dancerhas

Anybody know how to or had success growing plants from bulbs? We never have but are currently giving a few Aponogeton bulbs a try. I'm wondering if they need special conditions in order to sprout. Also, how long should I wait before deciding that they are not going to grow?

Thanks!

griffin

i had good success with the bulbs as long as they havn't been sitting around the store for eons. what i usually do is to take the plastic front of the package (any small container will do) and fill that with just enough tank water to cover the bulbs completely, put the bulbs in, and place it on top of the light. i change the water in the container with fresh tank water or just add more tank water once a day, but i don't think you need to do that, just make sure they don't dry out. once they start forming roots or sprouts, i plant them in the tank where i want them. the ones that aren't going to sprout will eventually begin to rot (usually pretty rapidly), and i take those out as soon as they start to smell bad or are mushy in parts or if i see rot on them.

hopefully that was at least a little helpful and not too confusing!

mjordan

Good rule of thumb on any bulb: Aponogetons, Dwarf Lilys, Lotus, Barclaya. If you squeeze them and they are hard, that is good, if they squish and or smell bad, they are no good. Drop them in the water, and let them sink, if they float for a day, no worries. Once they sink, they will eventually send out leaves, usually within a week (Apons) or as fast as overnight (Dwarf Lilies). Barclayas are the slowest. Leave your bulbs alone and don’t actually push them into your substrate until they’ve germinated. The first poking protrusions are the leaves, they will grow roots later. So, now that they have their first leaves starting to grow, you can push them gently into the substrate and into the location you really want them to grow and allowing just the tip, or crown of the bulb to be exposed.


this is a direct copy and paste from the amazing sit www.azgarden.com

dancerhas

Thanks for the replies. I've had two bulbs in our one tank for about a week...still waiting to see any life out of them. I found a couple hard bulbs and am placing them in another tank.

mjordan

cool good luck

dancerhas

One's starting to develop a greyish haze on it....is it rotting?

mjordan

is it squisy or smell bad refer to my first post

dancerhas

well...it was hard as a rock when I put it in....let's see...

it's pretty squishy now...so i took it out...i'm still waiting on my first two to sprout...it's been almost 2 weeks for those

mjordan

i dont know thats kind of strange

Porchfish

Purchased a packet of 'Aponogetons Hybrid' from W-mart, just to see if they would take off.

All four started to show green nubs on the third day. Must have gotten lucky.

My LFS has a few plants for sell, by they look pretty sad.

To quote the young clerk, " Yea, I'll sell you some plants, if you want to start a snail colony!"

( Switched to CFL's before I attempted this )

dancerhas

Sounds like you did get lucky....neither of my batches sprouted. I ended up taking a trip to the next city north of me to get some plants from the only good LFS in the entire area.