Water Hyacinth Hearts in Poor Condition

[Virgo]

Hi folks,
I’ve kept water hyacinth in my outdoor aquariums for years, and they tend to do rather well. Last summer they got spider mites pretty bad, but no sign this year…
However, the centers/hearts of my plants are awful, which is alarming because the new growth is what’s sickly, and not the older, outer leaves which can easily be pruned.
Any ideas or suggestions?
They are primarily kept in a 180gal stock tank (epoxy sealed) and some plastic bins for excess plants/frogs.
180gal is dosed with phosphorus, iron, and all-in-one about every other water change, and well stocked with critters.

 

[j.w]

@Virgo
I've never had much luck w/those plants in my ponds.

 

[HARO]

Too much sun or too much fertilizer? Or do they get too much wind? Mine are going gangbusters this year, but turning a bit yellow, which is probably because of too much sun and not enough chelated iron.\John

 

[Marck]

I am curious about this, but I have no particular insights. What pH do Water Hyacinths prefer?

 

[brokensword]

you know, I get this idea re water hyacinths that in places you don't want them (i.e. Florida channes, etc), they do great. But as soon as you start calling them 'plants in my pond', they suddenly forget what to do. I mean, last year I had great success growing hyacinth LEAVES/BULBS but got only 2 flowers. What's up with that? And that seems to be a pond mantra for most of the posters I see on the forum. This year, after reading how one of GPF's members had better success by rooting them in the dirt/embankment, I'd try that. I had 2 that overwintered (survived) and I still have just two, though at least now they look like water hyacinths again. But no flowers. One is in the embankment, one is in the water.

I think we need a water hyacinth expert on staff; hey @addy; do we have the funds from Ian to hire us one???

 

[Virgo]

Oh wow, so many responses
They usually do well for me. Tbh I sometimes just stick one plant in an itty bitty container and leave it there and it grows fabulous. The ones growing out of 10gal aquariums are insane… I’ll try to get a picture of that tank… then again, I have 5 10gals that are all connected to each other, and they don’t grow well on the inner tanks (I’m guessing light is too limited with the top rack filled up now).
Bins on the bottom tier of the 3 shelf system are showing signs of deterioration on places exposed to sun, but I never had this issue last summer with aquariums in the same location.

Maybe too much sun? It hasn’t been particularly hot or sunnier than normal. I did a DEEP clean of the canister filter connected to that tank, but never had this amount of die off or in that area of the plants before. Maybe too many in a small area? But the issue is running across multiple systems.

Attached are photos of the plants/tank from the last couple months, the damage is new and they usually thrive. I’ve been getting a lot of flowers off the plants in the blackworm tank, the 180gal, and even the disgusting 60gal (it’s in its ugly phase of adjusting to sunlight).

 

[Lisak1]

Wow! You really know how to grow them! I was going to say they looked a bit burned... maybe sun, maybe too much fertilizer? But I have no clue.

Some years mine bloom repeatedly, some years I don't get a single bloom. I do feel like there are different varieties of water hyacinth though, as some of mine have different colored roots - I'll get some with black roots and the next year they're more purple. And some years the leaves are huge, while others stay much smaller and more compact.

This year I had three bloom, all in one day. Total mystery.

 

[mrsclem]

Guess a guess but since it's the new growth possibly too much fertilizer.

 

[Virgo]

@mrsclem that could be it, since that’s what most are suggesting.
I added a bit of carbon to the filter and will leave it over the weekend (I don’t like carbon on planted aquariums), and did a 60% water change on that tank.
The new growth/ bulb tips are very very thin, with the browning streaks being translucent before they brown.
The roots are in rough shape too, very stringy and bleh . I de-rooted old growth, hoping with the water change and carbon they’ll sprout new, healthy tissue soon. I’ll see about finding an umbrella to help shade it some so they don’t get sunburnt.
When I do have bulbs with that streaking, it’s typically older ones.

@Lisak1
Thanks!
I usually sell them, but I’m gonna have to pull stock since they cannot be pruned
Summer sales at least are pretty slow to begin with.
I think the variations have more to do with water parameters/conditions rather than strains. I’ll pop long/skinny bulb plants to a tank with short/fat bulbs and they’ll usually follow suite, sometimes after melting back some. Some will have gorgeous/long purple roots (usually in fish-less containers with other critters like snails/ostracods/copepids/tadpoles) to my 180gal or 75gal and the roots will turn brown/black and be shorter, with slow growth rate. I attribute that to the excess nutrients in conditions with fish makes roots a bit obsolete, but that’s just my guess. Also the fish probably eat the roots

here is a couple flowers from the 180gal, taken on Tuesday. One of the plants flowered again 1-2 days later. I’m so sad about my hyacinths