# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Cryptocoryne Club >  Attempting a Cryptocoryne parva lawn again

## benny

Hi guys,

Recently, I got hold of some Ferka fertilizers and since my newly introduced _Cryptocoryne wendtii_ wasn't doing to well, I decided to try it. Surprisingly, the plants reacted very well to it and started sending out runners!

As such, I thought perhaps I should try to see if the good results can be extended to the challenging _Cryptocoryne parva_ as well..

Since it's an experiment, I think it's best to be conservative. So today, I started off with 50 pots of emersed plants first.



At first, it seems like a lot, but after taking out the pots and trimming, it's actually only enough to pack 1 ft tank densely. Took about an hour just to get all the plants ready for planting.



So off we went and here's part of the tank from the top.



I'm sure in a few days, they will start to melt. Let's see how it goes from here!

Cheers,

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## Jervis

Wow! 50 pots!!! Do continue to update us  :Smile:

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## Milk

WOW!!!! :Shocked:  :Shocked:  Talking about being conservative!!! 50 pots of C.parva!!
Do keep update as i'm having thoughts of attempting it as well...

REgards
Milk

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## benkho

where did you get them? the quality sure looks great!

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## lorba

> WOW!!!! Talking about being conservative!!! 50 pots of C.parva!!
> Do keep update as i'm having thoughts of attempting it as well...
> 
> REgards
> Milk


Most plants are tissue cultured in Oriental Farm, so i think not a big issue. That includes all wendtii, becketii, parva, pygmaea and some others too.

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## benny

Quick update.

So far so good. The _Cryptocoryne parva_ are starting to perk up and leaves are now pointing up instead of all over the place.

And for those who wanted to know where I got it from, you can order it from Midori or C328.

Cheers,

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## Milk

> Most plants are tissue cultured in Oriental Farm, so i think not a big issue. That includes all wendtii, becketii, parva, pygmaea and some others too.


Tissue culture....interesting...I have read somewhere that pitcher plant(Nepenthes) are being cultured through this process, i think orchid plants too...Never really read that crypts can do done the same way...

Anyway,Lorba...any links to tissue culture of crypts??

REgards
Milk

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## doppelbanddwarf

Wow planting them must be back breaking. :Well done:

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## illumnae

very beautiful crypt parva lawn benny! i'm tempted to try a similar lawn instead of Jap HG for my discus tank  :Opps:

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## bryan

Might be good news to you because I've never experienced crypt melt with C.Parva. One guy from Teo's simply dug up a patch for me and they've stayed green ever since. Heavy root feeders though, they start shrinking when the base fert runs dry.

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## oblivion

what substrate mix did you plant them in? seems like no melting so far
i only ever tried parva before in amazonia and had massive melting in the 1st week

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## Shaihulud

Mine never melt in my low tech, but then it doesn't seems to do anything! It appears to have some new leaf, although it might possibly from when i first bought it a few months ago :Sad: . It also appears to be getting smaller, so maybe it doesn't have enough nutrients. Hope that you have better luck.

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## benny

Hi guys,

Received quite a few Private Messages on the development of my _Cryptocoryne parva_ lawn. So here's the update.

So far, since day 1, none melted. All is well indeed. However, they are no longer as perky as the second day of planting. Perhaps the lighting is too strong and they are all sprawling on the ground. Here's one section of the tank.



An expanded view of the same section.



A close up view of the sprawling _Cryptocoryne parva_



Since they are doing relatively well with the Ferka fertilisation, I've decided to add another 30 pots in. These are the new entries in another section my tank.



You can clearly see that they are still upright. I'll probably tidy up the tank a bit and dump more of these plants in. They are painfully slow growing, but that also means it's relatively maintenance free! Lazy me!!  :Grin: 

One thing to note: I hate the moss that grows inbetween the parva. What a pest!!

Cheers,

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## oblivion

looks great!

hows the parameters like?
soil used, fert routine, co2?, lighting?

i am sorely tempted to try it!

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## ranmasatome

You should..haha...

Maybe i should take a pic of my lawn that i bought with you benny? haha.. 
i am the exact opposite.. mine all standing up.. which i hate and benny loves...haha..

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## oblivion

will the lawn survive in low tech?

