out.
Regards Konstantin
 
Have you taken any measures in particular in order to keep plant roots oxygenated? I believe that is key in promoting fast and healthy growth.

From my understanding in the nurseries they constantly cycle the trays between "nutrient solution soak" and "dry".

Same method is used in modern bonsai where a fast draining substrate is used and watered plenty a couple of times a day. Every watering provides nutrition, water (duh) and fresh oxygen at atmospheric levels.
 
Hi all,
Have you taken any measures in particular in order to keep plant roots oxygenated? I believe that is key in promoting fast and healthy growth.

From my understanding in the nurseries they constantly cycle the trays between "nutrient solution soak" and "dry".
<"Flood and drain">, but I don't think it will be an issue with the aquatic / semi-aquatic plants that @Wookii wants to propagate, because they will be adapted to growing in substrates with limited oxygenation.

cheers Darrel
 
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Have you taken any measures in particular in order to keep plant roots oxygenated?

Only by virtue of the water being rapidly circulated by the pump. I could add a Venturi to the pump outlet if that would be of value.

Hi all.
If the propagator is heated (or has a small heat mat under) there is no need for misting as it will evaporate water and maintain high humidity.
I used to run cheap seed trays with small heat mat underneath and apart from initial wetting the substrate never misted.I also like to have some needle holes on lid so its not air tight and there will be no need to open it for ventilation once you find the sweet spot with how many holes are needed.
Will try to dig some pics out.
Regards Konstantin

You could well be right - I just wanted to try and maintain close to 100% humidity to ensure the leaves were damp at all times with these being aquatic plants rather than terrestrial seedlings. That said, the Tropica and Dennerle videos don’t appear to have quite that level of humidity, but do operate sprinkler systems.

As I say, this is all a bit of an experiment - if it works I can try a batch without the mister, and compare results.
 
Hi
I am totally pro experiments:)
Following this thread as tried Albida brown and Buces in past .The albida brown became really beefed up but didn't send runners and the buces were on small lava stones with roots in the soil but didn't do much (they grew better in the tanks)
My only word of advice is not to saturate the medium too much as you want it moist but not wet.
Regards Konstantin
 
Nice project. Good luck!
Hi @Wookii That is such as super cool project! I hope it really works out.

Cheers,
Michael

Thanks guys.

I’ll post weekly pictures and try to get images from the same perspective so we can try and compare growth! (I hope I’m not being too optimistic expecting to see growth between weeks!)
 
Hi all,

<"Flood and drain">, but I don't think it will be an issue with the aquatic / semi-aquatic plants that @Wookii want s to propagate, because they will be adapted to growing in substrates with limited oxygenation.

cheers Darrel
Thanks for the details. Even with the plants being adapted to low oxygen levels in the substrate, wouldn't an increase in oxygen levels be an advantage? After all, the goal is to provide optimal conditions for plant growth.
I could add a Venturi to the pump outlet if that would be of value.
I'd think every little bit would help. But even using a venturi, a constantly flooded system will never achieve the same levels of oxygen a "flood and drain" system could. You see, every time water drains from the root system it gets replaced by air with 21ppm oxygen whereas you can only get around max 8ppm dissolved oxygen in the water.

But as @dw1305 mentions, it may be that higher oxygen levels are not that relevant to the development of your chosen plants and the benefits would be negligible.
 
This looks really promising so far. Nice thread. Really looking forward to hearing how the plants will do. I bet you will probably have hundreds of crypts in 6 months or so if all goes to plan.

I might use this thread as inspiration in the near future as I want to try dabbling in tissue culture and I especially want to TC aquatic aroids such as Cryptocorynes, Lagenandra and Bucephalandra. I could possibly use something similar to acclimatise plantlets to normal growth conditions as it seems quite space efficient and not too expensive. Really nice idea.
 
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