Didiplis Diandra

[Andeekaii]

Anyone grown this before? Thinking about having it as the main plant in my new project, will tank up at least 50% of the tank..

Good idea, bad idea? Any info guys

Cheers, Andy

 

[Grakk]

It is a beautiful mid-to-background plant, but it has a few quirks to getting started. Stems will turn black and rot off if it:

-doesn't get enough light near the base before roots are developed
-doesn't get enough iron (it is primarily a root feeder)
-has its stem planted into the substrate

Use Flourite or root tabs, separate bunches and spread them out a little and just weight down the stems with lead strips. Give it plenty of light (2-3W/g, I have ~3.5W/g) and in a few days roots will start popping out everywhere. Just let these go- they are ugly, but they will disintegrate in a few weeks once the stems near the substrate dig in and then you can remove the lead weights.

This is the back view where there is very little light. Roots seem to persist in low-light areas. You can see where the stems are bent over from having the lead weight on them. I have long since removed it:

Shoots near the surface will turn red in high light conditions. CO2 injection will give nice steady pearling. Here's my start (~April 09) and where the tank is now. I've done numerous trimmings and it keeps getting lusher and fuller. Easily propagated by clippings. The smaller stand on the left is from 2 bunches of clippings I made about 3 weeks ago. They were about 3" long when they started. My substrate is 1" prepared topsoil with a 1.5" Flourite cap layer.

04/09

07/09

 

[Andeekaii]

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply! Very helpful indeed.

How many stems did you start off with? I am planning on having this plant as the main plant. In my list i have 30x stems. Are they easy enough to propogate?

Cheers, Andy

 

[Grakk]

I started with about 30 stems like you. 3 bunches of ~10 from AZgardens.com (I live in Texas, US). I wanted a very bushy clump to one side as you can see. They will not send out runners like an ambulia or a ground cover, but if you plant them with a little space between stems, they will bush out much better. Compare the hedge on the right of my "after" photo with the clump on the left. The left clumps are still bound with lead into bunches while the right hedge was planted with about 1/2" between each stem. Stems will divide by themselves as they grow vertically.

Propagation can be by two methods. First, you can simply plant trimmings. Once your 30 stems get established with some roots in the substrate, chop them in half and weight them down again with lead strips. Personally, I think this plant gets a bad rap: it is very resilient -once established-. The other method is their natural way, which is to release small purple "fruit" nodules that grow at each florette (don't know their technical name). These occasionally drop off and root, but they contribute to spread very slowly IME.

This has become one of my favorite plants now that I know a n00b like me can grow it! I would like to hear what your complete plan is for the tank!

 

[Andeekaii]

Thanks again grakk. Well lucky for you i already have a topic about what my final plan is! Its very simple but, simple is good sometimes.

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=295411"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=295411[/URL]

I've changed my mind on a few things.

Instead of glosso im using HC as the front carpet and then gradually changing to glosso as it gets further back..
Then it will just be dwarf hairgrass in the midground followed by 2 bunches of didiplis (one larger than the other), with the smaller one having some rotala indica behind it.
Check the post, it will show it more clearly.

Andy

Edit: Also, what is the shorter plant you have used at the front right of the tank. It looks very nice and could be used to replace the hairgrass in my idea, which i have at the moment and doesnt seem to grow well for me?

 

[Dave Spencer]

You won`t need root tabs with DD, it can grow in an inert substrate provided the water column is adequately dosed. If you get any blackening of the stems, I would suggest there could be a CO2 issue. Mine never did this. Like any other plant, DD can get its nutrients from its leaves as easily as its roots.

For HC, you will definitely need to nail your CO2.

Dave.

 

[Grakk]

That's just HM (Hemianthus micranthemoides; ie "regular" Baby Tears") that I haven't properly trimmed. It is the same material as the thick hedge nearer the center.