<2WPG of light
no co2
weekly dose of step 2 and special shade
weekly WC

i'll be using full ada substrate system with amazonia though ==> if it helps  :Razz:

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## lEddyl

wow... total 80 pots right?

i started mine with just 20 pots for a 3ft tank  :Knockout:

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## illumnae

wow stunning foreground benny! after seeing this, I'm sorely tempted to keep such a lawn in my upcoming 1ft cube tank instead of a bare sandy foreground. Low tech tank with 2x 13W of light over the 1ft cube (about 4wpg though) with no co2 (excel 2-3 times a week) and wondergro macro+ and micro+ at 1/3 EI dosage. would this be viable?

it'll be an office tank so slow growing is always a plus! how many pots would i need to have a decent looking and not a _botak_ (bald) look in my 1ft cube...hope i can get them to sprawl like benny's, my preferences are similar to ranmastome's in that aspect  :Grin:

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## ranmasatome

Err.. dsnfpl knows.. he saw my little 2 footer tank...
it runs on chiller, stuffed with plants, but no co2, no excel, no dosing whatsoever, 24watt light, little algae, no water change. Basically, top up 1cm every 2 months...and feed fish twice a week....

If you don't call that super low maintenance...i dont know what is...
And yes the parva is alive.

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## Panut

(other than being good for the plants)the chiller would make the fish less active, hence the need for less food?  :Well done:

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## ranmasatome

no... my fish are just as active.

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## benny

Thanks guys for the kind words.

The 5 ft tank is running on chiller, with 4 X 36W FL light. So it's less than 2 Watts per gallon. I have 1 bubble of CO2 per second and the substrate used is Dennerle aquarium gravel, which was in place in 2002. Very likely expired in nutrients as far as base fertiliser is concerned. I don't really change water. Perhaps 30% every 3 to 8 months.

I dose 4 squirts of Ferka (blue and green) whenever I'm around, which is not very often. But it seems to work so far as the other _Cryptocoryne_ spp. are growing well. It's just the parva that painfully slow.

If any one wants an instant lawn, I've indicated that the 50 pots in the first post can only pack a Gex/Five Plan S size (1 ft) tank. So that should give you a good gauge.

Cheers,

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## ccs

Hey Benny, Any picture of the entire scape ? :Smile:

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## oblivion

> Thanks guys for the kind words.
> 
> The 5 ft tank is running on chiller, with 4 X 36W FL light. So it's less than 2 Watts per gallon. I have 1 bubble of CO2 per second and the substrate used is Dennerle aquarium gravel, which was in place in 2002. Very likely expired in nutrients as far as base fertiliser is concerned. I don't really change water. Perhaps 30% every 3 to 8 months.
> 
> I dose 4 squirts of Ferka (blue and green) whenever I'm around, which is not very often. But it seems to work so far as the other _Cryptocoryne_ spp. are growing well. It's just the parva that painfully slow.
> 
> If any one wants an instant lawn, I've indicated that the 50 pots in the first post can only pack a Gex/Five Plan S size (1 ft) tank. So that should give you a good gauge.
> 
> Cheers,


low tech sounds like it should work fine then!  :Smile: 

actually i was thinking of a jap hg lawn for a new low tech setup, but was slightly apprehensive still on the chances for success
now your parva lawn is really making me think twice about the plant of choice!

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## illumnae

haha i made a similar transition lee1224. i was set on jap HG, then i thought maybe a fine sand foreground would look nice...then i saw benny's pictures and now i'm stuck

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## beetlejuice403

Wow Benny the parva lawn sure looks nice & captivating!!!  :Surprised:  Does Parva need very cool water to thrive? thinking of replacing my HG in my 1-foot cube with these...  :Grin: 

Mind if I ask how much does a pot of these parva normally cost if bought from LFSs? Besides C328 & via Midori, anyone tried ordering via Mizu? Thanks!

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## oblivion

> haha i made a similar transition lee1224. i was set on jap HG, then i thought maybe a fine sand foreground would look nice...then i saw benny's pictures and now i'm stuck


i tried a fine sand foreground already  :Razz: 
so now my intention is to do a planted foreground
and benny's parva lawn is oh so tempting eh  :Wink:

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## illumnae

yeah i'm in love with parva because of his foreground! but 50 pots for my 1ft cube is too pricey for me  :Sad:  i've done a number of Jap HG nano foregrounds, and it looks like i might have to do it again  :Crying: 

maybe i'll do a fine sand foreground with parva acting as the divider to cover the substrate, and to act as a ground cover between the hardscape!

benny you've poisoned me deep  :Smile:

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## sonique

> 


what is the plant that is golden brown in colour just behind the c.parva?

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## ranmasatome

Some weird crypt for china if i'm not wrong..

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## raglan

> Tissue culture....interesting...I have read somewhere that pitcher plant(Nepenthes) are being cultured through this process, i think orchid plants too...Never really read that crypts can do done the same way...
> 
> Anyway,Lorba...any links to tissue culture of crypts??
> 
> REgards
> Milk


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...17290acd1425c4

here's one. looks real easy

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