First AC Plant

[Gigrantor]

Thought I would share the growth progress of the first plant I ever purchased from Aquarium Coop. The little guy is about two years old and sending off multiple leave/flowers every few months. The first 6 months it didn’t do anything and I was convinced it wouldn’t ever grow. But look at it now!

Don’t mind the dirty tank, was in the process of gravel vacuuming and water changing.

[Guppysnail]

Holy cow. You did get some fantastic growth. I hate the transition period where they pretend to be unchangeable plastic plants. 

[PineSong]

What a great example of the pay off for being patient and giving a plant time to develop enough of a root system to support good growth. Excellent photo subject!

[Gigrantor]

The crazy thing is this isn't even close to my most successful plant. I present you the monster Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus... There are two in this tank, however the majority is made up my one plant on the right side. All it took was being "planted" with some gravel and root tabs in a clay pot. 

[Guppysnail]

With terrestrial plants limiting the pot size is a thing. It pushes the plant to grow more above the surface. Many terrestrial plants the roots match the amount of above ground growth some are almost a mirror image some will grow more roots than branches. I found the same to be true in some of my plants I use terra cotta pots for. 

[anewbie]

On 3/28/2022 at 7:48 AM, Gigrantor said:

The crazy thing is this isn't even close to my most successful plant. I present you the monster Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus... There are two in this tank, however the majority is made up my one plant on the right side. All it took was being "planted" with some gravel and root tabs in a clay pot. 

If you can let the PSO break the water and grow emersed in the back it will produce an extremely lovely purple flower. Also that is a very nice anubia - mine have been having some issues over time (mostly rot in the middle - not sure why - the anubia i have were not purchased at ac - so don't misread what i am saying).

[PineSong]

My pogo octopus is struggling, I’ve accused my fish of eating it but maybe I will try cutting it in half so the roots can catch up. Yours is impressive!

[Gigrantor]

On 3/28/2022 at 8:56 AM, anewbie said:

If you can let the PSO break the water and grow emersed in the back it will produce an extremely lovely purple flower. Also that is a very nice anubia - mine have been having some issues over time (mostly rot in the middle - not sure why - the anubia i have were not purchased at ac - so don't misread what i am saying).

I was trying to encourage my pennywort to grow up and out of the tank. Hence the extra grow light above the right side of the tank. I wanted the vine effect on the bench that holds the tank. Didn't know that the PSO would produce purple flowers though. That may move higher on the list than the vining, especially since that experiment is going poorly.