Crypt lutea 'hobbit'

[RobertS]

I'm expecting a delivery of this soon to start a carpet in a section of a new tank that's been going almost 2 weeks now. Has anyone literally divided pots of this into individual single plantlets? How well does this work and any issues? Did you leave the pots in the tank for a while to get used to the conditions before planting?

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi Robert
I have regularly purchased various Crypts over the years, my go-to routine.

Leave the plastic bag unopened till acclimatised to room temperature.
Add the plants to a bowl of aquarium water, remove any dead or dying leaves and all growing media, and trim the roots!
I leave the plants floating on the surface of the aquarium for 5/7 days to observe if there is any leaf melting.
Obviously, you would remove those melting leaves.
You can split into individual plants but I would plant small clumps of plants for aesthetic reasons.
hoggie

 

[zozo]

AFAIK the C. lutea 'hobbit' is a fantasy name invented by Dennerle and in reality, this plant is a cultivated genetically dwarfed hybrid from the C. walkerii.
Today it's also sold as C. walkerii 'hobbit' and C. walkerii 'lutea'. So, genetically it is and stays a C. walkerii but only the selected dwarfed variety is cultivated as the 'hobbit' version. There is no guarantee that it will stay a hobbit and it can grow into its normal C. walkerii size which is significantly bigger.

This happened to me a few years ago, this was the first year the variety was launched on the market by Dennerle. After a few months, there was no hobbit left all grew bigger. That's how I started to investigate and found out via other sources than Dennerle it truly is a C. walkerii instead.

Maybe I just had bad luck and no idea if today a few years later the strain they cultivate is more stable and will stay small. I never tried it again.

 

[Andy Pierce]

I'm expecting a delivery of this soon to start a carpet in a section of a new tank that's been going almost 2 weeks now. Has anyone literally divided pots of this into individual single plantlets? How well does this work and any issues? Did you leave the pots in the tank for a while to get used to the conditions before planting?

If you are getting pots in rockwool (and not tissue culture cups) then yes, 'hobbit' subdivides easily into single plantlets. You can separate into plantlets, cut off all the emersed growth leaves and plant straight away.