ALDROVANDA

Aldrovanda vesiculosa is alone in this genus but there are different varieties.

- Aldrovanda vesiculosa is the only one of the genus even if it is well spread all over the world.

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Aldrovanda vesiculosa :

It's not the easiest aquatic one... It's probably the most difficult. but when it grows it's really fast and you will enjoy it. It has to be like this because the old leaves die quickly especially if temperature is high enough. If it's not growing fast you will loose it quickly. At this time I grow the Japanese one. It goes dormant in winter and becomes turion that will grow again at spring. Fall is and important and dangerous period. It's why you'd better keep it warm all the time so it doesn't go dormant. It's the only way for the tropical australian ones that won't anyway go dormant. It needs a lot of sun, some particular mineral salts and other plants around (organic acids and others...). You have to use fertiliser but not anything! Manganese and boron are the most important but a little of zinc, cobalt, copper and molybdenum will be welcome. Avoid absolutely phosphate, carbonate, nitrate (in high quantity), calcium and potassium... Not easy!

I grow it in an aquarium and tried it too outside in small tank but with sun there are overheating and filamentous algae trouble. If you use a very large tank perhaps you can avoid this. In an aquarium you have to provide a lot of light, special fertiliser, some acidic peat and "companion" plants. I put too some shrimps and snails. About fertiliser you need the trace elements above and I use too JBL ferropol which contains a lot of iron and the same trace elements. I use it for the other plants but I think aldrovanda like it too. With much light, 3 18W tubes for a 60 cm (2 feet) aquarium, I have even succeeded in obtaining flowers.

I'm cultivating some Australian strains too. These ones don't form dormant turions and you should keep them always in warm condition. With sufficient light they become reddish that render well in the middle of green aquatic plants.

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Last modification on Saturday 08/02/2008
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