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  warm pots/water for aquatic aroids
From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2007.02.13 at 10:36:52(15287)
Reply-To : Discussion of aroids
Sent : Tuesday, February 13, 2007 3:19 AM
To : aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Subject : [Aroid-l] warm pots for aquatic aroids

Dear JB,

Thanks for this information, it surely will be of help to some aquatic plant
growers, though a five gallon pot might be a tad large for most plants
needing the warmth.
I`m not certain if Enid has written a short article up on what I am about to
describe, either for Aroideana or the IAS Newsletter, but if not she should
(hint hint, Enid!).

My friends Enid and Sam, of Natural Selection Exotics

www.NSExotics.com<

have developed what I consider the most simple and yet effective method to
keep her potted aquatics not only growing during our cold/cool season, but
also flowering reproducing freely!
Her system consists of a large, square plastic 'concrete mixing trough',
abour 4' X 4', or maybe it was 5 'X 5' by 12" deep (any other suitably sized
container would do). These are available at any large hardware store. To
this she adds an underwater aquarium water heater, and one of those small
underwater devices that pumps/circulates water in many marine fish tanks you
see at a fish store. She puts water in the container so that it stands
about 4"-5" deep, sets the larger 3gal. and 1 gal. potted plants in it
(Urospatha and Cyrtosperma sps, etc.), the smaller 4" and 6" pots are put on
a suitable base (a brick, etc.), to bring them to the correct height, and
then she plugs in the two devices, aiming the flow of now suitably warmed
water across the heater and around the pots in the container! When I saw
her set-up, it was COLD outside, but the water was WARM, and ALL her
aquatics were in fantastic condition, HEALTHY roots had grown out the
drain-holes of the pots and into the surrounding water, blooms and
developing seed-heads everywhere! The warm water rising also seemd to keep
the leaves looking great, and since the container was in a greenhouse, there
was no wind to affect them.

Well done, Enid!

Good Growing to all,

Julius

+More
From: Dan Levin <levin at pixar.com> on 2007.02.14 at 05:34:21(15294)
Dear Julius,

Here on the other side of the US I stumbled upon the same solution
as Enid, perhaps 5 or 6 years ago. In my case I'm using a Home Depot
inexpensive pre-formed plastic fish pond set well into the ground, a
submersible heater/ submersible pump inside. The pond itself is located
inside my greenhouse- conservatory style- set amongst an in-ground
planting bed (it's too cold in the San Francisco area to sustain a
heated

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From: "Enid" <enigo at bellsouth.net> on 2007.02.15 at 13:48:31(15299)
Hi All.
It works great as Julius described. I actually found that the aquatics
(Cyrtospermas, Urospathas, Lasiamorpha) do better in this set up than they do
for me the whole rest of the year when it is warm enough and they are not in
heated, circulated water. Circulated water is VERY important otherwise they just
rot.
They are just under shadecloth, no heat or cover other than the water, and
they have gotten down to the high 30's in this set up before with no ill
effects.
We didn't set it up this year since it has been so warm, and the plants
really show the difference. The plants are all in great shape considering it is
early spring, but I certainly haven't gotten the 2 ft of growth I normally get
in the winter without the heated water.

Enid

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