What's With Hygrophila difformis - Water Wisteria?

Now here's a plant everyone says is easy but I've never had success with - Water Wisteria. Params vary by source but I guess 0 ammonia, .5 nitrite, 40 nitrate, 6.8 pH, 10° GH water straight from Pike's Peak isn't good enough. First time with this plant was 3 yrs ago and guess how it did? Why, it melted away, of course, because why not!?

I'm sure wisteria grows for everyone else but not me! Even S. repens thrives in my low-light tank with GOLDFISH. I've kept anubias, egeria, dwarf sag, banana lily, java fern, mosses, crypt parva, various swords, hygro corymbosa and even accidental hygro polysperma I grew from seeds in low-light! If you don't like my scape, Wisteria, just tell me. I mean, the nerve...

But seriously, why does this plant never thrive? I fert weekly, most of my setups being dirted or full-on Walstad. I just can't understand it...

 

I don't know. Water Wisteria has always been one of the hardiest of all stem plants for me.

Just a guess, but you said you have low light. While Water Wisteria has always grown in fairly low light for me, it definitely prefers higher light. I wonder if you might have more luck if you increased your lighting just a bit.

 

I don't know for sure here but I sometimes I wonder if its where the plant has been raised or how. I have for ages had trouble with ambolia, I love this plant and persisted to no end but it always died or grew, well sort of straggly and really poor and looked really sick. I put it down to harder water, moderatly hard, but then suddenly newer cutting from the same supplier are now growing pretty well and I have done nothing to change my set up apart from lighting distance.

I found when I raised my lighting from being on top of the tank to 6 inches above things got better and plants grew and were happy. Not saying this is the goods but most of my plants have shot up and growing to the surface wheras prior they were stunted. Just a possibility.

 

I don't know for sure here but I sometimes I wonder if its where the plant has been raised or how. I have for ages had trouble with ambolia, I love this plant and persisted to no end but it always died or grew, well sort of straggly and really poor and looked really sick. I put it down to harder water, moderatly hard, but then suddenly newer cutting from the same supplier are now growing pretty well and I have done nothing to change my set up apart from lighting distance.

I found when I raised my lighting from being on top of the tank to 6 inches above things got better and plants grew and were happy. Not saying this is the goods but most of my plants have shot up and growing to the surface wheras prior they were stunted. Just a possibility.

I never thought of that! I noticed many scapers keep the lighting 6" above so it's possible, but I also wonder if it's a hardness issue. Most of my tanks have very soft water (around 10° GH...or is it KH?) with a pH of 6.8 and 6.5 in my blackwater setups. I don't keep wisteria in very low lighting, though, so that's probably not the issue.

 

Changing the height of lighting certainly helped my tank. I have also read numerous sites that claim this plant or that plant needs this PH or hardness but then read another site and its nothing like the previous site and completly different readings. I think sometimes its just a matter of giving it a crack and see what happens. If it still fails after you have tried various ideas give it a miss and go with a similar plant.

 

Same here, most plants grow well but water wisteria, that everyone says is easy never grew much for me. Just about survived. My pH is also 6.8, water very soft (1-2 GH). Perhaps it prefers a different water type.