Plants that can survive with waterlogged roots

toan

Arachnosquire
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Sep 27, 2002
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yes, and yes. anubias has a hard time transitioning from wet to dry, but not so much the other way. I've heard of ppl complaining about their anubias "melted" when they put them into their tank but I've never actually experienced that. I think it's mostly exaggerated, and they just wanted to blame something. you can put it back and it should pick back up quickly. to move them to emerged conditions, you want to do it slowly.
 

KevinLovett86

Arachnopeon
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Jun 19, 2019
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I’m gonna try this, it’s very popular in any school or office space in China. Not sure what it’s called, but it will root in soil, water and air. It also handles low light pretty well.
Still early days for me though, that vile has been laying there all day waiting for my 1st pokie to emerge into his/her new home
72E25E11-9A5D-45B3-A4A5-D7AE808EA9F5.jpeg
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
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Nov 3, 2013
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I’m gonna try this, it’s very popular in any school or office space in China. Not sure what it’s called, but it will root in soil, water and air. It also handles low light pretty well.
Still early days for me though, that vile has been laying there all day waiting for my 1st pokie to emerge into his/her new home
View attachment 321040
Looks like a philodendron or pothos to me.
 

Abdulkarim Elnaas

Arachnosquire
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Oct 15, 2016
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111
There are a lot of mint-like plants growing wild in the stream near my house. I didn't know mints could grow fully or half-submerged, but they seem to be doing well.
 

BepopCola

Arachnobaron
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Oct 14, 2018
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There are a lot of mint-like plants growing wild in the stream near my house. I didn't know mints could grow fully or half-submerged, but they seem to be doing well.
I actually just sprouted some spearmint over an aquarium. I'm hoping they grow nicely!
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

How about grabbing the hydroponic plant catalogues?
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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It took me way too long to realize that.
Me too. Was reviewing this thread again then PING! Wait a freaking second! Your mentioning sprouting over an aquarium then recalling a the 50 foot 'raceways' at a friend's hydroponic operation. face palm
The better catalogues give the low down info on the characteristics of every plant.
 

Feral

Arachnobaron
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Oct 6, 2019
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Or any bog-type plants. Or plants that have seasonally dropping water levels. Depends on if you're trying to float them bare-rooted or providing a pot with rooting medium that hangs at surface level. So yeah. Besides what's been mentioned, acorus, water onion, pickerel, pennywort, sensitive vine, dwarf lotus, dwarf papyrus, peace lily, creeping Jenny/moneywort, corkscrew grass, dracaena/"lucky bamboo", pitcher plants et. al., mint family, Cryptocoryne sp. and Anubias sp., various sword sp., Java fern sp., also various pothos/Epipremnum sp. and common (heart-leafed) philodendron can be kept with feet in water long term (I bet Scindapsis sp. and Tradescantia sp. like zebrina might be worth a shot to see if they'll work long term, since they also root well in water). I'll add more if my lightbulb flickers.
 
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Feral

Arachnobaron
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Oh, and I love Foo The Flowerhorn, too! <3

Also, the only times I've ever been successful at transitioning plants like Anubias sp. from submerged to emerged is within a Mason jar with a clear glass (to let light in) lid. I put them in and establish them submerged. Then I lowered the water level to just cover the rhizome and roots. I haven't needed to drop the water slowly, using closed Mason jars I can drop it in one go. Since the lid kept in so much humdity, they didn't seem to mind this part at all. Sometimes I just keep them this way long term. But if I'm trying for more then if they're cool I replaced the lid with clear Saran Wrap and gradually poked more and more holes to gradually increase ventilation/decrease humidity. They'll always need a waaay lot more humdity than other normal houseplants, though. So unless your house humdity is pretty darn high, I don't think they could survive being grown openly emerged even with the marginal increase in humidity supplied by being directly over open water. But as mentioned, some aquatic plants have a more dramatic acclimation phase/submersion or emersion transition, like Crypts, who have two different types of leaves, one for underwater and one type for air. But many aquatic plants are sold in their emerged forms already.
 
