Well done! Very interesting. I haven't tried any hydro-like magic.

A friend of mine (in the hobby) grows dozens of sansevieria species in a converted aquarium with tons of artificial, overhead light... the extra humidity and heat makes them grow like crazy. It's sort of a leaf-propagating forcing chamber.

Seeing your water gardening makes me think of other ways to tweak my Sans culture.

Another thing I want to try... bottom heat in winter. They say Sansevieria don't even slow down as long as you keep their feet warm. They're apparently not like some genera which require ("obligate") dormancy in the shorter days of winter.

Without bottom heat, even the mild cool of our Los Angeles is enough to rot Sansevieria for growers who water too much, too early in the spring.

I wonder if your water gardening technique gets around that drawback, too.

Karen,

I've got a Sans offset in a pot of hydroton, too. Do you let your saucer go completely dry, or do you keep some water in it at all times? So far, I've been letting mine go dry, mostly because it didn't have a lot of roots to begin with. I find experiments like this interesting...

Denise in Omaha

Hey Denise,

No, I do not to let it go completely dry at all, I tend to top off the water every couple of days. My leaves started out w/ no roots at all. I do put a couple of charcoal bits there to keep the water clear.

Hey Dean,

Don't really know what you mean (getting around the bottom heat), except to say I grew up in the tropics & seem to recall that Sans. grew like crazy there.

Right... I wasn't very clear.

I mean, I am curious if your water culture gives some of the same year-round active growth in Sansevieria that I've heard bottom heat can provide when growing these plants in soil.

With normal (soil) culture in temperate climates, Sansevieria slow down significantly when their root zones are cool. This happens even in warm temperate zones like Southern California. If growers--wanting to "push" the growth a bit--boost the watering too early in spring (before the plants are warm enough to be fully active), they can quickly rot.

At the San Gabriel Valley study group meeting this May (on topic "Vegetative Propagaion"), a guy specializing in Sansevieria complained of just this problem. (Our club members are in zone 9 and low 10, so we're not talking about freezing cold.)

The water needs to warmed. it can loose a lot of heat through evaporation when the dry air during the winter comes. Otherwise its the same. I grew one this way most of last winter in busted up terra cotta shards with no issues but I needed the space and converted it back to soil.

Karen congratulations on even trying the proceedure, I'm just not brave enough. You did a great job. Norma

Thanks very much Norma, I've learned a lot from you & the groups here & at my local Indoor Gardening & C&S Societies.

What's to be so brave about? Just try it on the next leaf that falls off or breaks, trim the bottom & try, you know how that goes. If you just use a single leaf, no need to be brave, I'm not suggesting one does an entire plant.

That said, I'm keeping this one Hydro, see no need to even introduce it to mix.

I'm so pleased w/ this, I started another on a S. Masoniana leaf & a week ago the new plantlet emerged. Will have to post pix, but I was fiddling w/ nearby plants & from behind the single blade of leaf, like it was peeking around the corner, was the first new growth on the Masoniana leaf.

I practically broke out in a jig I was so delighted. I'm telling you Norma, this is the COOLEST thing to try.

Here we go, I've got a shot of the new S. masoniana leaf, started off a single leaf Hydro. My tag notes that I started in February, 2011 (no bottom heat) but near west window.

I took about 4 shots of this but am having trouble viewing the other views of this

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I find this just amazing, I have another no ID leaf under way as well.

PG; That's very cool.

How deep is the reservoir in your setup? and how deep is the leca? I was wondering if succulents grown this way would grow roots down into the reservoir and be alright in the long term.

When I start out stuff with semi-hydro in the winter, I use a heating mat sold for reptile cages. I would guess that that isn't always necessary if your growing area temps are are reasonably stable, mine isn't heated reliably. If you try it keep in mind that the water evaporates much quicker.

Hi Dellis,

I'll have to check depth when I get home (am at work), but I don't use a reservoir in this set up. Pls. refer to the 1st pic, I just use the netted pot w/ some Leca stones & water, placing that into a slightly larger receptacle like a small solo cup. Then I place the plant in the netted cup, trying to bury the leaf's end among the Leca stones to hold it down a while.

I believe my set-up is too small to use long term w/out adjusting or moving on to a larger size pot. I do have larger netted pots, but haven't yet figured out what to place them in to contain the water.

Norma: I hope you check back & see this, 'cause I'm just so impressed w/ these results that I'm going to keep doing this w/ different Sans.

I would refer to the container you're setting the basket pot into as the reservoir. So for example, I have a number of plants with the growing medium about 6 inches deep and the "reservoir" typically holds an inch or so of water/nutrient solution, I don't mean something like a tub or bucket like in a regular hydro system, I should have worded that better, sorry.

Now that I think about in, I guess if you're using a 3" basket the media would be roughly 3" deep.

Danny

Pirate_girl, do you know semi-hydroponics? There is another lady in the US who has great success with caudex and other succulents with this method, she even has lithops in it. Basically it is the same type plastic containers in the top corner of your pic with holes 2" from the bottom on the side filled with claypellets (something like hydroton). The bottom 2" form the reservoir and the hydroton acts like a wick to move water up the container. I did a Fokea edulis with this method and it grew well. She has adeniums, critate cacti, you name it, in this, in her house under lights.

Here's a few more pix of the Sans. masoniana leaf that I have in hydro. I just love how well this is working out.

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I was practically dancing w/ glee when I first found this had new growth on the water rooting leaf.

How cute is this?

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Here it is when I first found it had taken; this particular view (I was looking at something else growing nearby on what used to be the kitchen table before the propping experiments took it over ;>) ),

Almost like it was shy about peeking around the corner to see if it was OK to come out.

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Norma, I hope you see these pix: you really gotta try this, it is SOOOOOO rewarding!!

Beachplant, I'm unclear about the distinction btwn growing Hydro & semi-hydro.

It may not be an accurate way to describe it but in general hydroponics would have a system to circulate the nutrient solution and in semi-hydro it just sits at the bottom of the container or may have a bubbler for aeration.

an Alocasia in semi-hydro;
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