Does Anyone Know How To Plant Crinum Calamistratum

[Ch4rlie]

As per the title, does anyone know how to plant and care for this beautiful plant, Crinum Calamistratum?
 
These plants are a onion type plant as has a bulb to plant into the substrate, specifically my question is, how to plant them, do I need take off any layers off this bulb? do I bury the whole bulb into the substrate, or partially? etc
 
Any info would be gratefully recieved as my searches online has borne not muuch real information on the care and planting of these.
 
I have just bought 2 of these after seeing them for sale in LFS for the first time, pricey but always wanted these, I know the leaves grow very long, up to 120 cm

 
But I plan to plant them at the end of my tank and let the flow from filter output push the leave towards the other end of tank, think will make a striking feautre in my tank

 
And eventually, these would be moved into a larger tank (eventually being main point

)

 

[Akasha72]

I don't know anything about this particular plant but my tigar lotus plant is attached to a bulb and I just stuck that in the sand. Not sure if that's any help though

 

[DrRob]

Trim off the longer roots, clear off the worst of the brown layers, plant in the substrate but imagine that they're onions, you want to be able to see a good portion of the bulb, probably around half, if not a little more.
 
If you can get the substrate to cover a well spread out root system then feel free to leave a few, but the biggest risk is bulb rot, so trimming back will help to avoid that.
 
I had a couple that were doing well, but some barbs were rehomed into the tank, and they didn't survive that process, apparently they're tasty.

 

[Akasha72]

do you know if the same applies to all bulb plants Rob? 
 
I ask because my tigar lotus plant came unattached from the bulb recently and the bulb is currently floating around my tank cos I don't know what to do with it. I've checked it today and it is still firm so doesn't appear to have rotted but there's no roots from it at the moment.
 
Sorry to hyjack your thread Ch4rlie but I'm wondering if there's an answer to my issue here too

 

[Ch4rlie]

Trim off the longer roots, clear off the worst of the brown layers, plant in the substrate but imagine that they're onions, you want to be able to see a good portion of the bulb, probably around half, if not a little more.

 
Perfect, the sort of answer I was exactly looking for. Thanks DrRob
 
I tried looking for answers to my own questions on website, seems a lot of conflicting advice and was not sure which to trust, glad I asked on this forum to be sure. Am happy now, i will plant that tomorrow, means clearing some space in the 3 foot tank and moving a few plants around, the fish and shrimps won't like me for a while 
 
 
 

Sorry to hyjack your thread Ch4rlie but I'm wondering if there's an answer to my issue here too

 
It's all good Akasha
 
Thats what the forum is all about, learning, even if it means hijacking a thread or two, which I've done myself

 

[DrRob]

Just to warn you Charlie, they do grow rather fast once they get started, it won't stay small and demure for any length of time at all.
 
Sadly no Akasha, it doesn't apply to all bulbs. My experience of tigers is that they do best just sitting on the surface and rot like crazy if you try to bury them, just pressed in seems fine, but I've not grown many. There's also nothing worth stripping off these in the same way as the crinum bulbs. I've never managed to get the bulbs that fall from the plants to regrow, but I've not really put all that much effort into it as they're still large plants and I didn't actually have room for any more.

 

[Akasha72]

thanks Rob. I'm going to leave it floating around the tank a bit longer then and see if anything grows from it. The actual plant that had grown from it is surviving with it's own roots. It doesn't seem to matter that is come unattached from it's bulb. It's all a bit confusing!

 

[DrRob]

I think, so long as it has leaves and roots, then it'll be fine. From what I've understood it's post flowering that they throw lots of new bulblets around.

 

[Akasha72]

I've been told they flower but I've never seen one!!

 

[DrRob]

Baccus posted a picture of one a little while back, fairly classical water lily flowers, but they only do it when they get surface leaves.

 

[Akasha72]

yeah, funny that. I let mine go mental for a few months and it covered the surface but still no flower. It seems to be real hit and miss. I had read that they only flower once they've covered the surface and I really wanted to see a flower. I felt so disappointed that I pruned it in the end