Pond Boss
Posted By: DonoBBD Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/21/17 03:41 PM
Well we now have dwarf Sagittaria moved in doors for some winter propagation. We have some good dirt substrate with pea stone mix on top to hold the dirt in place as to not allow the water to become over cloudy.

Lots of good fertilizer, lots of good light 300 watts, only limiting factor might be c02.

That being said just wondering if anyone has any experience with this pond or water grass. Wondering if 14 hours of light is good or if we should be more like 18 hours? Just hoping to get the grass to shoot runners and fill our tank like sod by spring.

In the spring we intend on planting this in our pond making some sod areas. The choice of this plant was because A) it is not crazy evasive and B) it will live very well out of the water when water levels do drop late summer.

Any input on photo period or advice on propagating this sod this winter would be great.

Cheers Don.
Posted By: snrub Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/21/17 03:44 PM
No advice Dono but it sounds like an interesting project. Good luck with it.
Posted By: KapHn8d Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/21/17 03:49 PM
Interesting... keep us posted.

Where do you normally source this plant? Is it heat-tolerant? Summer temps here can regularly reach 38C.
Posted By: DonoBBD Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/21/17 05:23 PM
Originally Posted By: KapHn8d
Interesting... keep us posted.

Where do you normally source this plant? Is it heat-tolerant? Summer temps here can regularly reach 38C.


This was the cheapest source for them.

Picture of tank added. Folks say that they will not grow over 6"s but out side with good sun they grew to over 20"s tall and had one white flower shoot.

These are planted in 2"s of organic potting soil with 1.5" pea stone on top of the dirt. I really do not expect to have to add any fertilizer. Just plant set timer and forget.

Might play around with some C02 injection. Have some extra C02 on hand from Paintball just need a bubbler and cannibalize a paintball markers reg.

Looking at about 100 plants from the original 5

Attached picture dwarf sag.jpg
Attached picture dwarf sag2.jpg
Posted By: DonoBBD Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/26/17 12:11 PM
Anyone have experience with aquatic plants?

Wondering two things about dwarf sagittaria.

1) how dose day light hours effect the growth?

2) how dose light intensity effect the growth, light colour a side?

With tomatoes I can trick them into flowering by changing the day light hours to 12 hours. This changes the hormones in the plant triggering it to flower. With running them on 18 hours they will grow tall with out flowers. We have found with most garden plants that if you back their day light hours off on the seedlings to 10 hours they will flower early and produce more vegetables. Peppers are the best at this. If I put the seedlings on 10 hour photo period they will get very thick in the stock and flower very very hard late summer and yield twice the number of peppers on the year.

In our grow bed for the Sag we have lots of good nutrients. We have high light so high we are seeing alga on the gravel in under 7 days. The only limiting factor will be C02. We have circulation of the water when the light is on with the hopes to have as much C02 the air can provide.

How I hope to control the Sag is to give it the light it needs to spread out shoots. My guess if no one has experience with this and Sag is 18 hours would be the best fit for this. I have heard that Sag can flower so I suspect 8-10 hours is not good for spreading out the plants.

Other thought is that currently when planting the plants we have a very very big root mass on each plant. That after the plants have taken root for a month I was thinking of trimming off the leaves to 5-6". With the thought that the plant will not want to abort the root mass and feed the top growth. With only one place to go it should shoot runners and spread out or grow the tops longer. I expect if the light intensity is high enough they will stay short and spread out.

Plant experts please chime in when you can.

Cheers Don.
Posted By: Bill D. Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/26/17 11:18 PM
Hey Don,

I tried growing Dwarf Sag and here is my limited experience. With 10 hours of light in 3 aquariums, for 3 months it just sat there and did not grow at all. I had fish in the tank and I don't know if that mattered. I also put some in the pond and it disappeared. Our pond has a bloom all summer so it got very little light even in shallow water. I THINK it will take lots of light and clear water for it to thrive.

FWIW In 2016 I then planted redtip eel grass in the pond and it is doing well.

Good luck,

Bill
Posted By: Bill Cody Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/26/17 11:59 PM
Dono - You are traveling a relatively unknown path growing dwarf sag. I tried growing it about 8 yrs ago and had limited success. My experience was it had a hard time competing with Chara and filamentous algae.
Posted By: DonoBBD Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 10/27/17 04:04 PM
Currently on 18 hour photo period they do seem to be growing very well. We have only had them transplanted for a week and we are seeing leaf crackle showing they are growing very fast.

Now the hard part is figuring out what triggers them to shoot runners.
Posted By: Dinsmoreoutdoors Re: Dwarf Sagittaria. - 01/21/18 08:15 PM
any update on this?
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