Cintax's Mangrove Experiment

[Cintax]

Hello. This thread is not directly related to reefing but this forum is a place of inspiration for this project. I am putting together this thread to catalog my experience with growing out Red Mangrove propagules. I purchased eight Red Mangrove propagules from a fellow in Mississauga, Ontario on 2018-02-10 for $30. It was a pretty good deal considering stores want easily $15 to $20 each.

 

My long term goal is to eventually use some of these in an aquarium. I was thinking a planted tank design either freshwater or saltwater. I really like the idea of a macro tank with an angler in it. 

 

2018-02-16: At this point, I was just keeping the roots covered. I have a small circulation pump which I am using to heat the water and provide some surface agitation for gas exchange. I have them in a 2 gallon bucket from Home Depot and am using water from my reef tank. I am misting the propagules twice a day with RODI water from the sprayer in this photo.

 

 

2018-02-20: I had seen some people try and use pool noodles to stabilize the propagules whilst floating them in a bucket or tank. This only works if you can get your centre of gravity properly setup. I started with the elastic bands shown below but eventually moved to zip ties to keep the pool noodle friction fit to the propagules. 

 

 

2018-03-03: I had been reading about how Red Mangroves are really only salt tolerant and that they grow slower in saltwater because they have to process the sodium in the water and how this process takes energy away from growing. I decided to take the propagule with the smallest root ball and plant it in humus based potting soil saturated with aged freshwater. I figured that there is likely no need to acclimate going from saltwater to freshwater so I did nothing to acclimate the plant to this mixture. I included some slow release fertilizer in the soil and used a clear orchid pot in hopes to be able to inspect root growth. My plan is to always keep the soil saturated with water.

 

I have a number of succulents which I feed using a liquid fertilizer called Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro (9-3-6). For the succulents, I mix it to a quarter strength and water with it every third or fourth watering. I plan to try this fertilizer with the propagule in soil as well. It has N-P-K in a 3-1-2 ratio which is ideal for vegetative growth as well as trace elements and micronutrients. One pint makes around 768 gallons at a quarter strength so this bottle is likely a lifetime supply.

 

2018-03-03: In the first photo there is a propagule which already has it's first leaves. This photo is new root growth in the saltwater. At this point I am using tank water at 1.024 SG.

 

 

2018-03-07: I decided to add aeration to both the freshwater and saltwater growing chambers. Here is a photo of the soil pot with aeration; I don't really have a good example photograph of how I did it with the saltwater growing system right now but I will upload one later. My thinking on this is related to my experience with aeroponics. This isn't really the same thing as that is more splashing the roots with aerated water without submerging them.

 

 

More to come.

[pal]

Cool... following 

[Cintax]

2018-03-15: I changed the container to this 26L plastic storage tote. I bought it because I needed more space and because it is transparent. This may become an algae issue later but for now it lets me get a good look at the roots. I used a mixture of new saltwater, tank water and the water in the 2 gallon bucket. I have lowered the specific gravity to 1.022 SG.

 

For reference, here is the roots of the mangrove shown in the photo taken on 2018-03-03. 

 

[Cintax]

Flaw in my larger bucket plan... way higher rate of evaporation. :/

[Toxic enigma]

Any updates? I'd really like to see how this all turns out.

[ererer]

@Cintax how did this experiment end up working out?