# Marginals that spread through the substrate



## FakeBedLinen (21 Feb 2020)

Hi everyone. 

I'm currently looking for riparium plants. 
Currently I'm trying to find marginal plants or plants that will grow in riparium planters that spread via rhizomes through the planting media. 

Please correct me if Im wrong on my current findings. 

Hydrocotyle vulgaris (pennywort)
Mentha equatica (water mint)
Houttuynia cordata (chameleon plant)
Marsilea Quadrifolia (4 leaf clover?)

My tank is a juwel Rio 300 so I have quite a bit of room for planters, I have 12 11cm square pond planters all around the top filled with clay pebbles that sit two thirds in the water. 

It would be nice to find some more plants that I can plant that will spread through the substrate that will gradually creep through and pop up all along.


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## FakeBedLinen (21 Feb 2020)

I hope this is the correct thread for this. I thought I'd take some pictures of my DIY riparium planters that I have. What do you guys think?


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## tam (21 Feb 2020)

The answer is quite a lot - many aquarium plants grow happily emersed. Most of the common carpet plants - add hydrocotyle japan/verticulata, pygmy chain sword, montecarlo etc. will all grow happily and spread (although may need help to just over the pot rims. Do you have an idea of size? For slightly bigger you could look at pond marginals or stem plants.


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## mort (22 Feb 2020)

I use exactly the same method with my riparium plants but I don't have any shorter plants that spread through the planter substrate because they would be out competed and shaded by the larger plants. I have a very similar mix to what you have already and they should completely fill those pots quickly. If you wanted shorter plants to mix with your ground runners, so they wouldn't shade them then fittonia and pilea might work well as might a plant that you could train like ficus pumila.
If you built little rafts in front of the pots it would give you a little more scope and in that case bacopa would work well.

This is a good link for some inspiration with ripariums in general and has links to some great tanks https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2018/03/08/the-celestial-swamp-a-riparium-aquascape-by-nigel-tobey/ most of which are here on ukaps.


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## FakeBedLinen (23 Feb 2020)

tam said:


> The answer is quite a lot - many aquarium plants grow happily emersed. Most of the common carpet plants - add hydrocotyle japan/verticulata, pygmy chain sword, montecarlo etc. will all grow happily and spread (although may need help to just over the pot rims. Do you have an idea of size? For slightly bigger you could look at pond marginals or stem plants.


My aim is have a tall plant in each planter basket with a spreading plant to fill in around the bottom, I've readjusted my planters now so the tops are lust about level with the water level when the tank water is max height so I have 300mm between water/planter top to the light. I'm experimenting with marginals but I think most get quite big but we'll see.


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## FakeBedLinen (23 Feb 2020)

mort said:


> I use exactly the same method with my riparium plants but I don't have any shorter plants that spread through the planter substrate because they would be out competed and shaded by the larger plants. I have a very similar mix to what you have already and they should completely fill those pots quickly. If you wanted shorter plants to mix with your ground runners, so they wouldn't shade them then fittonia and pilea might work well as might a plant that you could train like ficus pumila.
> If you built little rafts in front of the pots it would give you a little more scope and in that case bacopa would work well.
> 
> This is a good link for some inspiration with ripariums in general and has links to some great tanks https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2018/03/08/the-celestial-swamp-a-riparium-aquascape-by-nigel-tobey/ most of which are here on ukaps.


Thanks for the link, the Monstera deliciosa is quite surprising, I have one of those in my houseplant collection. Reading most names for houseplants for riparium setups is quite funny really as I recognise quite a few. Spathiphyllum being one I always see mentioned yet I've had no luck with mine. It seems to root well but the leaves just yellow and curl.

Not sure about rafts as I'd be creating more shade in the tank, I have the planter tops level with the waterline now so some rafting plants should work well once they fill in. The hydrocotyle vulgaris I have us starting to grow through the planter and into the tank now which is what I was after. I think it will be a lot of trial and error.


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## mort (24 Feb 2020)

If your peace lilies are curling up and dying I suggest you might have them planted a little too deep. They are actually the one plant I've never had any problems growing in water but the older leaves can turn yellow and die as they transition, normally to be replaced by a flush of new growth that is suited to the environment.

I have a monstera and whilst it's amazing it's very dominant. It has gone from a one palm sized leaved cutting to a plant with about ten leaves that are 18-24" long, in a little under two years ( https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/monstera-adansonii-emersed.55676/#post-540298  very old picture when it was in its temporary tank). It would be great if you want a dominant plant but my tank only has a few pencilfish to fuel the growth and it would probably completely take over with more food.

The one thing I will say is that 30 cm to the light is great to begin with but many plants will quickly reach it and block most of the light. I see you have an anthurium and these seem to take a little while to settle in and them throw up larger leaves. Again mine went from a two leaf, 4" cutting, to over 18" high in about a year. So plan to either raise the light, add more light or do a lot of pruning.


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## zozo (9 Mar 2020)

Lilaeopsis brasiliensis is quite an undemanding small plant spreading/creeping around with rhizomes. There are many others but a tad more demanding. For plants that are growing emersed but with the roots permanently wet then a lot comes down to available light intensity. And it's very difficult to give you a number on this. It's a bit trial and error and having patience with finding the correct plant sp. that do well in what you provide.

