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Sun, Mar 14, 10 at 17:58
| I posted on a thread last year about my trial of Rotala in my pond. I stuck clippings in the pond throughout the summer and they did fairly well, took a while to get rooted. I was just out checking out the pond and they survived the winter but are starting to actively grow already. We've had unusually nice weather this month and plenty of sunshine which seems to have triggered them. I do cheat and use a stock tank heater for the winter, it keeps the water temp around 30F or 2C. They kept there reddish color fairly well and do not seem to attract algae, I run a stick through them once in a while to clean them off. The crypticorne I tried did not winter so they will go in the composter.The Parrot feather sunk to the bottom and did fine, it is starting to show green as well. Just as a side note I had water cress all over the pond and anywhere it was in the water it survived, even snow covered. the only places where it died was where the roots froze. The neighborhood jack rabbit nibbled on it all winter as it actually was growing under water, which caused him to fall in once. For anyone who is looking for a nice plant for under water Rotala is great especially since you can take cuttings and fill the whole pond off 1 bunch and it seems to do fine in near freezing water. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by pondbucket 5 KS (My Page) on Wed, Mar 17, 10 at 1:53
| Squirelette, do you know what species of Rotala? I'm kinda surprised you got it to overwinter, I thought it was tropical! |
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- Posted by squirelette 3 Ab (My Page) on Thu, Mar 18, 10 at 17:28
| I was pretty surprised too. I just stuck the top clippings in the pond as I trimmed the ones in the tank, it was a good hiding place for the babies. It is Rotala Indica. My understanding is that southeast Asia is considered tropical but the mountain streams can be pretty coolish. I keep Barbs in the tank and they are thriving on cooler temps so it may be that the plants were already acclimated to cooler temps, I don't use a heater in the tank so water is never higher than 62 |
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