C. sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum Line' blooming soon

I suddenly realised today that my C. sp. 'Lingga Island 19 - platinum line' has developed a spathe.

As can be seen below, the new leaves managed to retain their 'platinum' veins under cultivation environment.

I hope the spathe would bloom only during the weekend as I would be going overseas tomorrow morning and would be back home only by Sunday night!

The many faces of C. xxx

From this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

All within a few hundred metres apart.

For fans of 'rosanervig' form of cryptocorynes (of which I am not really one of them...:-p), guess what species does the above specimens shown in the photographs belong to?

After 2 weeks of abuse......

It had been 2 weeks (should be enough for the aphid eggs (if any) to hatch too?)) since I fully submerged some of my 'Lingga' and 'Natuna' cryptocorynes (in water which I had used for a few months already for such treatment process, too lazy to change :-P) in attempt to kill the "woolly aphids?" infestation.

The below are the photographs showing how badly the cryptocorynes were abused. The first few photographs are the various C. sp. 'Lingga Island' and the next few are the various C. sp. 'Natuna Island'.

The above and below are photographs of the same pot with C. sp. 'Lingga 14' with and without flash. The older leaves and petioles had started to melt away.

The above and below photographs are other specimens from Lingga Island too, the above is C. sp. 'Lingga 10', the below C. sp. 'Lingga Island 13' specimens were very badly affected with all their leaves fully melted.

The above C. sp. 'Lingga 11' fared much better and actually could grow new healthy leaves under such conditions.

Some of the C. sp. 'Natuna Island' as shown below fared rather well too. They managed to continue to extend healthy roots out from the bottom of their pots although they suffered from some forms of melting of leaves too.

C. sp. 'Natuna Island 6'

C. sp. 'Natuna Island 2'

C. sp. 'Natuna Island 1' - tolerated very well with new growth of healthy leaves

top left - C. sp. 'Natuna Island 3', top right - C. sp. 'Natuna Island 4', bottom left - C. sp. 'Natuna Island 5', bottom right - C. sp. 'Lingga Island'

Those along the bottom row are the various C. sp. 'Natuna Island 1 to 6' (left to right), the rest above are all the various C. sp. 'Lingga Island'

Those in front are the various C. sp. 'Natuna Island 1 to 6' (left to right), the rest behind are all the various C. sp. 'Lingga Island'

How much time would these cryptocorynes need to recover back to their previous more healthy state???

Yet another day at the farm

My explorer friend came back from his Kapit and Sibu trip yesterday and thus, I went to his farm today to help him do some farming works and at the same time, review the progress of some of the previous cryptocorynes which he collected and cultivated:

C. nurii 'Pahang Rosanervig' - new leaves are growing out well under submersed cultivation

C. nurii 'West Pahang' - ditto, new leaves are growing out well under submersed cultivation

C. sp. 'Malay Peninsula' - growing well in emersed conditions with water constantly sprinklered on

C. longicauda 'Johor' - ditto, growing well in emersed conditions with water constantly sprinklered on

C. sp. Kota Tinggi' - ditto, growing very well in emersed conditions with water constantly sprinklered on

C. affinis 'Pahang Rosanervig' - growing well under submersed conditions, with bubbling on the leaves

C. affinis 'Pahang Red' - growing well under submersed conditions. Very beautiful! See below too.

C. sp. 'Anambas Island' are growing well after more than a week at the farm submersed, healthy new leaves are growing out, see below

The above is a species of fern collected at Anambas Island, the leaves have a bluish tinge if you looked closely, amazing!

The above and below are some plants collected from Kapit with leaves which looked very much like that of cryptocorynes at the first sight but the long connecting rizhomes revealed that they are not. Sigh. The above should be very beautiful when tied to a driftwood and placed in a planted tank.

The above are some of the better performing cryptocorynes. Some are growing well emersed while others are growing well submersed. However, there are some which are still adjusting with stunted growth which I would not reveal here.

We planted the Sibu cryptocorynes and left them in the ponds (for those which we felt would do well submersed) and tanks (ditto for those emersed) respectively. Hopefully they would grow well, especially the more difficult C. auriculata, C. lingua and C. pallidinervia.

Another day at the farm

I went to my explorer friend's cryptocoryne farm today to get my hands dirty to do some farming works for some of the excess cryptocorynes he collected from Anambas Island. It started to rain heavily after lunch.

Below are some photographs of my friend's current cryptocoryne collection.

After the rain, we visted an aquatic plant farm (Teo Farm, which is a well known farm for many local hobbyist) to see how they plant their cryptocorynes emersed. They have both submersed and emersed ponds to grow various different types of aquatic plants.

The cryptocorynes are mostly grown emersed but are mostly the Sri Lankan species commonly supplied to the local fish shops. C. lingua and C. pontederiifolia could be found too. The substrate used is sandy soil heavily fertilised with chicken poo. The ponds are in the open with shading sheets covering the entire farm to reduce the impacts from direct sunlight. The growth was considered as good in my opinion.

Maybe I should give up relying on fish tanks and artifical lightings and rent some farm spaces instead for my cryptocoryne cultivation too?