"GROW YOUR OWN" LIVE AQUARIUM PLANTS - bulbs

[ltldrgn13]

Has anyone tried those "GROW YOUR OWN" LIVE AQUARIUM PLANTS - bulb packs? How well do they work?

Thanks

[buddha_red]

pretty good chance they will work. I have used them and got a couple nice arrow heads.

[Gambusia]

They work but eventually the bulbs rot.

I had hybrid aponegtons that floated on the surface.

[Paranoid]

I got a package of 4 apponogeton bulbs a wallmart for 2$ and 3 sprouted and have been doing great in my tank for the last three months. They have even flowered non-stop for the last two!!! Can't beat them for 2 bucks. ;)

[biogirl361]

i got 6 apos and 2 dwarf lilies bulbs from walmart and not a single one of the 8 sprouted. must have been an outdated shipment or something.

[Obsidian]

Has anyone tried those "GROW YOUR OWN" LIVE AQUARIUM PLANTS - bulb packs? How well do they work?

Thanks

Blah... I have a pack of 7 from Petco. Two sprouted... one is growing very fast with a flowering runner already. The second is not doing great. The others I just pulled out because they were just rotting. There is a guarantee on the back, and I fully intend to send the duds back.

[FishKeeper-16]

The kind you get at walmart will eventually go into a dormant period because I also have the aponageton plants.

[Imagine]

I got a package of 4 apponogeton bulbs a wallmart for 2$ and 3 sprouted and have been doing great in my tank for the last three months. They have even flowered non-stop for the last two!!! Can't beat them for 2 bucks. ;)

I'm running the same ones in my tank.. They grow really quick. I'm also trying the Lily bulbs as well, those dont seem to be doing much yet.

[lousybreed]

i have several in my tank waiting to sprout. one of the apogenton bulbs has mold and i will remove it soon. i am trying the lillies also.

[WinterWind]

Long ago, I had a few bulbs. Only 2 of them actually sprouted and become healthy, but then, I only had a fish bowl!

I'm willing to bet that if the bulbs are in good condition in the first place, they will grow just fine, provided that lighting and all the other conditions are right.

[SnakeIce]

for some reason in my experience aponegetons tend to do better if they are the only kind of plant in the tank. I started out with those as plants and as I began to get other plants after some months of growing just those they incrementally declined as I put other plants in the tank.

I also have some regular aponegeton bulbs that were already growing and they did really well untill I put other plants in the 5 gallon tank they were in. They don't compete for nutrients against other plants very well in my experience. It may have something to do with the low tech no ferts added way I was growing them.

[midiamin]

FYI. When you first get those bulbs, you can either put them in your aquarium but don;t bury them until you start to see growth or get a bucket of wet sand and place the bulbs on top and put them in a dark place until they start to show growth. Either way, once they show growth then place them in your substrate in your aquarium. When you open the packet, press each one between your fingers. If they are soft are mushy don't even bother to try to grow them. No good. If you put them in your tank and they float, they might or might not be ok. Wait a week or two.

[blitzen25bm]

i grew them pretty cool plants and you dont have to do anything for them. i sent some back and they gave me about 3 new ones for each seed i sent it.

[tyella]

I have had good luck with the Apo's in the past, but have tried again recently with mixed results. 2 are rotting for every 1 that sprouts. Still not a bad deal, as long as the moldy goo isn't horrible for my tank.

I have a question about the lilies. I'm thinking of trying them, but I don't want a floating leafed plant in my tank. Can I keep the leaves submersed by trimming?

[malken]

How long did it take for your replacement bulbs to come in blitzen25bm? I tried those bulbs and only two sprouted, one Apo (going nuts) and one lilly. I sent back the rest about ten days ago.

[ImALittleFishy]

I bought 2 one sprouted quick, the other is just now sprouting(2months later), I figured since it wasn't rotten, I would keep it in there. Do not bury the bulb as others have said.

[midiamin]

Tyella,

Just keep triming the pads back. Take them off at the base need the seed. You lower leaf will be bigger and fuller. Lovely plant. Later, let pads go to the surface to see if they flower!

[tyella]

Thanks MidiAmin,
How many lower leaves can I expect before the floaters come out? Also, will the plant go dormant after flowering?
I appreciate your help!
Tyella

[ImALittleFishy]

I think I got like two or three leaves, then the floaters came! It was really quick and they just kept coming. I have heard they go dormant after flowering too, not for sure tho.