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BepopCola

Arachnobaron
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Oh, and I love Foo The Flowerhorn, too! <3

Also, the only times I've ever been successful at transitioning plants like Anubias sp. from submerged to emerged is within a Mason jar with a clear glass (to let light in) lid. I put them in and establish them submerged. Then I lowered the water level to just cover the rhizome and roots. I haven't needed to drop the water slowly, using closed Mason jars I can drop it in one go. Since the lid kept in so much humdity, they didn't seem to mind this part at all. Sometimes I just keep them this way long term. But if I'm trying for more then if they're cool I replaced the lid with clear Saran Wrap and gradually poked more and more holes to gradually increase ventilation/decrease humidity. They'll always need a waaay lot more humdity than other normal houseplants, though. So unless your house humdity is pretty darn high, I don't think they could survive being grown openly emerged even with the marginal increase in humidity supplied by being directly over open water. But as mentioned, some aquatic plants have a more dramatic acclimation phase/submersion or emersion transition, like Crypts, who have two different types of leaves, one for underwater and one type for air. But many aquatic plants are sold in their emerged forms already.
Yeah, I failed on transitioning my Anubias. All the leaves died. But the trunk(?) looks like it trying to re-grow some. I have 3 tiny Anubias nana petite in the same jar vivarium, and those guys seem to be doing very good.

Also, thanks for the plant suggestions. I have an extra peace lily that I might try this with.
 

Feral

Arachnobaron
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Fingers crossed. And I really hope you post pix, I'd love to see it! :D

BTW, what animals would you have? I'm just thinking about if any of these plants might be toxic to little nibblers...
 

BepopCola

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With the Anunbias sp., I only have some velvet worms, but they won't bother with the plants. I also have 2 mystery "aquarium" plants in there that I got from petco.

For the aquarium, I made a little basket with some eggcrate, and I only have nerite snails in the tank. They can't through the squares in the egg crate. They don't seem too interested in the plants' roots either.

As for growing them rooted in the aquarium water I've had success with a few species of pothos, strawberries, dracaena sp., a philodendron sp., and a spider plant. All my mints withered away, maybe it was too dry for them :( .
I've since transplanted most of these plants into vivariums, except a few pothos. So I have room for a peace lily :).

I keep mostly millipedes! I've found a handful of plants that seem to work with them (and not get eaten; except by A. gigas... little gluttons, they only get a bromeliad, at least I think it's a bromeliad).
I have a cutting of neon pothos, Boston fern, and spider plant in with my death feigning beetles, and then just I have a dedicated plant tank.
Oh, and Vonones ornata in every tank.
 

Feral

Arachnobaron
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With the Anunbias sp., I only have some velvet worms, but they won't bother with the plants. I also have 2 mystery "aquarium" plants in there that I got from petco.

For the aquarium, I made a little basket with some eggcrate, and I only have nerite snails in the tank. They can't through the squares in the egg crate. They don't seem too interested in the plants' roots either.

As for growing them rooted in the aquarium water I've had success with a few species of pothos, strawberries, dracaena sp., a philodendron sp., and a spider plant. All my mints withered away, maybe it was too dry for them :( .
I've since transplanted most of these plants into vivariums, except a few pothos. So I have room for a peace lily :).

I keep mostly millipedes! I've found a handful of plants that seem to work with them (and not get eaten; except by A. gigas... little gluttons, they only get a bromeliad, at least I think it's a bromeliad).
I have a cutting of neon pothos, Boston fern, and spider plant in with my death feigning beetles, and then just I have a dedicated plant tank.
Oh, and Vonones ornata in every tank.
That sounds lovely, like a happy, jungle-y wonderland... Magical. :D Love it!
And I love nerites, too. Yup! Right now I have Gadusi, and she's a beautiful beast- slayer of algae, layer of scores of eggs, destroyer of aqua scaping. Love her to bits. It's cool you like 'em, too! Awesome.

