Aldro in a Christmas Tree...

[CorneliusSchrute]

...jar. A Christmas tree shaped jar ended up in my garage. It was probably meant to go to storge with the other three tonnes of Christmas periphernalia but didn't make it. I have decided to repurpose it for plant culture, specifically Aldrovanda.

Paul (pearldiver) got me started with this genus and helped me setup a culture that works with minimal fuss. No CO2 injection or other junk. Just some substrate (peat, sand, cat litter), clean water, some associated aquatic plants (Ultricularia, duckweed, etc.), and the Aldrovanda in a container. This has worked well for me for two years now in everything from five-gallon buckets to small Tupperware containers. I figure why not apply this culture to the Christmas tree jar.

The following photos show my new setup. First the jar.


Then I placed the substrate in. This time I am using 1:1 peat to diatomaceous earth.


I then flooded the media. I am going to leave it this way for a few days to saturate the media and (hopefully) keep it from floating. It will sink on it's own eventually anyway.
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More pictures to follow as I add more water, the Utricularia, and the Aldro.

For the nay-sayers: here is a culture I have kept going for about a year-and-a-half without a water change. I just top it up as it evaporates.


Despite the copious algae, the Aldro keeps growing.

 

[NemJones]

What kind of utric is that?

 

[CorneliusSchrute]

U. gibba in that pot. I also have U. inflata and several others in various jugs with Aldro.

 

[NemJones]

Thats weird. I go to the garden store near my place all the time and see those occasionally.
They never have bladders on them though.

 

[Adelea]

I don't think the green plant that is protruding is a utric....
But utrics commonly grow trap-less if they are in a fertile environment, I sometimes mass grow my utrics for features (like ponds), so I fertilise them, they lose their traps, flower like crazy and grow like crazy, then after a few months of steroidal growth I wean them off and they resume to making traps.

This is very effective for Aurea, but gibba is harder to wean off (its like a coke addict), algea can be an issue, but horn snails are pretty good at controlling that.

 

[hcarlton]

The protruding plant is parrotfeather.

 

[CorneliusSchrute]

Sorry for the ambiguity. The others ironed out the info: that is indeed parrot's feather growing with the gibba and Aldro.

 

[Clue]

Cool setup, Corey. I also have found that peat encourages thread algae to grow, so I don't use it. This is a lot like the system Doug Darnowski uses, as described here.

 

[CorneliusSchrute]

Darnowski's setup is one worth emulating. In fact I built a tank for my classroom based on those recommendations.

Unfortunately my Christmas tree jar was cooked. I left it in the window after moving its shade. Too much direct sun plus closed lid equals steamed Aldro.

Until the next fun experiment, gang...

 

[jimscott]

Darnowski's setup is one worth emulating. In fact I built a tank for my classroom based on those recommendations.

Unfortunately my Christmas tree jar was cooked. I left it in the window after moving its shade. Too much direct sun plus closed lid equals steamed Aldro.

Until the next fun experiment, gang...

I hear ya with experiments!