Wabi-kusa projects

[TBRO]

Hey,

I've had a couple of goes at this now. This has been my most succesful attempt but we will see if it all ends in tears

I noticed this sort of thing while watching a tour of the ADA gallery on youtube. Their are glasses on the windowsill with emergant aquatic plants growing in them which looks really cool.

After doing a bit more research I found several examples of this "Wabi-kusa" technique. Seems it can be done with terrestrial plants but I fancy seeing some of my favourite aqquatic plants in their emergant form. The idea is to plant it and then let it go wild.

My container is a glass sphere made by a Polish company called LSA, it is just a bit nicer than a goldfish bowl but otherwise the same.

I had a few stem plants growing in a jam jar on the windowsill, the rest are from submerged plants in my tanks.

Plant list - Crypt Wenditti "green", Bacopa carolina, Rotala rotundifolia, Rotala wallchii, Staurogynae sp., Christmas moss

Here is the mix of garden soil and ADA malaya (granules)



The Wabi ball, slightly flattening the bottom adds to stability. You can see my earlier Jam jar experiment behind the ball.



Chritmas moss tied around the ball with cotton



It was then neccasary to drop the ball into the glass sphere, things then get a bit "ship in a bottle". Needless to say long tweezers are a must, the angled kind are useful. It is really fiddly now....

Half planted with the crypt as my centre plant. The dried up twig to the right of the rotala rotundifolia is the R.Wallchii, believe it or not there is a little green bud of emergant groth at the tip.

I filled in the spaces between with extra Christmas moss.

Here is the bowl in-situ, unfourtunatley the lamp I bought was way to powerful (50 w Halogen desk lamp), so I've moved it to the windowsil. The plants do grow v.slowly. I'm just waiting for the initial melt and then hopeful regrowth of the submerged plants. The crypt already looks wilted.

Thoughts and comments welcomed - Tom, has anyone else tried this ? I´ve seen a few examples on other forums

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

This is R.Wallchii, the little stem that dried up but refuses to die.....

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Looks smart Tom. How are the plants coping to the change in conditions? You may find a tough transition for them, but a prune back should result in the new growth being acclimatized to their surroundings.

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Hey Graeme,

As you say many of the plants have shrivelled up but the picture above shows some new emergant growth on the R.Wallchii, which I thought would almost certainly die. My guess is 1-2 speicies will survive but that's just nature.

I believe in Japan you can buy the Wabi-kusa balls with emergant aquatic plants already growing on them, thus you can chuck them in a tank for instant aqua-scape or keep them emergant. Not seen them in the UK yet, unless you,ve got some in the back room at TGM. Some good emergant growth in the reptile cages BTW.

I am having a lot of success with glosso and HC in my other emergant scape, so if all else fails I´ll make a glosso ball!

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

I think you have every possibility of achieving the goal. The key for you would be to start with emerged growth, the plants will be stronger and ready to go.

Keep us posted.

 

[aaronnorth]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

are you keeping the humidity up? That will aid in the transition to emrged growth as they wont shrivel up.

It lloks great though.
Im surprised the mound doesnt just fall apart when the water is added though.

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Cheers guys, definatley would have been easier starting with emergant growth but it`s interesting to see the transition.

I´m spraying it once a day and the shape of the glass should encourage higher humidity. Looking at hydrophyte`s ripariums it looks like most plants don´t need relly high humidity once transitioned.

There is some minor disintigration of the mud ball but that´s the idea of the moss, to grow and bind things together. Tried it previously without the moss and it fell to pieces in days...... Certainly a fun, cheap project bit like the pico 😀

I´ll keep things "warts and all", will post some shrivelled up pics

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

As promised some warty progress pics. There has been some major die back but some survivors. Most succesful have been the Rotalas, I especially like the R.Wallchii. I'm trying to get more stems to turn emergent (I've wired bunches around the rim of my big tank. The moss is starting to grow new emergent tufts, the ball has stayed moist, now got a 20 W halogen over the top.







Any advice would be good, could I get Java fern to survive? Tom

 

[Maurits]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

very nice.

Javefern can survive easily but it needs a humidity of around 85 %

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

I doubt it's that humid in there, even with evaporation but I might try some tiny Java fern platelets tucked in the shade of the stems.....

 

[Dan Walter]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Cool WK project Tom. I quite often experiment with mini projects like this but rarely get any good results. Do you add any ferts to the water or are they not required with emersed growth?

Keep the pics coming 😉

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Hey Dan, I've not added any ferts as I suspect the mix of garden soil and ADA substrate will be pretty rich and CO2 is loads more available in the atmosphere. I'll try and check out some other sites and get more info, I've seen some people put fert capsules under the ball. I wonder what is in the ADA brand Wabi-kusa balls :?:

 

[Garuf]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

How about native ferns? You could easily use fox tounge ferns they stay nice and small and you can trim them back

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Your right Garuf, I've seen loads of beautiful ferns and mosses in the woods but ideally I wanted to get my aquarium plants to grow terrestrial. If this fails I'll try again with more terrestrials.

Here's a blog showing a pic of Amano's WK set up, he's the best for a reason ....

http://aqua.c1ub.net/forum/index.php?topic=75860.0 (About 3/4 down the page, is this Thai writing?)

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Well after Garuf's post I've had a mooch around my back garden and found some nice mosses and liverworts, not a lot to choose from this time of the year but hopefully lots of seeds will awaken thinking it's summer. So here's my UK terrestrial WK for my windowsill. I'll run both to see if out performs my "high-tech" tropical WK.

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

A little up-dating. My light has died so both WK are now solar powered, which makes taking pictures difficult.

The tropical WK is still suffering from the moss having not yet covered the whole surface which means soil drops off into the water. Hopefully as more roots and moss grow it will stabalise itself. Planted some lilliopsis and java fern in the ball both of which are surviving. The liliopsis looks quite healthy. The crypt is now putting out new leaves. I love the rotala wallchii, I want to plant more but it is so hard to get it to turn emergent.

The terrestrial WK turned a bit brown but now the moss is growing in fissidens like shoots. All sorts of little seedlings are now sprouting. Will be interesting to see what grows --> An oak tree porbably

Trying to get more emerent stems


New moss growth (and a stray cat hair)

Tropical and Terrestrial

Lileopsis and Hair grass

Top view

Keep it Wabi 😉 Tom

 

[Goodygumdrops]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

That little plantlet growing out of the moss is like the thing Saintly has growing in his tank.

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

I'm not sure what that plant is but I think it's pretty, the mystery is the joy of the project , who knows what will spring up! I spent my day off reading about Wabi-sabi aesthetic, as usual when I get an idea in my head...

I really like this definition of Wabi-sabi I got of flikr

"Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent."

---Tadao Ando, Architect

As such I got rid of the sterile glass orb in favour of a earthy looking pot.




On a related Wabi-sabi theme I needed to find a way of stopping my cats digging in my planter. So I found these lumps of concrete in some waste-land that nature has transformed into something beautiful






T

 

[Themuleous]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

This is a cool idea 🙂 really like the idea of using plants from the garden.

FYI of the plants in the UK one, you've got a Cardamine species, probably hair bittercress Cardamine hirsuta if it came from a patio or gravel area. There also looks to be rosebay willowherb Chamerion angustifolium in there too.

Sam

 

[TBRO]

Re: Wabi-kusa project

Cool, thanks for the info Sam, would be nice if I can get some flowers. If it is rosebay willowherb.... I´m gonna need a bigger pot