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Andys HC propagator step by step

Very clever to leave the stems lying on the ground... This way each cutting can produce several plants.
I will definitely use this technique!

Jordi
 
This method works wonderfully, with most any plant; I've done this method succesfully with all Micranthemum species, Eleocharis species, Pogostemon, et cetera. The only failure I've had so far, is the E. Tenellus; that's starting to brown up and dry out. But Andy's method is the bees' knees!
 
Chris25 said:
looks like I'm going to have to get a propagator...

This looks like a real money saver!
Click to expand...
Do it, you'll be glad you did 🙂
It wasn't expensive i think it cost around £30 for the propagator, dirt, and 1 in vitro pot of hc to get me started and with what i saved not buying pots of hc it paid for itself twice over
parotet said:
Very clever to leave the stems lying on the ground... This way each cutting can produce several plants.
I will definitely use this technique!

Jordi
Click to expand...

Not really clever, i'm just lazy and then i discovered the stems sprout a new shoot from nearly every leaf node, sometimes 2

Vinkenoog1977 said:
This method works wonderfully, with most any plant; I've done this method succesfully with all Micranthemum species, Eleocharis species, Pogostemon, et cetera. The only failure I've had so far, is the E. Tenellus; that's starting to brown up and dry out. But Andy's method is the bees' knees!
Click to expand...
Not really my method but IMO it works very well. I'd seen it done a few times by members and thought "i'll have a bit of that" I posted a few pics of my first batch on the forum and my inbox filled with questions about how i did it, so i did it again, took some pics, then wrote the step by step
It has failed a few times for other people who've tried but most weren't done in a propagator
Foxfish has had good results with tanks in the garden and tanks inside on heatmats
 
Well, your post brought this to my attention, so... Brilliant read, and results!

TBH, I don't use an actual propagator at all, just those little plastic greenhouse things that only cost a couple of Euros, and I've put them in my window sill, facing SE, so pretty much sun all day. I was just checking, and the Micranthemum is going mental, I need a new tank to plant it all! 😀 Only two small places where it turned brown and dried out, but that's all, the rest is doing better than I was ever able to achieve submersed. Which is kind of depressing when you think about it. 😳
 
The cube dsm had 24w t5 lights and zero natural light perhaps there wasn't enough light for it to grow like crazy. It didn't melt until 4 weeks so i flooded the tank then it started to grow. There was 2cm layer of sand where the MC was planted so maybe nutrients were a problem in my dsm
too.
 
Ow, you did a DSM with the MC? I did that with Indiscipline (link below), with a lot less light than that, and had some melt after flooding, several times in the same place, which was actually the spot with the MOST light of the entire cube! Only after flooding, did it start to spread back into that spot, go figure. I did add some extra heat with a regular aquarium heater on full, placed in a cut up plastic drinks bottle, to raise humidity mostly, and I added some extra CO2 via a DIY bottle. Had some pretty decent growth in the 4 weeks in think it was that it was in DSM, and I only flooded because my Javaferns were starting to look very sad.

The soil I'm now using in the incubators, would be the equivalent of John Innes No. 1, for cuttings and seeds, and I will be using that in the next tank I'm planning, simply because of the amazing results I've had in the incubators; it's so packed full of nutrients. Am/ Was a bit worried about it in an aquarium situation, leaching certain chemicals, but as far as I've been able to Google, there's no chance of any pollution that could be detrimental to fish, plants or inverts. Great stuff.
 
I like to dsm the carpet plants and then plant the rest when i'm about to flood it. I think some plants need spraying too much for it to be practical for me.
I don't think i'll have a problem with livestock the cube has been flooded for ages thanks to a few problems along the way
 
Same here, seems to work best for carpet plants, so if I have the chance, I'll go that route. Next up is a rescape of Piepowder, and will be using the E. Acicularis from the incubator as a carpet, hope it will adjust well to submersed, time will tell. Will give it a very, euhm, Navy SEAL haircut prior to planting. 😉
 
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