[lousybreed]

for the ones sold at walmart, what address do you send them back to? some of mine are not sprouting and want to send back. thanks

[malken]

It's on the package, you also need the proof of purchase.

[lousybreed]

those b*stards....

[spinjector]

Oh my gosh I *love* mine. They are so cool. I got two packages at PetCo, and about 3/4 of them sprouted. I would break them down into three groups based on how long they took to sprout. "Long", "Longer", and "Oh my god you can't be freekin' serious!!" :-)

The "Long" group took about 3 weeks before I saw little green sprouts popping out, then probably another 3 weeks before they rooted and really started to grow, then ZOOM they started growing like crazy and havn't stopped. They mostly turned out to be aponogetons, one being longplumulosus (I think), and it's now the biggest plant in the tank. The rest were smaller ones of which I do not know the variety. They all flowered - some only one flower per plant, some more than one. Some flowers had one lobe, some had two. The ones with multiple flowers all have this one kind of different leaf that grows up to the surface with the flower stem. The leaf is on a long, thin stem, is oval shaped, and floats at the surface like a lilypad. I don't know what the leaf's function is, but it's pleasingly intricate, and a nice shade of light green. Some just keep flowering and flowering non-stop. And it's funny because I can use the speed of the growth of the flower stalks as an indicator of the iron level in my tank. If I stop fertilizing, the flower stalks stop growing dead in their tracks halfway up the water column. When I start fertilizing again, they start growing again about two days later, and continue on up to the surface.

The "Longer" group took about two months before I saw green on them. Then, like the previous bunch, they sprouted and rooted slowly, then took off growing like crazy. There were a couple more aponogetons, and one big lilypad-kinda-thing with heart shaped leaves about 3-4" across. Not sure what it is but it grows like crazy, and I have to keep the lilypads trimmed or they block out the aquarium light.

And last but not least is the "Oh my god you can't be freekin' serious!!" group. I call it this because the one straggler in this group took SIX MONTHS to start growing..!! I originally had a 10-gallon tank, and in October I set up a 20 XH and moved all my tank inhabitants to that instead. I left the 10 gallon tank for dead sitting in a corner of my dining room, with about two inches of old water and gravel in it, one dead gourami, some bits of old plant matter like java fern and broken crypt roots, and the two remaining "grow your own" bulbs that never sprouted. I was puttering near the tank in January and noticed some sprigs of green. A couple of the crypt roots had sprouted small leaves, and then to my amazement, I found that one remaining bulb had sprouted! And six months after I put it in the tank! I was amazed. I plucked it out and put it in the other "live" tank where it would actually get some light and nutrients. It has slowly grown into something small and delicate; I think a "dwarf lily". It's got thin paperlike pinkish-green leaves that are sort of arrow shaped. No flowers yet, though. We'll see what happens.

So.... Have patience, young Jedi's...! Leave those little bulbs to float in your tank for a while. They will either turn to mush, or will eventually grow into something. If you don't, you might never know what you had... :-)

[lousybreed]

so if they start to get white stuff on them and start making bubbles should we toss them? i pulled out 2 of these and they reeked!!! i am not touching any of the plants that dont have any weird white growths, but i am starting to wonder about the white fluffy ones!!!

[midiamin]

Tyella,

The bulb will continue to try to grow the floaters. Just continue to nip them until you get the maximium leaf that you want. I don't know how many but I have had this plant grow alot of leaf and the leaf gets pretty big too.

[tyella]

Thanks again, Midi!
I'm quickly running out of aquarium. I'm not sure I'll get to try the lily bulbs now. I just purchased a couple of rocks from the local landscaping store and now I have less space for plants! It's ok, though, the plants needed some contrast.

My wife gave me the "no more tanks" speech before I even set this tank up last month. I haven't had fish for 6 years, but I had several aquaria before I started grad school. So she knows the "logical" progression.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out where to put another aquarium. I think I'll try those lilies in the new tank!

[Obsidian]

I just bought some more bulbs at Petco today. Some were onion plants, lilies, aponotogen, etc. They are from a different company than the others.

