# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Cryptocoryne Club >  Suitability of soil bought from NTUC

## illumbomb

Hi Experts,

Currently in NTUC at the gardening section, we can buy the below 4 types of soil. Question: 
how suitable are each type of soil for growing cryptocorynes emmersed and why?which would be the most suitable and why?is there a need to mix with other substrates and why?

Type 1: Horti Soil




Type 2: Horti Moss




Type 3: Horti Seed & Potting Mix




Type 4: I will post the packaging once I photograph it, it is a transparent packet and I think it is called gardening soil. I do have a close up to the soil which I used to plant some emmersed cryptocorynes bought from Teo's farm. I am quite satisfied with the results so far as new leaves are still growing out.


Anyone has experience with using these types of soil to grow cryptocorynes care to share your views? I am interested in this because NTUC seems to be one of the most convinient place for many of us to purchase soil. Thanks!

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## illumbomb

Found the website for the first 3 types of soil from the "Horti-Flora" brand (http://www.horti.com.sg/mixnp/mixnp.htm), they use the term "potting media" to generally discribe these "soil". Additional discriptions for the 3 potting media was found on the website, below are some excerpts:

*Horti Soil* 
"... all purpose potting mix for potting and re-potting... It contains added fertilizers for strong growth in the first few weeks."

*Horti Moss* 
"... Use it for mixing into soils and potting mixes to increase water retention ... It is perfect for ... and other acid-loving plants."

*Seed & Potting Mix* 
"... is a soil-less mixture used for raising seeds and striking cuttings. ... assures strong root development. It also contains vermiculite and peat moss to prevent drying out."

The Horti Soil sounds good if you do not intend to bother with fertilising soon after potting. The Horti Moss sounds right for the "acid-loving" part, but it is stated that it is to be used for mixing into soils as soil conditioner. The Horti Seed & Potting Mix sounds good for the strong root development portion and contain peat moss which should make it acidic right? 

I suspect that the Horti Moss might be too light and would float in water though. Let me try out and let you all know...

Also, just a note, the forth type of soil is not from this brand if I never remember wrongly.

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## illumbomb

Hi All,

Its me again... with too much time perhaps.  :Opps:  Finally tried to use the potting medias I bought this morning. On the left is the seed and potting mix, in the middle is the horti soil, on the right is the horti moss.



After adding water, the problem become apparent, horti moss is too light and floats on water. Photographs of the various pot from left to right is also shown after a few hours, the horti soil has clearer water than the seed and potting mix, the horti soil is practically floating above the water.









Bought a pot of cheap cryptocoryne from C328 and chose 3 plants of similar size to be separately planted in each of the potting media (after pouring the excess water away). Lets see how the plants will perform in each of the potting media. See how bored I am but hope this will keep you guys entertained! Haha.  :Razz:

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## illumbomb

Managed to take a photograph of the 4th type of potting media available from NTUC. It is called Garden Soil. 


I use it in a open air flower bed mixed with Horti Soil at the bottom and growing emersed cryptocorynes and echinodorus bought from Teo's Farm. Result is not too bad, check out the growth (more than double the amount of leaves) as compared to 1 month ago!


Will post an update next week on the comparison of those cryptocorynes grown in mineral water bottles with different types of "Horti" brand potting media! Sorry, too bored.  :Grin:

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## rwalker

I am no expert. I use "Florabella" soil bought from NTUC for my planted tank. Plants (including crypts) and fishes are doing well.

I use the same soil to grow one small Crypt (wendiiti green, I think) emersed, which I accidentally broke it off from the mother plant recently. The setup is similar to yours, using water bottle. I am not sure how it will fare eventually as it has just two tiny winy leave. This is the second week and no sign of leave melting  :Cool: ....

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## illumbomb

Hi Loke, glad to know that there are people who are experimenting with normal soil easily bought off the shelf! You are more daring setting up a whole planted tank using such soil as substrate! Do keep us posted and updated on your submersed and emersed soil planting experience! 