For example keeping house plants like Monstera or other Philodendrons, Spathiphyllum, Ficus, Chamaedorea, Syngonium, Begonia, etc. etc. among many others all plants that can grow rather wet (Riparian) in their natural habitat. But as a houseplant all require a relative dry soil during our indoor winter period to make it survive. To wet results in root rot and dying plants in the end. This all comes down to insufficient light intensity and a too short period during the winter. Then keeping true (tropical) bog plants like this often also requires proper air humidity and for some species the correct temperature range. In an indoor open-top setup this can be extremely difficult to regulate. Each house is different, each setup is different, then it's hard to pinpoint why I might fail with some that you are successful with. Then it simply is what it is and when a plant doesn't like it there is very little you can do about it and you need to try something different. A different approach, less draft, more light maybe or simply forced to try a different plant.

I have this issue with Helantium tenelum (Pygmy Chain Sword) I wonder why others find this an easy plant that happily grows emersed. For me it yet never does and i trying it already for 3 years. I can only grow it in emersed in a greenhouse or submerged.


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## FakeBedLinen (10 Mar 2020)

The hydrocotyle vulgaris is really starting to take off now and spread through the basket its in.


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## FakeBedLinen (10 Mar 2020)

mort said:


> If your peace lilies are curling up and dying I suggest you might have them planted a little too deep. They are actually the one plant I've never had any problems growing in water but the older leaves can turn yellow and die as they transition, normally to be replaced by a flush of new growth that is suited to the environment.
> 
> I have a monstera and whilst it's amazing it's very dominant. It has gone from a one palm sized leaved cutting to a plant with about ten leaves that are 18-24" long, in a little under two years ( https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/monstera-adansonii-emersed.55676/#post-540298  very old picture when it was in its temporary tank). It would be great if you want a dominant plant but my tank only has a few pencilfish to fuel the growth and it would probably completely take over with more food.
> 
> The one thing I will say is that 30 cm to the light is great to begin with but many plants will quickly reach it and block most of the light. I see you have an anthurium and these seem to take a little while to settle in and them throw up larger leaves. Again mine went from a two leaf, 4" cutting, to over 18" high in about a year. So plan to either raise the light, add more light or do a lot of pruning.



I think I was giving too much light to the peace lily originally, I've since moved one to the back corner and it's definitely much happier. I'm going to try a cutting from my Monstera addasoni and see how that gets on, be nice to trail up over my lighting frame. 

I so have more space between my light and frame so I can raise it if needs be.


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## zozo (10 Mar 2020)

This is my current Paludarium setup, did set it up previous summer. So it still is rather young and imature.  I didn't use hanging baskets, i dug them all into the banked up substrate.




I have Hydrocotyle leucocephala growing in it.





This setup has relatively low light even tho it is 2 x 75-watt cob LEDs above it. I'm not sure about the lumens since it's in an old fashion floodlight case with reflector. This Palu stands next to a south-east facing window and it receives a lot of daylight. Also, a few hours of direct sunlight during the summer. it's in the first season now and with the spring arriving this month, it is past its first winter period.

Anyway, during the winter it clearly suffered from light deficiency, the Hydrocotyle grew/climbed higher than the installed artificial lights. And during the winter 90% of the emersed growth died back. As you can see in the first picture the stem at the wall with the dried leaves.

Remarkable is, when the light became less the plant wanted to revert back to its aquatic form everything submersed kept growing and it stopped, flowering and stopped developing emerged foilage. Now in the past month, it is slowly growing, flowering and recovering again. The submerged form seems less light depended than its emersed form.

With about all plants in it, I noticed them rather at a standstill, solely living and surviving with a minimal of growth. Now the days getting longer again it is starting to come alive again and the plants are growing a tad faster. Despite the artificial lights at 150 watts at 12-hour cycle it still suffered a significant light deficiency during this winter period. The Cyperus papyrus closest to the window is the only plant that kept growing.

I yet can't say what it will do this coming summer and the next winter after that, since this was it's first and it will get more mature for the next one.

I also have some Hydrocotyl vulgaris growing indoors at the moment. With this, i experience the same, in an emersed form they are light worshipers.

This you can expect under the sun. This is my summer time outdoor paludarium.




The same plant in the same basket, took it for the winter indoors last October and did put it under a 200 watt LED floodlight. Still looks good but it's only at 10% of its outdoor capacity.






I'm not sure if too much light is an option for any plant in such a setup.


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## mort (10 Mar 2020)

FakeBedLinen said:


> I think I was giving too much light to the peace lily originally, I've since moved one to the back corner and it's definitely much happier. I'm going to try a cutting from my Monstera addasoni and see how that gets on, be nice to trail up over my lighting frame.
> 
> I so have more space between my light and frame so I can raise it if needs be.



Ficus pumila might be another good climbing/sprawling plant to try.


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## FakeBedLinen (30 Apr 2020)

Unfortunately I managed to acquire a population of aphids that I was unable to remove so I had to remove everything. Very hard to remove them when you can't use pesticides . The only plant I left in situ was my golden pothos which they didn't seem to bother with. 

Some of the marginals I chose had very rapid growth and got very big very quickly so I think it was time to move those to the pond anyway. 

Think I need to leave it for a month now as I keep an eye on my pothos to check the aphids are gone, I'm pretty sure I managed to eliminate all of them.


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