# The Muddled Puddle, a Wabi Kusa



## hitmanx (3 Feb 2019)

This is my first foray into the art of Wabi Kusa...






For now it's mostly non aquatic plants that I have used in my riparium, but I will be attempting more traditional stems as it progresses... salvinia and lemna on the water surface...





A slapped together of bunch of random driftwood with stainless screws, dumped some aquasoil on the bottom of an Ikea bowl and whipped up my own wabi kusa ball...





The driftwood has been planted with Spiky moss at the waterline...





The ball is made up of hydroton balls in the centre surrounded by 50/50 aquasoil and crushed sphagnum moss...





Then wrapped in long fibre sphagnum and placed in a hair net and twirled tight...









I'm using a Philips par30 LED daylight flood on a 12hr light period... I have been trying to change the water everyday for the first few weeks...

This should be fun!


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## Ady34 (3 Feb 2019)

Looks very nice.


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## TBRO (3 Feb 2019)

Looking great, the challenge is low humidity (and aphids and cats) with emergant aquatic plants. Where do source your terrestrial plants? 


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## hitmanx (3 Feb 2019)

TBRO said:


> Looking great, the challenge is low humidity (and aphids and cats) with emergant aquatic plants. Where do source your terrestrial plants?



My riparium has been plagued by aphids for the last year or two which severely limits my use of stems above water... and humidity is 35 to 40% in the winter and don't have time for working about misting... that's not gonna happen... we shall see how things go...


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## hitmanx (9 Feb 2019)

I added some local terrestrial moss to spice things up...





Three different species... unknown names as of yet...





Both pilea species are doing great... the palm has changed much...


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## TBRO (9 Feb 2019)

Looking great, plants all seem healthy. Is there anything living in the water?


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## hitmanx (9 Feb 2019)

TBRO said:


> Looking great, plants all seem healthy. Is there anything living in the water?



Just tiny ramshorn snails and a tiny terrestrial snail that came with the moss...


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## hitmanx (15 Feb 2019)

The spiky moss is finally taking to the emersed culture and branching out all over...





I've added more of the terrestrial moss to the driftwood... and I have tried to figure out what kind of moss it actually is... I'm thinking the branched moss in Hylocomium sp., and mounding moss is probably Pincushion Moss or Leucobryum glaucum, and perhaps the larger branched moss is perhaps Hedwigia sp. ...





Unfortunately some of the chamedora palm has failed... I'm not sure it's suited to the wabi kusa... the pilea has begun to root well... The salvinia is taking over but some is moulding or turning brown...


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## hitmanx (16 Feb 2019)

It's starting to get some morning sunshine...


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## Ady34 (16 Feb 2019)

This just looks so good, love it.


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## hitmanx (16 Feb 2019)

Ady34 said:


> This just looks so good, love it.



Thanks, it's a nice way to get into Wabi kusa... pretty easy when you don't have to worry too much about humidity... I was hoping the palm would do better but we shall see...

I have a couple ferns I am going to try in some more wabi kusa and a traditional saikei setup with moss...

And I'm setting up a small shallow tank that will use wabi kusa balls for emesed growth...

This is fun!!


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## Tim Harrison (16 Feb 2019)

Looking great


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## hitmanx (16 Feb 2019)

The emersed spiky moss is looking great and branching, but it isn't attaching to the driftwood...


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## Steve Buce (17 Feb 2019)

Looks great, a nice project that anyone can have a go at


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## hitmanx (21 Feb 2019)

I was able to go 10 days without a water change and the water was crystal clear and smelled wonderful... smelled green and fresh... the surface scum was gone... I removed half of the salvinia minima... it's  growing gangbusters as are the moss.. . The pilea depressa isn't doing much but it's not dying..  the pilea glaucophylla is back budding and getting thick... the palm is just sitting there..  a few of them have died... I might have to try another large plant to grow out of the wabi ball... In my experience they often don't do much for a long while before they start actively growing...

I simply love this setup...


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## hitmanx (3 Mar 2019)

Filling in nicely...


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## TBRO (3 Mar 2019)

Looking nice, it’s fascinating the transition area from underwater to emergant. I’m finding it’s real trial and error as to what will grow in these conditions. Hydrocotyle species seem to like it. 


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## hitmanx (3 Mar 2019)

I was thinkng of hydrocotyle sp Japan but it would probably take over quickly... the wabi kusa ball itself is a little boring right now... the pilea species are indeed growing but I just don't know what the Bella palm is doing... in my big riparium I had it sitting for a whole year before it sent out a healthy leaf...


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## Tim Harrison (3 Mar 2019)

H. Japan is a great filler and does well emersed. It's easy enough to trim; it usually puts out loads of vegetative growth before it takes root, so you don't necessarily have to worry about it being invasive.


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## hitmanx (3 Mar 2019)

Getting a little morning sun...





I think I'm going to spread the pilea glaucophylla around the back of the wabi yo mix it up a bit... I collected a couple more species of terrestrial mosses to add to the setup in the next few days...

I'm not sure if I'm going to add the H. Japan to the wabi or around the driftwood if at all...


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## hitmanx (3 Sep 2019)

Some changes... took out palm and added an Asparagus fern (Asparagus setaceus) instead and it's doing well...

The mosses have gone crazy and the pilea is hanging on... over the last 6 months the salvinia went crazy even growing under water, but neglect allowed BGA attack...

Today I cleaned out the bowl, dumped the aquasoil and trimmed and rinsed the wabi, driftwood and moss... I will add some new substrate, maybe some sand and begin to fertilize... not sure about keeping the salvinia or not...


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## dw1305 (3 Sep 2019)

Hi all, 





hitmanx said:


> added an Asparagus fern (Asparagus setaceus) instead


That looks really effective, it reminds me of a <"Cedar"> or <"African _Acacia_">.

cheers Darrel


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## hitmanx (13 Aug 2021)

This moss ball is out of control... I don't change the water, ever... no ferts... I just top up... various creature live in its dark folds...

I gave up on most of the plants save for the mosses... they just didn't grow well with such neglect...





I washed it out and trimmed it... earwigs came crawling out... the water was green... the moss is at least 4 inches thick in spots... reminds me of floating bog moss Islands in the wild places of Canada... I really should get some small carnivorous pitcher plants to grow on this...













I have no idea what species are on here besides the small Hydrocotyle tripartita eeking out an existence... I keep finding mosses and slapping them on...


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## hitmanx (16 Aug 2021)

Well the spider is back... he must have bailed before I cleaned it...





He's small and fast so it was hard to get a good shot in focus...


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