buces in the tenner

There were enough bucephalandra individuals that I'm trying some out in the smaller tank, too. 'Isabelle' went onto the driftwood piece, sharing space with anubias barteri (who sacrificed a few older leaves to avoid shading her too much). I thought I had tied this one down well, but the next morning it's only held down by one of the threads. Don't want to take the driftwood out again (makes a mess) so waiting to see if it can grasp itself on without more help....

Small segment of buce 'selena' tied to a rock.

Even smaller bits of rhizome that were a long, trailing piece. Not sure which species. I think more 'selena'. Hello, trumpet snail!

A bunch of little 'blue bell' bits tied onto a rock.

Some more pieces of what I think are also 'blue bell' (but their leaves lie more flat) tied onto the driftwood between and behind clumps of windelov fern here- difficult to see yet.

Windelov is really the star here.

planting buces

Well yesterday was a planting day, as well as some emergency prep (groceries, woodpile, stocking up on water, weatherproofing a few drafty doors/windows and the like). Here's what went into the thirty-eight. The largest buce 'midnight blue' I fastened to a stone and put in the corner next to 'godzilla'. Wow, does it ever have blue color!

I am sad to report however, that 'godzilla' herself isn't looking so great- brown algae on the leaves, but hoping to correct that soon (more on that later). I do see tiny root hairs coming out to cling on the stone, so that's a good sign.

The rest of the buces I tied onto the driftwood log. This is painstaking work. Before I have always used tiny rubber bands (the kind for hair braids) and eventually they disintegrate enough to break and I pull them out of the tank. I had to stop using the pale/white ones that fish bags are tied with, because my cherry barbs try to eat them- I guess they thought it looked like a worm. Several times I saw barbs pooping thick white segments with flat edges I'm pretty sure were rubber bands. They survived that, but I want to avoid it again (they don't try to eat the dark colored ones). Also it's tricky to get a rubber band over the plant leaves to sit where I want it on the rhizome.

Using thread has it difficulties, too. Manipulating wet thread is frustrating. It clings to everything. I take the log out of the tank and set it on a tray to work, tie it on before placing the plant, use the longest needle I have, keep drying my hands continually and still it's a pain. It is easier to get between bits of foliage to the exact spot I want, and I finally found some 100% cotton thread in my sewing stuff, so this will rot away after about a month and by then the roots should have taken hold. I have to be careful not to tie it too tightly and cut the rhizome tissue. It looks like a lot wrapped on here because I shifted the phoenix moss to the front side of the wood and criss-crossed to hold that down again, too.

The plant go from left to right: buce 'emerald green' (was already in place), 'isabelle', 'selena' (largest one in center/top) and a few clusters of 'blue bell'. Here's a closer look at the 'selena' and 'blue bell' in the tank-

ambient lighting shows the hues differently:

Once in place I find that 'isabelle' is actually my favorite to look at- so sprightly.

ambient light:

insulation

I've preemptively insulated my aquariums against the cold. There's six inches snow outside so far, it's still coming down. We have blizzard warnings, predicted two days straight of snowfall with over two feet, and very likely to loose power. Not wanting to panic about the fish when that happens, I've wedged thick sheets of styrofoam between the tanks and the house wall.

The towel is just there to hold it in place, gap was a bit too wide here and it wouldn't stay in place.

The tenner got this treatment too.

Not sure how much heat loss this will prevent, but it should do something. If we do loose power at least it will slow it down some, I'll have time to wrap the tanks in wool blankets and if we're out more than a day, can heat water (if worst comes to worse, I have a fireplace, a woodpile, a pot and snow to melt!)

Keep warm, fishies.

more buces

I had let the seller know of my initial disappointment in the condition the bucephalandra arrived in (damaged leaves and some algae) and he kindly sent me some extras to make up for it. More than made up for it- it's four additional varieties, quite a number of the smaller ones. They weren't packaged as meticulously- to be expected, I didn't pay for this lot. I mention it to make note that the plants arrived just as safely- no serious cold damage even though they were simply placed in plastic ziplocs wrapped in a single layer of newspaper, in a flat rate box.

These two are bucephalandra 'midnight blue' and 'blue bell'

These are bucephalandra 'selena' and 'isabelle'.

I followed the same procedure as last time for disinfecting: sprayed them down with mix of hydrogen peroxide and water, let it sit while I set up the smaller QT container. Rinsed under running tapwater, then again in bucket of water with extra dechlor. Put in the QT with heater and circulation, for overnight.

I tried to do a bit of the work ahead of time by deciding where to place each plant and fastening some down to rocks.

This one I split in half- figured I'll put a bit of each kind in the smaller tank too, and see how they do.

smaller half went on a rock, the other will tie to driftwood in the thirty-eight,

One of them had a very long, trailing piece of rhizome. There was a tiny leaf and a small growing node space apart; I cut the rhizome into a few pieces and tied down to see if it will sprout.

