Nutrient Uptake

[leafs]

I know that Crypts and sword plants are heavy root feeders, but do they absorb a lot from the water? I'm curious as to how much fertilizer they absorb from their leaves.

Thanks

 

[reiverix]

I've grown both plants with no root fertilization. I dose the water column liberally. Never use root tabs but I do prefer substrates made specifically for plants. I've kept a melon sword very healthy in standard gravel and I've grown crypts in sand.

 

[George Farmer]

As John suggests, aquatic plants will adapt to obtain nutrients through the water column i.e. through their leaves.

Using this technique it is very important to keep the water column rich. This brings about risks of algae if there isn't sufficient bio-mass to use the nutrients. In other words you need to plant very heavily.

EI is a very effective method to ensure the plants never go deficient and many have success running an inert substrate.

I prefer to run both myself i.e. nutrient-rich substrate and water column. This way the plants are "spoilt", and grow very well indeed.

 

[leafs]

Thanks George. I always keep the water column and substrate nutient rich, but I always assumed that heavy root feeders relied mostly on the substrate for their nutrients. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

John