Someone "rich" enough should conduct experiment with rare and difficult cryptocorynes and keep us posted on his experience too so that we will have the confidence of not requiring to use ADA to be successful for such delicate species!  :Evil:

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## gchoo

Garden Soil is good...initially.. for the first 3-4 months....but unfortunately the nutrients in the soil will only last so long as such... The other thing to consider would be that the soild will gradually harden in to a thick layer which would hampen the growth of the roots. The roots will eventually die if you dont loosen the soil again. 

You may want to mix the soil with burnt earth to make it more porous and loose...

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## rwalker

> Hi Loke, glad to know that there are people who are experimenting with normal soil easily bought off the shelf! You are more daring setting up a whole planted tank using such soil as substrate! Do keep us posted and updated on your submersed and emersed soil planting experience! 
> 
> Someone "rich" enough should conduct experiment with rare and difficult cryptocorynes and keep us posted on his experience too so that we will have the confidence of not requiring to use ADA to be successful for such delicate species!


You can find my planted tank journal at my signature below. The tank has been running for more than 6 months now. So far so good. As for hardening of soil or running out of nutrient, there is no sign of it. If fact, I find the grow of lotus and Vals too robust till this day. According to Diana Walstad, the nutrient in the soil is supposed to last............. forever. Hopefully, I will come out and bust another nutrient-peter-out-in-6-month-myth at the end of the year  :Smile: .

As for the growth of the emersed crypt, sure, I will post the result but I think we all need to be very patient as crypts grow very sloooooooooooowly let alone I started off with a tiny guy with only 2 little leaves  :Smile:

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## illumbomb

Hi Guys,

Just to conclude the experiment, if you are attempting to grow cryptocoryne (of similar species to what was shown above which was bought from LFS) emersed using "Horti" brand products available in NTUC and using the mineral water bottle method, you can try using Horti Seed & Potting Mix or Horti Soil but avoid using just Horti Moss alone:


The first 2 bottles of cryptocorynes onthe left are growing pretty well with at least 5 emersed leaves each.


The cryptocoryne in Horti Moss is not growing emersed out of the water.

Regards,
T S Wang

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## Verminator

Very interesting to see how the plants cope in different soil conditions. Although i'm not going to be buying any of these, its certainly food for thought. Shall definately be reviewing my soil.

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## Savant

Nice thread... Some questions? Since Crypts are semi aquatic plants, do you have to create marshy conditions in order to grow them? What is the attraction of these plants over normal house plants? Do you guys cultivate them for transferring onwards into an aquarium?

Any danger of mosquitos breeding in there?

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## Verminator

Crypts tend to grow well emersed, submersed and inbetween. Truely remarkable plants!

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## rwalker

Wang, thanks for sharing  :Well done: .
Mine grows three more leaves and each new leave is bigger than the previous one.
Patience is virtue, I guess  :Smile: .





> Hi Guys,
> 
> Just to conclude the experiment, if you are attempting to grow cryptocoryne (of similar species to what was shown above which was bought from LFS) emersed using "Horti" brand products available in NTUC and using the mineral water bottle method, you can try using Horti Seed & Potting Mix or Horti Soil but avoid using just Horti Moss alone:

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## illumbomb

Hi Savant,

I cultivate them emersed to see their beautiful flowers, there are I think more than 50 species of cryptocorynes and each species looks unique in terms of leaves and flowers. Different species come from different natural habitats (sandy river & streams, acidic pool of waters with leaf litters, etc) so need different conditions to grow well too. The same species collected from different localities have some variant too. Many people keep their cryptocorynes fully enclosed so there is no worry about mosquito. I add some fishes in my emersed tank too just in case.

This sticky thread contains a lot of information on the conditions required for growing the different species of cryptocorynes emersed and photographs of their beautiful flowers.

I am currently still experimenting and expanding my collection and learning from all the experts out there. It can get quite addictive too, want to give it a go?  :Grin: 

Regards,
T S Wang

p.s. Oh, yes I agree you need lots of patience too!

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