# Growing Amazon Swords immersed



## WeedCali (Jun 21, 2010)

yes you can do that just fine. Make sure the spray the plantlet every day or so to keep the roots from drying out until its established, which may take a while.

oh and *emersed


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm... I'm not sure if you can grow sword emersed. I took my sword out when I was redoing my tank, and all the leaves that were out of water dried up and couldn't be saved even after being completely re-submerged. But this was just a one time thing and I'm not super familiar with swords.


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## WeedCali (Jun 21, 2010)

Well thats not growing it emersed ^

I have grown Amazon swords emersed just fine


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

WeedCali said:


> yes you can do that just fine. Make sure the spray the plantlet every day or so to keep the roots from drying out until its established, which may take a while.
> 
> oh and *emersed


In a riparium setting, the roots will be in the water, so I am not worried about those drying out. However, in my experience, leaves dry out pretty quickly once out of the water. So my question is, once the submersed leaves die out, will the plant come up with new emersed leaves? If so, about how long will that take?


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## WeedCali (Jun 21, 2010)

That should take anywhere from a couple day to weeks. most likely weeks. Echinodorus are pretty sensitive in that area but they do just fine. Keep the humidity above 60 and you should be good.


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

Humidity as stated is the key to excellent growth.
All growers produce them emerged.
Once acclimated to the humidity = awesome growth :^)

-Gordon


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

Do they always need high humidity, or only until they grow emersed leaves?


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## HeyPK (Mar 14, 2007)

It depends on the species. The so-called amazon swords,_ E. bleherae, amazonicus_, etc., really prefer to be submersed, and the leaves dry out easily when emersed unless the humidity is very high. Other swords are much better adapted to emersed growth. _E. cordifolius_ is a good example.


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

even if you plant it emersed and plant just the roots in the water, the leaves that were growing on it will dry up and die if its not in high hummidity but should soon start growing new leaves that can handle being out of the water. i grow my mexican swords this way.


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

scream-aim-fire said:


> even if you plant it emersed and plant just the roots in the water, the leaves that were growing on it will dry up and die if its not in high humidity but should soon start growing new leaves that can handle being out of the water. i grow my mexican swords this way.


Thanks. I will try this, as I don't want to try to maintain high humidity permanently.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

> Hm... I'm not sure if you can grow sword emersed. I took my sword out when I was redoing my tank, and all the leaves that were out of water dried up and couldn't be saved even after being completely re-submerged. But this was just a one time thing and I'm not super familiar with swords.












I don't even mist this one. It's growing out in the open air on a shelf, in a pot full of hydroton with the nearly non-existent humidity of a Pennsylvania winter.

I did absolutely nothing to acclimate it. I simply pulled off a plantlet with a decent amount of roots and planted it.

It will show distress pretty quickly if you let the substrate dry out though.


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

here is my huge mexican sword that was in my tank but all of the leaves were above the water level.


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

Sharkfood said:


> I don't even mist this one. It's growing out in the open air on a shelf, in a pot full of hydroton with the nearly non-existent humidity of a Pennsylvania winter.
> 
> I did absolutely nothing to acclimate it. I simply pulled off a plantlet with a decent amount of roots and planted it.
> 
> It will show distress pretty quickly if you let the substrate dry out though.


Is that a Marble Queen Sword?


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

scream-aim-fire said:


> here is my huge mexican sword that was in my tank but all of the leaves were above the water level.


Looks great! I hope it will work with my Amazon Sword as well.


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## WeedCali (Jun 21, 2010)

Sharkfood said:


> I don't even mist this one. It's growing out in the open air on a shelf, in a pot full of hydroton with the nearly non-existent humidity of a Pennsylvania winter.
> 
> I did absolutely nothing to acclimate it. I simply pulled off a plantlet with a decent amount of roots and planted it.
> 
> It will show distress pretty quickly if you let the substrate dry out though.


Thats so cool man!


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

> Is that a Marble Queen Sword?


That it is. It was a monster in my aquarium, but the growth is much smaller and more compact as an emersed plant.


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## kperera (Jul 12, 2011)

Sharkfood said:


> That it is. It was a monster in my aquarium, but the growth is much smaller and more compact as an emersed plant.


I saw some Marble Queen Swords in my LFS the last time I was there. I wanted to get one, but don't have enough room for it in my tank. Your picture makes me want to try growing one emersed! :icon_smil


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