How to grow beautiful red stem plants. Q) I heard that red stem plants are hard to grow. Could you tell me in what way it is so difficult? A) Red stem plants are regarded as difficult to grow for the following reasons: 1. Red stem plants prefer mildly-acidic soft water. 2. Requires high light conditions and accordingly, sufficient CO2 injection. 3. Requires continuous iron supplementation to maintain the plants leaf color. In addition to this, growing red stem plants was also a tough job because these plants are demanding in terms of light, CO2 and nutrient conditions. Now, it is no longer very difficult since the water quality issue can be resolved by the use of good quality aquarium substrate with which you can have mildly-acidic aquarium water just by placing it on the substrate. Among red stem plants, Rotala Macranda is one of the most difficult species. It is because the plant very often melts and wilts except the terminal bud portion if the plant is sold in poor condition; and it is therefore very hard for it to develop submersed leaves adapted to the aquarium environment. Pogostemon stellatus and Gratiola sp. have vivid red tint when grown under high light condition and supplemented with additives containing rich iron, but they lose their beautiful red color significantly with low light or insufficient iron supplementation.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 12:53:10 +0000
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