from 2007
Growing in DIY sand/laterite/zeolite mix.
Daily ferts... similar to PPS + a few DIY clay+blood&bone+osmocote fert balls at the roots.
Soft Water. kH 2, gH 4
CO2 and 8000K Halide lights.
27-28C (warm for this plant)
I bought this plant a while ago from an LFS (cost me around $40 after some sweet talking and waving $20 notes in the air... sticker price was $70!)
I was so excited to finally own *the* plant that typifies plants in aquaria in books when I was a kid. After I got home I googled up some info and read you should always buy one with a good bulb (mine had virtually none) Friends suggested it was a tissue culture specimen grown in QLD and hense no bulb so no reserves to live on and it will surely die. ...... that was 4 months ago (I think).
Reading on the internet tells me these plants need to be kept cool. My tank was at 24C then and this is really the top end of the range.
Last month I bought a school of threadfins that needed the tank to be warmer... so I increased the temp to 28C and started scheming on how I was going to get another big cool-water tank past Mrs Grubs in order to save Mr. Madagascariensis. That hasn't happened yet but the plant is still growing gang-busters!!! The leaf I'm holding has just expanded and in the top photo you might be able to make out a new leaf on its way up.
Every leaf that appears is bigger than the one before... The olive colour is the new leaves.. they then seem to go greener with green spot algae colonising the leaves as they age. Seeing as how there was very little bulb to start with at least I know that it must be loving my DIY laterite substrate and getting its own nutrients via the roots.
It is a real feature in the tank and I'm lovin' growing it... and I dont have to trim it!!! yay!
The flower is starting to fill out.
The stalk behind the flower appears to aleady be going hard so hopefully the flower will not drop off prematurely!
The stalk of the second flower has done the same and it wouldn't surprise me if the second flower never opens...
Not the greatest shot in the world but you can see a few seeds (swolen base with longer "spike") forming on this flower.
Note: this is flower #4. The previous photo was #3 and seeds formed but I put the flower in a floating chinese food container and it the whole thing rotted as I didn't change the water often enough.
Flower 5 is coming out now but the stem is rotting behind the flower before it will open fully.
Bud #6 is on its way up!!!
All of the flowers are suffering from stem rot behind the flower before/as it opens. I dont know why. I suspect they are growing too fast and are drying out under the halides before they have a chance to toughen up after leaving the water surface. I'll try and keep the next bud underwater...even if I have to stand there and hold it under all day!
2014
Getting too big for the tank! Just noticed a bud forming tonight too.
Smaller plant on the right side is just finding its stride after sitting for 6 months at < 5cm high
Specs: 60x45x38h tank, DIY gravel/red clay. Osmocote/clay balls pushed under the plants every 3 months. No water column fertiliser at all. Room temperature. CO2 added. Single Up Aqua Pro Z. for 8hrs. KH <1, GH ~3 EC ~300 µS/cm using rainwater + DIY GH booster (for the cherry shrimp).
Tank was set up just to raise these so no focus at all on layout other than placing the plants under the light
Unlike other apon flowers I have not seen any free pollen on this flower spike. The entire spike is a little sticky, and I've been gently wiping it from tip to centre with a very soft brush, and occasionally dipping the flower head in the water (where you would normally see a cloud of pollen float away on the water surface). So far the brush has remained clean, and I haven't seen any pollen floating. Dipping the flowers is normally a great way to get pollen off the anthers and onto the stigma (as the flower moves through the water film the pollen that was floating sticks to the flower).
The little dots on the tips are the anthers that should crack open to release the pollen - I can see with a hand lense they are closed - wondering if I need bright light or a hot lamp to dry them out more.
Still.... there is some swelling in the centre of the spike suggesting some flowers have been pollinated *shrug*
^ I never got any seedlings from that flower.... but today is moving day in the Grubs Apon world.
Out with the old - this tank is only 35cm high and two of the lace plants are now way too big.... and the tank and slab of wood and duct tape (over the polystyrene) under it are a bit too agricultural for my office.
In with the new - Mr Aqua 45cm rimless cube - $50 second hand from a shrimp nut. I was thinking of going bigger - but this is low maintenance, low light, trouble free tank so I decided to keep it that way - but the additional 10cm height will be good, but only room for a couple of Lace plants. Tank is still filling via a piece of airline from a bucket perched on the bookcase. No aquascape. DIY magic red clay and gravel base with a good amount of osmocote. Capped with a 50/50 mix of Kaito aquasoil + 2mm midnight gravel from the LFS (raises PH, and KH) + a few handfuls of left over magic red clay and gravel mix.
This is the biggest of the plants - the smallest is from the same batch of seed and is only a tiny 30mm high with 3 little leaves - it puts up a new leaf every now and then but never takes off. I'm hoping a replant into the new cube will give it a push. This big guy is a treat!
Enough growth points? One day I hope to divide this plant up and when I do I might get 4 or more plants from it... but today I'm just pulling off the big leaves and replanting it into the cube.
There are a number of varieties and the name depends on which naming convention you subscribe to... but here is the "narrow leaf" and the "broad leaf"
The broad leaf is A. madagascariensis and this narrow leaf A. henkelianus (not to be confused with the "other" narrow leaf that has more incomplete and irregular fenestrations)
From
this article in TFM the broad would be A. madagascariensis var. major and the narrow is A. madagascariensis var. henkelianus and "the other narrow leaved one" is A. madagascariensis var. madagascariensis
The tank is not heated - currently 19C. Small amount of CO2, Rainwater and a little DIY hardness booster. EC ~300µS/cm. pH ~6.5-7. No water column ferts. Every 4-6 months I sink a few DIY osmocote + clay balls into the sub. Tank is home to a small "gaggle" of common cherry shrimp only... and a few small other plants. Lighting has been a single 2ft Up Aqua ProZ - so quite low lighting. The new cube is getting a similar but hopefully slightly brighter cheap and cheerful
HinterfeldHK Chihiros A-Series Aquasky Planted 27W (not arrived yet)... There is a massive hole in the 45cm light fitting market if you don't want a fan (Kessil 160 is perfect form factor but I dont want the noise of the fan in my office).
An update on my new cube tank with the lace plants. Its taken 3 months for the tank to stabilise after replanting. On filling the initial nutrient release from the sediment/osmocote painted the sides a nice green with a hard encrusting GDA or GSA. I only cleaned the front glass and it was too much effort so I left the sides green to see if it would pass on its own. Over the three months a population of small freshwater limpets Ferrissia sp. boomed, cleaned the glass for me and is now declining from starvation as the tank is too clean (phew). They are the white specks on the side glass in the bottom pic. I also squashed every mini-ramshorn snail I could see whenever I could and now the tank is completely free of them.
The two little lace seedlings at the front are 2 years old and the same age as the big one in the back left. They just haven't taken off but are double the size they were last year. Perhaps they will always be stunted, or perhaps one day they'll get over whatever hump is holding them back and they will boom. The big one (left ) is just starting to pump out big leaves after the transplant. It is in the process of dividing itself up and has 5-6 growth points so its going to fill the tank. The narrow leaf (right) has grown strongly the whole time.
Tank is room temperature in my office, CO2, medium LED lighting. No fertilisers in the water. Rainwater and a little GH booster every 2 weeks. Cherry shrimp only.
The secret to these plants is high nutrient sediment, low nutrient cooler water and easy on the light.
