Samolus valerandi

[Sirkus]

Hey,

I managed to seed S. valerandi last year but never really had any idea on how to germinate the seeds until now. as part of another werid scheme i came up with while trying to get out of revision for exams (which im still doing).

I had previously tried growing it on my windowsill but i think its a bit too cold here in the north of england so instead i used a Fluval 4plus pump (not sure of the appropriate model for NZ? it is big enough to deal with a 4ft tank while having an inbuilt venturi). when you attach a spray bar, water shoots out of the venturi. so i attached a piece of air tubing and rigged it up to deliver water to the brace bars either side of the tank which i laid out some java moss which was clogging the intake strainer on another tank and hey presto! the beginnings of a hanging garden! at the moment there is Bacopa, Anubias, java moss of course, java fern and obviously now S. valerandi. il get some pictures up very soon to give a better idea and maybe other people could have their own little babylon!

There is a hell of alot of seedlings!

[carla]

Sounds very interesting, and am still watching this thread for the upcoming pictures

[Sirkus]

That is what it looked like last month with the airline tube coming out of the fluval 4 venturi attachment and leading off under the light tube cap through the hood to the other side of the tank to the second picture

This is what it looks like now:

the tubing has been redone so that there are taps instead of a piece of pencil tapping out flow to allow more accurate regulation, there is now water delivered to both sides. the S. valerandi has grown a bit slow compared to what i expected but this may be due to no water for upto 10days while i was away which killed half of the Bacopa on the other side (not pictured).