# Dry Star Method (DSM) Tutorial, growing plants emmersed



## Nicklfire

Hello All!

In this tutorial i will show you over the next few months the DSM (dry start method).

This method involves taking a plant that is capable of surviving in a terrarium type environment which is humid and out of water, but when submersed back into water it will still live.

Because we are growing the plants out of water, all nutrient uptake will be done at the roots, so it's best to have a nutrient rich substrate. For my example i am going to be using Flourite. Depending on how they look i may add trace elements mixed with diluted water in a spray bottle.

You might wonder why i am doing this. There are a couple of benefits to doing it this way.

-No Algae
-Take your time to grow a nice carpet, giving you a better head start
-Not having to do water changes during this period|
-Only buying a couple of plants initially giving you time to save money to buy tons when you fill the tank
- Etc etc.. Understand?

So For my example i will be using the following setup

-75 gallon tank
-Flourite substrate
-4 x 54w T5 (i may start with 3 of the 4 and see how well it goes)
-Cling Wrap (to keep it humid in the tank)
-Tweezers
-Plant of choice ( HC is my plant of choice)

I will start with the lights on for a 12 hour period and sees how it goes from there.

I started with my big mat of HC that a fellow BCA member sold me, thank goodness he had TONS to help with my big 75 gallon tank. It's better to have more then less. The more you have to work with the less sparsely you have to use it, meaning it will grow faster. Also you see my tool of choice my curved Tweezer









I made the substrate very damp, basically just below the substrate surface is the water level. This is fine for my needs at this point, i will monitor the growth and if it's still too much water i can always suction some out









Basically i took apart that big mat of HC from the first picture and seperated it into as many groupings as i think i needed. I was fortunate that i had alot so i could make decent sized clumps. 









I started planting them 1 by 1, starting from left to right.









Just a side angle.









20 min later









45 min later


















Little over a hour later


















There was some pieces of dwarf hairgrass in with the HC so i was able to seperate a couple of them and use this same techique with them. I am unsure how well they will grow but i did it just to test. So we will see how well they do.


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## Nicklfire

close up of the HC plant


















You will need to cover the top of the tank with glass, or cling wrap. This will keep the inside of the tank Humid which is what this experiement is all about. this is very important. I have not found out IF you need to have a little opening at the top so gas exchange can happen, but i think that it's probably not a bad idea so i will leave a little 1 inch hole at the top open. If it does not get humid i will close the hole even smaller



















Now we wait and see. I will Mist the plants every 1 day or 2 depending how humid it gets in there. This is the first time i am doing this so we will see how it goes, and what obstacles i will face.

I think a certain important piece of this is to have faith and try not to get your hands in there too much. Keep in mind the first 2 weeks you will probably not see too much growth as the HC is growing it's roots at this point. After the first 2 weeks, that's when we may see more horizontal growth.

I will try to update this every 2 or 3 days.


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## Nicklfire

*DAY 7*









*Day 25*


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## Nicklfire

Reserved for future posts again


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## Nicklfire

Reserved for future posts again again


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## reefkeeper

tracking...


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## user_error

looks cool can't wait to see how it evolves...

one question, what's hc? sorry i don't know this plant...


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## DR1V3N

reserved for future positive feedback


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## DR1V3N

It almost seems like you're going with an iwagumi look too moss tree and all?


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## CRS Fan

Looking good Shawn. I see you didn't use any of the Marsilea. It will also carpet and can be grown emersed.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## Nicklfire

martialid10t said:


> It almost seems like you're going with an iwagumi look too moss tree and all?


To be honest i'm kind of winging it at this point, not sure what plant choices i want to make from here on out, this is where i will sit down and do a drawing or something to figure it out, maybe look at some pictures on the net to get some inspiration.



CRS Fan said:


> Looking good Shawn. I see you didn't use any of the Marsilea. It will also carpet and can be grown emersed.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Stuart


I have not used it YET  i still have it in my bowl of water, just wanting to figure out IF i want to use it yet, and where. Will have to look at how it's been used before cause i'm not familiar with the plant at all


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## Nicklfire

user_error said:


> looks cool can't wait to see how it evolves...
> 
> one question, what's hc? sorry i don't know this plant...


