Water Hyacinth Greenhouse

[koiguy1969]

they do have nice flowers...too bad they're so short lived!

 

[Waterbug]

Mucky, you always do such nice work. Painting the structure, nice corners. My experiments always look like crap. You're an inspiration to me.

For what it's worth, I once grew WH in a plastic trash can as an experiment, no pump, grew great. Part of the experiment was to see if too much potash could be added, so I added 5 lb to 30 gal. Plant did great, don't know if the potash helped, but it didn't kill the plant which is what I was trying to find. Some goldfish eggs in the WH also hatched, so apparently they didn't have a problem with the high potash either.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Well, thanks Waterbug, but don't worry I've made my share of crappy looking projects too, I just don't post those ones on the internet for all to see. LOL Actually it was an old crappy looking mini greenhouse I threw together for starting vegetable seeds that motivated me to try and do a better job on this one. That old one was such a piece of junk, but it worked and I ended up using it for many years, but cursed it every year because it was so ugly and falling apart, I wished I had put a little more care into building it. So I'm just trying not to make the same mistake twice.

Tell me, did you get lots of blooms on those hyacinth in that potash enriched water? I understand potash is suppose to increase the bloom production.

 

[Waterbug]

I didn't get any bloom. The experiment didn't go as long as I would have liked, the plastic trashcan split and ended the experiment. Of the WH I had in the pond I only ever got one bloom.

As a side note...the experiment was from a heated forum discussion years ago. Forum experts said anyone could grow WH into big huge green plants that reproduced like mad. A few of us newbies said our WH were sickly. We were dismissed of course. But the newbies tried to figure it out and one thought was a lack of potash. While my experiment showed good growth it wasn't conclusive. Based on other experiments people did it was our conclusion that the sickly plants were due to goldfish nibbling the roots. Not enough kill them, just enough that they did poorly. So moving the plants to a veggie filter was all that was needed. But then again, potash can't hurt apparently.

I've run into the thing about adding fertilizer to make a plant bloom for many different plants. IMO it's a myth, but I have no proof.

 

[JohnHuff]

I hate to throw my water hyacinths away. Is it possible to bring them inside and grow them in the house through the Winter? I'm thinking of putting them in a big planter and putting some baby fish in there together with pump and filters.

 

[Waterbug]

I've head of people trying by planting them in a pot, like a regular plant. Didn't sound encouraging but I don't remember any conclusion...which normally means it didn't go well.

I remember another guy, I think in Canada, who lived in an apartment but was way into water plants. All he had was a balcony but had impressive plants. He overwintered pond plants in shallow trays and used grow lights. He didn't have WH as I remember. But given warm enough water and enough grow lights I should think it possible. I remember he had the lights as close to the plants as possible.

 

[sissy]

I grow mine inside in the winter and found out something they seem to not like light on there roots .I tried a fish tank this past winter and also my concrete mixing tub and the ones in the fish tank did not like it to well .The ones in the tub survived and did great as usual .I use a 4 port aerator i bought at petco and it was less than 30 dollars and works great for keeping water moving .The aerator came with everything you need and they had it onsale last week here for 18.88

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Ok so it's been just over a week and I'm having partial success.
Yes they have grown an mutiplied more than double, but they have been turning yellow which indicates a problem. Also I think the growth could be better which probably related to the yellowing problem.
Did some reading and scratching my head and I think I may have figured out the problem, I have taken steps to rectify it and I should know for sure in another week, but before I tell you what I think is causing the yellowing maybe someone else would care to speculate what they think might be causing it???

When I first put the hyacinth in I added some 20/20/20 fertilizer, and when I first noticed the yellowing I added a little potash and iron suppliment, that may have helped some, but I'm pretty sure that is not the real problem.

Before

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1810-greenhouse6-hyacinth/



one week later

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1833-oneweekyellow/

 

[Waterbug]

That's pretty interesting, good growth but yellowing. Normally you don't get those two things together. What the air and water temps been?

I don't know how deep this is but when I grew once in a trashcan the roots bottomed out, maybe 30". Maybe they don't like shallow areas? Just guessing.

I know everyone says WH need or like moving water...I don't know where that comes from. Makes no sense to me. Their native habitat is still water. They do occur in slow moving rivers, but more as being broken off from still waters. A small tank with a pump is more like a cat 5 white water ride. Just saying.

 

[koiguy1969]

it has been my experience that they definately do better in moving water . probably due to nutrients being brought to them. making it easier to feed. almost anyone whos put them in a stream or the top of their filter will attest to this. that said, in a small self contained area like this it would likely make less of an impact... but all i do if the ones in the pond start to look less hearty is throw them in the filter top for a couple days. the ones that stay in my filter will grow to 2' tall and shoot out plants that grow outside the filter with virtually no roots attached, hanging in the air. they also seem to do better, packed together in tight groups. they originated in the rivers and swamp areas of south american waterways.

 

[HARO]

I don't believe it's the moving water they like so much as the SHALLOW water. They've always done better for me when their roots were touching the sediment at the bottom. When I used them in a vegetative filter with only six inches or so of water, I started with three plants and wound up composting four wheelbarrow loads!
John

 

[koiguy1969]

lord knows i throw plenty away myself... ive also seen many with roots 2' long in the pond, and they dont grow nearly as long in the top of my filter. maybe thats because theyve got a nitrate rich water source flowing thru the root systems. the water there is shallower too so it could very well play a roll. and it makes sense that it would. could very well be the combination of moving, shallow water.

 

[addy1]

The ones that did best for me were stuffed in the stream pond, basically non moving warm water. bloomed grew great. The pond ones, tied together, moving water, didn't do as well.

 

[koiguy1969]

addy... thats likely due to the nutrients in the pond are much more dilute...its not the top or surface water moving that feeds them it would be the water under the surface moving thru the roots. the hyacinths themselves can highly impede water flow. thats one of the reasons theyre considered a nuisance weed. that and the fact that they block out sunlight to submerged plants in the area.

 

[addy1]

yep totally agree, lots of nutrients in those little ponds, nice warm water