Of the other pack I had, only two sprouted... one is growing like crazy, sprouting a couple leaves per day and three top-runners that flowered. There are two bulbs left from that pack that didn't rot.... I might hang onto those and throw them back into my tank. The other three, which got white and fuzzy and smell really bad are going back to the company in Sioux Falls, which happens to be www.aquariumplant.com.

[peasofme]

where in walmart can you find these? the pet section or the garden section?

[RockabillyChick]

the bulbs will only rot if they are not viable.

if the plant goes dormant and dies away, you can pull the bulb out and dry it out, but it will only sprout again if you have very nutrient rich substrait. the bulb sucks nutrients up from the substrait to store for the next time the plant sprouts. if it doesn't have enough nutrients to jump start growing, it won't be able to.

[peasofme]

some of mine got eaten a bit by my crayfish are are showing their white insides. i then put them in my newts tank. now all of them have bubbles of fuzz growing on them. is there a chance they will grow?

[troycorechick]

I got two packs of each to put into my 72g... a week later (yesterday) I had to take them out. One of my fish died, and a few more look like they are one their way out
:-( The ones that didn't start growing had fuzzies on them. I took them and a water sample to the fs and they had me get furazone-green. I hope no more die... has anyone else had this problem? (re-posted to help you, didn't see this when I posted in other)

[Star_Rider]

You don't have to start the bulbs in your aquarium. I didn't stick any in mine until they sprouted.

I had some I dumped into a clear container I sat in the kitchen window..I took several bulps in there then took the rest and placed them in a damp paper towel, wrapped them up, put them in a ziplock bag and placed them in a warm spot(ontop of your water heater is a good spot) check on them once in awhile.if they sprout add them to the tank.

[coupedefleur]

Does anybody know of a good mail-order source for getting a bunch of those aponogeton bulbs? There used to be someplace where you could order 25 - 50 of them, and they turned out to be reallly inexpensive at that price.

[kblane]

As for ordering mass quantities, aquariumplants.com might have them . . . or try freshwateraquariumplants.com

I think I've seen aponos on there before.

[monstash]

I've had the apon. bulbs grow well for me in a 5 gallon aquarium. Like someone said earlier if u cut the shoots off the plant it will grow fuller. I'd say I cut off 3-4 shoots off to get to the desired amount of leaf that I prefer. IMO I like the bulbs...although they don't always work, u can send them back and get extras. I just sent 5 back and they gave me about 12 new bulbs. Good deal, especially since I have just decided to plant my 55 gallon tank...I have a question, maybe someone will kno-The sent me 3 bulbs that I have never seen before, and I just planted one of them earlier today...they are big round dark brown 'balls' a little smaller than golf balls..can anyone identify what they are going to be?

[webcricket]

Sounds like they may be lily or lotus bulbs.

[monstash]

Hopefully they'll grow so we can find out for sure...thanks for the help

[fishy_sue]

I received my replacement bulbs in about 10 days. All the replacements have sprouted.

[justintoxicated]

my aponogeton sprouted a coule weeks ago.

I didn't trim any shoots (what shoots?)

When I came back this weekend from out of town the bulb was floating on the top of the tank and there is a long shoot with a flower on the end?

Can I put the bulb back in the substrate and submerge the apparent flower?

What is the best thing to do in this case?

only 2 of the 6 in the package sprouted... I tried the Lillies again as well and they both sprouted this time.

[webcricket]

Hmmm, I'd cut the flower stalk off so it doesn't try to go to seed. Supposedly they only seed so many times and then the plant can go dormant again. Mine try to send up at least 1 seed stalk a week and I have to cut it out. I swear, sometimes they grow up to the water surface overnight!

[justintoxicated]

Ok I'll chop it off tomarrow, but I was kinda curious as to what it was going to look like. The Only other plant I have had flower was anubias and my snails decided the flower was lunch! Bad Brigs!

Also I threw the directions out lol, so should I re-plant the bulb in the substrate?

[webcricket]

Yep, replant it when your flower show is done! I'm tempted to let one of mine flower now, just to see...

[justintoxicated]

I re-planted it and removed the flower bud, theres alreading another one shooting out...

I'm wondering if it is worth sending the other bulbs, only one has developed a fuz and I threw it out, one of the other 4 is floating, and the other ones are at the bottom just chillin.