Hemianthus callitrichoides - very small leafs, good carpeting plant, needs co2 (i have found anyways)


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## target

Looks good so far.


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## Nicklfire

target said:


> Looks good so far.


Long way to go : )


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## target

Nicklfire said:


> Long way to go : )


Its the waiting that is the hardest. I get so impatient working on a new set up. Trying not to rush my 90.


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## Nicklfire

I updated the first post to reflect day 7 but here are more posts and a little detail.

It's been about 7 days and everything is going great, i have not really noticed any growth but as i said on day 1 that during the first 2 weeks is when the roots establish themself.

I have noticed some of the leaves turning a yellowish but i believe it's due to the plants adjusting to being out of the water. In time they will go green again id assume.

I have been keeping the tank a very good humidy and have been just peeking on them daily to make sure the water i put in there originally is still there.

I made the water level just below the plants originally and it does not seem to be evaporating which is great.

I have NOT misted the plants at all during the 7 days as they looked great. I did however today sprinkle them with water and took the wrap off the top of the tank to exchange the air.

I have the lights on 12 hours a day currently and i'm using all 4 54w bulbs as i'm hoping for faster growth.

Here are pictures.


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## BigFatLyre

OK, I'm ready for updated pictures, now!


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## Nicklfire

those were updated lol


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## 2wheelsx2

Ok, I'm not seeing the clarity of the Starphire glass in those pics.  j/k


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## Nicklfire

lol, yea your right, they seem very... hazy lol


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## thefishwife

Really like it Shawn, I think your experiment will work.


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## mysticalnet

of Course it will work Kim, I already did it


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## Nicklfire

So here are some pictures, these are about 25 days from the time i started, i have noticed some growth in the last week it's still not as far as i wanted it to be at this point, but the good thing is that there is no fungus or it's not dying. I am the odd time refilling the water that evaporated, but that's not very often. I dont have a spray bottle so i just sprinkle it all over with my fingers. I have not been adding any fertz or anything because i think that they should get a good amount of that from the substrate.


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## jkam

I'm surprised that it hasn't grown that much. Did you leave a few holes for air exchange?


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## effox

Looks good so far Shawn. I never tried this method, I've only heard of it. Way to jump into it, especially starting with that evil Cuba plant!


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## Nicklfire

jkam said:


> I'm surprised that it hasn't grown that much. Did you leave a few holes for air exchange?


Ya, left a corner open for air exchange, plus once a week i exchange all air out.


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## Mferko

growth should pick up theyre prolly puttin down roots


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## planter

Looking good,

I plan of doing the same thing in a week using ADA aquasoil. I will be following your progress closely so I can know what to expect.

Thanks for posting this.


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## target

Shawn, you have way more patience than me. I'd have flooded it by now.


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## eternity302

target said:


> Shawn, you have way more patience than me. I'd have flooded it by now.


LOL! That wuz exactly what i was thinking! HAHAHA! Would of just garbaged those plants and let the fish roll! HAHA~


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## Nicklfire

Well if i'm going to do it, i'm going to do it right lol  patience is very vital for me, trust me there has been so many times i just want to flood it and start adding livestock and plants lol

I want to see it when it's all done and go.. wow.. that's cool


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## Nicklfire

I would have LOVED to post pictures of a AWESOME full carpet of HC apon my return but i have some bad news... not as BAD as it could have been though.

At some point over my trip my cat go on top of my aquarium where the syran wrap was and stared clawing it or fell into it a bit... regardless about 1/4 of the top was gone.

This caused the humidity in the tank to completely vanish.. and the water to evaporate.

When i returned the substrate was dry and the plants were barely holding on. I quickly filled up the tank back with water and hopefully we will see what happens.

It's been about 4 days and the plants are recovering, so hopefully in another week i will be ahead of where i was 4 weeks ago lol


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## CRS Fan

Cats will always find a way to get in trouble, it's their nature ! Hopefully your HC recovers.

Best regards,

Stuart


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