Tomorrow will be another planting day!

and that's it for a while- in terms of new plants- I have to see what success I get first

dismal rosemary

We finally got a bit of snow (and a big storm predicted this weekend). I still have the mock strawberry plants in the coldhouse, and they're doing grand. My rosemary on the other hand, seems to have suffered. I was bringing it in overnight and only putting it out in the coldhouse on mild days, for more sun. Must have brought it in too late one night, or it got a draft from sitting on the floor (sun spot in the house is near sliding glass door). All of a sudden it looks dessicated.

There are a few stems still green at their base, so at first I thought I could cut it back and save it. But looking at the closeup picture it looks like a bad case of spider mites. Or could just be frost damage, I don't know. I expect it might die.

balance

Every morning now I get into the tanks with tweezers to replant the ones that have been unmoored. I kind of expected to have carpeting plants float loose easily- the staurogyne repens and monte carlo. More frustrated that creeping jenny keeps coming loose- its lower foliage quickly melting, new tiny leaves emerging at tips but not enough hold yet. I want that one to hold. (Not a single rotala stem has dislodged- their little roots strong enough!) Yesterday it was at the point that whatever I found floating was pretty much too decayed to try and put back. So picking out plant debris to discard. Meanwhile took a few pics of other stuff that's doing better.

Such as the anubias barteri unfurling its newest leaf.

Oliver came over to see what I was doing

Put himself right in the middle of things.

I like how it looks in ambient lighting.

Java fern busting out some real growth.

Windelov fingers translucent to the light. You can see the leaf veins.

My thirty-eight on the other hand, still needs adjustments. Once again I foolishly thought: Oh, things are doing better, I can extend the light a bit- and last week I bumped the photoperiod up half an hour. So it was running six and a half hours. This was after I'd already done a few changes in the weeks prior: tinkering with ferts, dimming the light source and reducing its distance. Suddenly today I noticed something I saw just before my old 20L came down- things look yellowish. Not the nice green anymore. (I think back then in error I had bumped the photoperiod half an hour more, too). Put it back to six right away.

It might be because all the hornwort is floating now, and blocking light. But the hornwort itself is getting brownish from algae as well- maybe it's getting too much light now all up on the surface? Or my ferts could be off again, it's possible I dosed too much nitrates... Gotta figure it out. I was so pleased last week and now I don't even want to take a picture.

avocado leaves

Admiring the form of my avocado plant the other day.

A few weeks ago I trimmed off a stem that was leaning way out to one side, now it has nicer shape and all the branches have new leaves.

It seems to get enough humidity from the nearby aquarium, but I think I still need to mist or wipe down the leaves occasionally. You can see how dusty the older foliage is!

hardy few

After those first few days trying out my coldhouse, it got a lot colder and I didn't dare put out the echeveria, geranium, aloes or coleus.

But rosemary is tougher, in fact I want this one to be an annual in my yard once it gets bigger and I can decide where to put it.

I even think it's getting healthier since going outside here for extra sun occasionally. Not quite sure but there seem to be fewer pale, blotchy leaves and more dark green growth.

And the mock strawberry in pots on my porch, I didn't want them to die from freezing, so put those behind the plastic walls to see if I could save them. They were planted pretty roughly and didn't look so good for a while, but I cleaned out some ratty foliage and dead leaves, now it looks better. If it warms up a bit I'll put them back out.

Note on the structure: some of the weather stripping I put in fell off. Need thicker pieces, attached more firmly.

lenten foliage

The lenten rose, or hellebore, is one of the few plants that stays green in my yard all winter (so far). I've been trying to think of a plant I can put around my mailbox or near the front steps to have some greenery when everything else is dead (a pot of ivy maybe). This might be the one...

saving leaves

I was not very on top of the leaf piles in our backyard this fall. Intended to shred them all, but it was hard to find days when I wasn't busy or had the kids in the yard and it wasn't raining. A lot harder to shred when damp, plus it makes the bags too heavy. There was a huge pile under the tree swing for a long time, but once it started to decompose at the bottom of the pile, getting compact and slimy, of course nobody wanted to play in the leaves anymore. I moved it then to a back corner of the yard, intending to add gradually to the compost pile, but that hasn't had much green stuff in it lately and isn't breaking down very fast, so I didn't have room to add leaves and the pile just sat there.

A few days ago I decided to just bag it all up, even though it was still damp and wouldn't get shredded. Want it out of sight and by the time I open the bags again to mix with grass clippings and garden waste in summer, it will have broken down more. To help it out I threw a small handful of vermicompost into each bag.

And spread some into my new garden beds as well.