Re: Cyrtosperma growing media suggestions...

Dear Jeremy,

If almost the entire pot will be submerged, then your potting/growing medium must be all coarse sand!  Any ''potting soil'' which you then submerge will rot, killing your plant.  Both Fairchild Gardens in Miami and the late Dr. Monroe Birdsey used this ''pure coarse sand'' in their pots which were completely submerged in large tanks/pools which contained MANY fish, the fishs waste provided the necessary fertilizer.
See my article on growing Urospathas (a Neotropical genus much like the Asian Cyrtospermas) in Aroideana Vol. 16, pgs. 33-36.
I also grew many Cyrtosperma sps, and the method has to be the same.
I learned the hard way (experience) and lost several irreplaceable specimens from having the ''soil'' rot when the pot was submerged.  When the dead plant was un-potted, the rotten soil smelt like a corpse.
Good luck.   Write to me off-l and I`ll explain (if you`d like me to) on another method where only the bottom 3" or so of the pot is submerged, and inside this portion of the pot is only drainage rock/material, NO SOIL!
Good Growing,

Julius Boos
WPB, FLORIDA

Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:09:15 +1100
From: drplantman@gmail.com
To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Subject: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma growing media suggestions...

Hiya Aroid-ers,

Just after some suggestions about Cyrtosperma growing media (for C. johnstonii in particular). I've got them in a heated glasshouse (16C minimum) with high humidity (+85%) and am looking to have said aroid of choice standing in a large cement urn full of water - the growing crown will be above the waterline, but the bulk of the media and pot will be submerged.

Any suggestions welcome, and thanks in advance!

Jeremy
RBG Melbourne
Australia
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