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How to Grow Java Fern

2K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Hopeseeker 
#1 ·
Any help here? Tips would be great. I got two big java ferns but the big leaves died and now I have tiny leaves the won't grow. I have artificial lighting and miracle gro organic under the gravel
 
#2 ·
Did you tie it to drift wood? I have heard it is best to keep Java Fern’s roots above the substrate when planting.
 
#7 ·
I have java fern out the ears, almost literally. I am seriously pondering trying it out as a salad vegetable. Or you know.. giving a ton of it away.

Mine grows like mad, sprouts babies all over and stays very green aside from spore-spots and the odd elderly leaf.

The secrets of rampant java fern growth:

-- Absolute neglect. No ferts, no nothing. Tether it (or not) then leave it the heck alone. Well, that's what I do, anyway.

-- Low lighting. It actually does way better in the darkest bits of my tanks, and under weak LEDs that ought to be replaced. That's where it's growing like a weed. Oh, and in a heated bucket in my laundry with hardly any light at all.

- Soft water/acidic water. It doesn't like alkaline conditions, probably as it evolved in high tannin blackwater under some serious forest canopy (hence it likes low light).

-- NEVER put it in the substrate. It likes being tethered to driftwood. Though I have clumps growing loose and some tied to rocks too, and they're all doing about the same.
 
#10 ·
Mine seem to grow veeery slowly...I have them increase in number but they don't get very big.
 
#11 ·
I started off with a tiny bit and it's now covering half my 5 g, and i have 3 clumps of it in my 10g. I have the same conditions as above, quite low light and i hardly do anything to it, occasionally i take off the old leaves but usually just stick the vacuum end in among the plant and shake for the old its to come off.
 
#12 ·
I'd be really happy to give some away.. but I live in Australia, and shipping plants OS might be difficult (or illegal?).

It is a pretty slow-growing plant, until it gets to the stage where it's sprouting baby leaves off the old ones. After that, it seems to speed up quite a lot.

I found it goes absolutely stupid with growth in my NPT (which has higher light than it prefers in my other tanks, too), just tied to a rock. It doubled in size in just a couple of months, to the point where I just had to take it all out so that the other plants weren't missing out on light.

The NPT produces a little natural carbon, and a bit of tannins from the organic potting mix (and now some wood I just included), so I'm wondering whether this is what caused it to have such rapid/healthy growth.
 
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