15 December 2016

bad crypt walkeri

So- I received a cultured pot of crypt walkeri. Which I think had gone bad. When I opened it there was a very foul smell. It was literally nauseating. I had to quickly rinse the gel off or I would have been sick to my stomach. Rising away most of the gel eased up the odor, and the plants themselves don't look too bad- just a bit of yellowing on some leaves, no mold or mushy black decay like I've seen before on other packaged plants...
I rinsed the plants again and put them in a clear plastic cup on top of the aquarium, where they'd stay a bit warm. Didn't want to risk planting yet if there actually was rot of some kind that might spread.

Every day I have been dumping out the water and replacing with new tank water. Odor has reduced but still off-putting if I smell it close. Yesterday I had some more time, sat down and carefully separated out the clumped-up rhizomes into individual plantlets. Found some lumps of gel still in there- and as soon as I rinsed that away, the offensive smell is gone. There is still no significant decay and some of the plants are putting out new little white roots, so I think they might be okay.

1 comment:

Jeane said...

It wasn't okay. I smelled it again this morning and odor is rotten. I gave up and threw it out.