# Moist soil/semi-aquatic plants?



## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Trying to figure out which plants to have around the pond of my waterfall. I minimized splashing by using java moss in the waterfall, but it still produces very small droplets that make their way onto the substrate portion of the viv.

I'm not even sure that this little amount of water will make the substrate more wet than the area farther from the waterfall, but just to make sure there is not problems with plants, i want to plant some moist soil plants around the pond.

So which plants tend to like moister soil? Or rather, which plants will do fine if the soil is a bit more wet due to the waterfall spray. It will not be waterlogged or have wet-feet (there is good drainage right below), but the soil might be slightly more moist.

Any suggestions?

Luke


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

check blackjungles aquatic section. Those plants can grow in water, so why not in really wet soil.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Well it probably won't be really wet...just a little more moist than the dry substrate.

Luke


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

If it is getting splashed on all day, it will be pretty wet. I don't think it would have much time to dry, between splashes and all.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Hmmm, it's not really "splashing", it's more like little droplets of water every now and then...it's very minimal, almost nothing. But yeah, if it continues all day, it will get a bit moist. I'll have to test it out when i put the substrate in. Maybe i'll get one of those substrate moistness meters from HD. 

Anyway, does anyone have a chart showing which plants need what type of substrate? I'm mainly concerened with broms, epips, ferns and orchids.

Luke


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Darks!de said:


> Hmmm, it's not really "splashing", it's more like little droplets of water every now and then...it's very minimal, almost nothing. But yeah, if it continues all day, it will get a bit moist. I'll have to test it out when i put the substrate in. Maybe i'll get one of those substrate moistness meters from HD.
> 
> Anyway, does anyone have a chart showing which plants need what type of substrate? I'm mainly concerened with broms, epips, ferns and orchids.
> 
> Luke


I grow all broms and almost all ferns and orchids epiphytically so the substrate on the bottom of the viv doesn't matter for them. If the "splash zone" near the waterfall still has air in the pore spaces between soil particles, you could plant just about anything terrestrial. But I can recommend a few plants that I like that are tolerant of both waterlogged and normal soil conditions. Syngoniums in general are good for this. I really like Syngonium rayii. I also really like Philodendron Wend Imbe (sp?) which can be grown anywhere from very wet to epiphytic. Acorus is a really nice marginal that likes wet feet and can grow either as an emmergent with feet underwater or on the wet margins. It looks like tiny cattail plants.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Hmm...they all look pretty nice, especially the wend imbe and the acorus. Any idea how big they grow?

Luke


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Darks!de said:


> Hmm...they all look pretty nice, especially the wend imbe and the acorus. Any idea how big they grow?
> 
> Luke


Wend imbe has become a staple for me. I can't imagine being without it. It is a clump former so the individual plants and leaves stay nice and small but the clump can get pretty big. I just periodically reach in and tear off a chunk of the clump to put the plant back to the size I want. Acorus was pretty slow to establish for me and is a slow but steady grower. It stays short (maybe 4cm tall) in my tank. It has spread some over the years but moves around a lot as it seeks out where it likes to be. Syngonium rayii is a stoleniferous plant that puts up compact little plants along a long, thin stolen. It tends to wander all around the viv popping up in new places and dissapearing in others. I was afraid it would be too aggressive of a grower when I first tried it but that hasn't been the case.


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## Guest (Feb 20, 2005)

I have a couple Anubia frazeri in one of my vivs that grows beside and in the pond.It has some very cool roots that are in the pond and it reminds me of mangroves.It has grown basically straight up and and the leaves stick out at more or less horizontally and is about 12" tall.It's a nice plant for situation where you want a plant that will grow good with wet roots and it won't go too crazy in your viv.
Mark W.


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

Anubias species, and some Crypts would do fine in the soil, as long as its wet enough. You can see some examples of crypts on black jungles website, I have the red wendii and it looks way different when you buy it fully aquatic, but will start to look realy nice in the viv over time. I am growing several anubias, and crypt species in my latest viv, and I love them, but I am growing them with their stems and roots submerged, and he leaves extending above the water.

Ryan


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

I have anubias nana and coffeefolia, and some crypts in my planted aquarium. The anubias i will definitely be using in the pond area.

The thing with aquatic plants, is that some are grown submersed, and some emersed. When you take it from one environment and put it in the other (submerged to emerged or vice versa), the plant start to grow quite differently. I bought a radican sword that was grown emersed and planted it in my aquarium. A month or two later it started growing leaves that looked NOTHING like what it had when i got it. It was so different that i thought it was a different plant!

Luke


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Has anybody used any of these plants in their viv?

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/c ... ption.html
and
http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/c ... ption.html

Luke


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