Interest in propagating Ricordea

[D12monkey]

I'm new to the forum and new to propagation. I have some ricordea that I want to frag and propagate. Anyone know the best way to do this? any indo would be usefull. Thanks

[FragOutpost]

An easy way is to just cut the top of the polyp off and a new polyp will form from the stump still attached to the rock. At this point you can optionally cut the polyp into several pieces like a pizza and try to get a piece of the mouth into each piece. After your polyp has been cut you can place the piece(s) into a shallow dish with some rubble in an area of low flow and over the course of a few days to a few weeks the cuttings will heal and attach to some of the rubble. If the flow is too strong or you are having trouble keeping the cuttings in the dish then you can cover the dish with a wedding veil type of material. Hope this helps.

[D12monkey]

Thanks for the info. Will be trying it soon. Let you know how it came out.

[richfish]

[what do you cut on the riccordia?

[beanpole209]

couldnt you just cut a ricordea in half ??

[FragOutpost]

The first step would be to cut the ricordea/mushroom off at the stalk, detaching it from the rock. Use a piar of sharp scissors for this.


Since it is the same process for fragging mushrooms as it is for ricordea, I'll use a photo of a mushroom as an example.

The next steps are optional. You can leave it whole or cut into smaller pieces.

This photo shows how to cut into 2 frags.




Or if you wanted to cut into more than 2 frags:



For the best results try to get a piece of the mouth in each section that you cut.

[SteveK]

Hi there,

New to this forum too. Am interested in doing this as well. I have heard of some method where the mushroom is placed into a blender/liquidiser and then the soup that is left is placed into the tank. Does any one have expereince with this method. If so does it work or is it hit and miss?

Thanks

Steve

[D12monkey]

Originally Posted by SteveK

Hi there,

New to this forum too. Am interested in doing this as well. I have heard of some method where the mushroom is placed into a blender/liquidiser and then the soup that is left is placed into the tank. Does any one have expereince with this method. If so does it work or is it hit and miss?

Thanks

Steve

I've heard of this method but I would highly recommend against it. IMO

[FragOutpost]

I have heard of this method before, but never tried it. I agree with D12Monkey and would recommend against it as well.

[SteveK]

Cool,

Sorry for hijacking you original post. I was just curious, I have a lovely green Ricordea that will be fragged soon and in dicussions this method was mention but have not heard any results.

Thanks

Steve

[D12monkey]

I have attempted the fragging and it does work. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get them to mount any of the rocks that I placed them on.

Another way I've hear is to place a powerhead directly in front of one and since they don't like high flow they'll move and leave a "baby" sort to speak.

[gusmanci]

If you can use a blender you want to, but you dont make a soup out of them , just enough to cut them into small pieces, not a very good option.
another option is cut them in four and use a coarse veil or a net and tide them loosely w a rubber band, they should attach to the rock in a week or two. give them a lot of flow or they will catch a fungus.
here is a good info:
http://www.garf.org/ricord/ricord.html