Mints do like a ton of light... I personally haven't found a window spot or artificial light that lets me grow them indoors, whether in soil or water. I've only been able to do various mints outside, either as a bog plant in summer fish tubs or in regular containers with soil. So I wonder if that was your experience, too. But outside, they're total weeds. Literally.

Oops, I also forgot Callisia repens as one of the ones that roots beautifully in water so might be a candidate for keeping long term in water.

I always used to have a strawberry plant because of the legend, but I haven't had on in a while and I've never tried keeping one directly in water... I sense a summer project brewing for me, thanks for the inspiration!

Hey, how long were you able to keep spider plant/chlorophytum sp. going in water? I've done experiments with them in plain tap water, distilled water, water with liquid ferts (aquarium), etc. and obviously the root well in water but I haven't been able to keep them in water long term no matter what I do. Have you?
 

BepopCola

Arachnobaron
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Snails are great.
I had some land snails, but they've died. There are some good-sized snails and slugs outside, but I'm scared of rat lungworm so I leave them be.

Mints do like a ton of light... I personally haven't found a window spot or artificial light that lets me grow them indoors, whether in soil or water.
That... that's probably what happened. Thanks for the info!

Callisia repens
I need this plant in my life. The "pink lady" one is beautiful.

I always used to have a strawberry plant because of the legend, but I haven't had on in a while and I've never tried keeping one directly in water... I sense a summer project brewing for me, thanks for the inspiration!
The strawberries grew wonderfully. They flowered a lot, but they haven't fruited. I only moved them into my plant tank because it had a stronger light. I'll attach my plant tank.

Hey, how long were you able to keep spider plant/chlorophytum sp. going in water? I've done experiments with them in plain tap water, distilled water, water with liquid ferts (aquarium), etc. and obviously the root well in water but I haven't been able to keep them in water long term no matter what I do. Have you?
Oh, I'm not sure about the long term,
I only kept it in there for about four months. I originally had it in with my A. gigas with a deep, deep layer of substrate, but then I relocated and I moved it into another tank with shallow substrate, and it began to rot, it couldn't drain well enough I suppose, and it rotted away all its leaves.
Some roots were still alive though!
So I put them in my aquarium basket and it sprouted back up and grew pretty quickly.
I will try water again, for a permanent aquarium plant, but I'm waiting for some offshoots. I think it would great beside a Callisia repens. If it can survive long term.
 

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Feral

Arachnobaron
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So I put them in my aquarium basket and it sprouted back up and grew pretty quickly.
I will try water again, for a permanent aquarium plant, but I'm waiting for some offshoots. I think it would great beside a Callisia repens. If it can survive long term.
I'd be interest rates to see how it does, yes.
Oh, and the Chlorophytum sp./spider and the Callisia repens I have together in my current favorite enclosure, and I agree that it looks good! Mine is just the green leaves (with purple-ish leaf undersides and stems in bright light) variety, but I still like it. Still waiting for the repens to fill in, but happy so far. I think that pink lady variety would look good for you, I agree!

And that pic is loooovely! Wow, thanks for sharing!
And what is that small, short plant in the foreground on both left and right sides? It short and low and looks like a cluster of long stalks/shoots with just a couple of leaves at the very top? It's adorable. And might be good for a couple of juvenile enclosures I have. I just gotta know the name!
 

BepopCola

Arachnobaron
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And what is that small, short plant in the foreground on both left and right sides? It short and low and looks like a cluster of long stalks/shoots with just a couple of leaves at the very top? It's adorable. And might be good for a couple of juvenile enclosures I have. I just gotta know the name!
On the left are days old chia, lol. I was trying to get them to grow on the wood. I think they do eventually grow larger though.
On the right are clovers (and a few chia).
Those are actually the only two plants I'm growing as food for my millis/roaches/isopods, if they'll take them.
 
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