Plant Ed folks,
Has anyone grown Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) for research or =
teaching? If so could you share any tips? The papers I've found in the =
literature mostly say they grow it in Peter's Professional Fertilizer =
20:20:20 in the greenhouse in plastic tubs. I've got them in black =
plastic tubs in 20 L of water containing 0.325 g Peter's 20:20:20 per L. =
I tried 0.5 g per L. I've been using nanopure water to avoid chlorine =
and other trace contaminants, although I had expected to switch to tap =
plus Peter's when they were growing OK. Temperature is 22 by night, 26 =
by day, colder earlier because I had problems with the growth chamber =
temperature. They get 14 hours light and 10 dark. Water is changed =
weekly or every other week (because of travel). They did poorly at =
first, and several died. Then I had one week the survivors started =
looking really good and produced a lot of offshoots. Then I went away =
and they got a cold shock when the power failed (4 C, I'm told). They =
don't seem to want to recover. The leaves are rotting, and the "stem" =
will just collapse in a froth of bubbles. I've got one or two originals =
left and a few surviving offsets. Any suggestions gratefully received.
=20
Gary
=20
Gary G. Cot=E9
Department of Biology
Box 6931
Radford University
Radford, VA 24142-6931
=20
(540) 831-5630
(540) 831-5129 fax
=20
gcote@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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