New emergent plant experiments

[bekateen]

As some of you know, over the years I've experimented with various emergent plants in my aquaria. Of course, the obvious pothos, but also for a few years I've been growing hibiscus clippings and a strain of cherry tomato that is, frankly, not very delicious. I chose it because it was growing feral in our school greenhouse; my school's botanist tells me it's close to the original wild tomato in its appearance.

This year, I started four new plants.

• In early Spring 2023, I added some terrestrial ferns that were growing feral in the gravel floor of our greenhouse; I added 2-3 rhizomes with fronds directly into the top of one of the tanks (where the glass hood was cracked open) in the greenhouse. Over the whole Spring, they didn't do much except just hang on, but now they are shooting up new fronds.
• In early June, I plucked some Houttuynia cordata (chameleon plant or fish mint) growing feral in the gravel floor of the greenhouse; as with the ferns, I just stuck the fish mint into the (same) tank directly.
• In early July, I purchased a curly bamboo and added it to a 60 gallon breeder in the greenhouse.
• In early July, I collected some wild, naturally occurring horsetail plants and I inserted them in the HOB of the same tank in the greenhouse. As I expected, they initially started to die back from the trauma of the transplant, but now they are shooting up multiple new stems.
• Simultaneously, I got some delicious cherry tomatoes (sadly, I don't know the cultivar) and I planted a half dozen of the tomatoes in soil to germinate the seeds. Once those seedlings got started (around July 20), I transferred them to the same HOB.

Here are some pics of the tank and plants along the way:

The terrestrial fern I added in early Spring 2023

The fish mint I added in early June 2023

The tank as it appeared in June, shortly after I added the fish mint. You can see the young emergent fern fronds and you can see the fish mint mixed with the ferns and pothos. The dead dry brown leaves are the original fish mint leaves dying back

The horsetail as it appeared when I first added it

The tank as it appeared in early June, just after I added the horsetail. You can see the new young fern fronds emerging from the tank to the right side of picture

The tomatoes as they appeared in late July 2023 when I first added them to the HOB

The horsetail as it appeared in late July when tomatoes were added to the HOB

The tomatoes as they appear now in early August. Lots of new leaf growth is evident

The horsetail as it appears now in early August. You can see lots of new young stems growing

Eventually, I'll need to thin the tomato plants and move them directly into the tank. I plan to get rid of the wild-type cherry tomatoes because they don't taste that great, and I'll substitute these better tasting tomatoes into the tank. I hope to keep the horsetails in the HOB, but if they get too big, I'll find a way to suspend them along the back wall of the tank.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Pics from today

[Jools]

Love this thread, I've done similar with Pothos getting up to 3m+. We called it "cat strangler" in the fish auctions and I know of at least one wood based fishroom where it started seriously getting into the stands etc.

Another one I had a lot of success with is bamboo. Just the £1 curly strands you get at Ikea or similar. They did really well and produced a lot of root into the tank. It would clear stirred up mulm really quickly.

Always wanted to try Peace Lily but never got around to it.

Keep it up!
2
Cheers,

Jools

[Shane]

A little different, but my outdoor Uganda papyrus biotope.
-Shane

[bekateen]

Another one I had a lot of success with is bamboo. Just the £1 curly strands you get at Ikea or similar. They did really well and produced a lot of root into the tank. It would clear stirred up mulm really quickly.

Jools

Interesting. I've got that one curly bamboo there too. I'm surprised it hasn't grown much in two months.

A little different, but my outdoor Uganda papyrus biotope.
-Shane

Nice. Do you have fish in there?

Cheers, Eric

[Bas Pels]

I have an enclosable bveranda, with fishtanks. These are on the ground, so they mare more ponds one can also see from aside, together with air filtering over mats. Between these mats, my Papyrus sp grow just wonderfull. This species gets over 2 meters tall

I also added once a Begonia (leaf type, not the flowering type) wehich also gows verty nice.

[Shane]

Nice. Do you have fish in there?

Currently spawning black neon tetras. It is 90% rain water and 10% tap. Hoping to transfer the fry in time to do a bleeding heart tetra spawn before fall.

This plant also works great but I forget the name. Grows nice roots in water
-Shane

[Jools]

Monstera, or swiss cheese plant.

Jools

[Shovelnose]

Very nice Eric! I used to keep pothos and sweet potatoes when I was using top filters until a few years ago. The sweet potatoes vines gave a nice look. How did you start with the cherry tomatoes, directly with saplings?

[bekateen]

Hi Balaji,

I like those filter boxes of yours. They are similar to two TOM brand overhead filters I bought, one for a 24" tank and one for a 30" tank (accommodating standard American 20 gallon long and 15 gallon or 20 gallon high tanks).

The big tomato vines I have, the ones yielding relatively untasty (somewhat bitter, but okay) tomatoes, I collected as growing stems from the greenhouse two years ago. They've been growing in that tank ever since, but die back each winter.

The tiny tomato seedlings you see in my HOB were from some very tasty cherry tomatoes I found in a salad. I simply saved a few tomatoes and buried them in potting soil until they germinated. After a few weeks, I removed their pot and knocked off the soil, then placed them in aquatic plant pots (the kinds with slotted side walls) along with some clay balls to hold them in. Then I placed the pots directly in the HOB. When I thin these small tomato plants, I'll probably create a basket out of pressed coconut husk fibers into which I'll place the plants with more spacing, then I'll submerge the coconut husk basket into the tank directly.

That'll be a new thing for me, so maybe it will fail, or maybe it will work great. A while back, I bought a large sheet of coconut husk fibers, hoping to create an emergent living wall along the back of some of my smaller tanks, 10 gallon and 20 gallon sizes. I just haven't gotten around to trying that yet.

Cheers, Eric

[Shane]

Now, if we could figure out how to grow zucchini out of our aquariums!
-Shane

[bekateen]

Now, if we could figure out how to grow zucchini out of our aquariums!
-Shane

I was thinking of starting herbs like basil, rosemary, etc. Should certainly provide a nice source of fresh seasonings.

[Bas Pels]

Basil will not work, the seeds are very sensitive towards to much water. I'm afraid the plants will not like too much either. My rosemary is also not found of too much water. Mint however does appreciate watrer a lot.

[bekateen]

Anybody recognize the leaves on the two newest plants (both plants are the same species) I've added to a tank? I don't know if these plants will survive with roots in water, but I hope so, at least until they outgrow the tank... because they WILL OUTGROW the tank.

[bekateen]

Anybody recognize the leaves on the two newest plants (both plants are the same species) I've added to a tank? I don't know if these plants will survive with roots in water, but I hope so, at least until they outgrow the tank... because they WILL OUTGROW the tank.

These particular plants apparently don't like their bases being submerged in water. Both look good today above the water line, but their stems (well, petioles technically) rotted out below the water line. Conclusion: Fail.

As for what species they were, Amorphophallus titanum.


Better luck with other plants I guess...

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

My horsetails and new seedling cherry tomatoes are growing very well. A few weeks ago, I moved the tomatoes out of their tiny pots in the HOB to suspend in another 75 gallon tank (I threw away all the old yellow bad tasting tomato plants first).

In the first photo, the original horsetail stems all died off and an abundance of new young thin horsetails have grown up. Although they are thin and spindly, at least one has already started developing a strobilus (second photo).

Back to the first photo, in the background you can see all the new growth of the seedling tomato plants in the other tank.

Compare these two new photos to the original photos of the plants (taken from an earlier post here):

Cheers,
Eric