Peace lily

[Amanda L]

I got a peace lily around 2 months ago and have been curious about putting it in water culture. I know that this can be done and was wildly popular awhile ago, the vase had a beta fish in it. I don't want a fish in my vase, just the peace lily. I would love some advice on how to start mine in water culture. Do I fertilize at all? Do I need to wait for any reason? Can I just clean the soil off the roots and put it in a vase of water and let it go? I have no idea!
I would really appreciate any and all advice about this!

Thanks,
Amanda

[nenella]

Good question Amanda!
I'm not sure, hopefully someone on the board has tried it with this water loving plant & be able to tell.

[Psyguy10]

Amanda, that is a good idea! I've had peace lilies in glass vases before.
If you keep the crown (the part where the leaves start growing) out of the water that'll keep it from rotting, and i'd say change the water weekly so it doesn't get algae. A quarter of a teaspoon once every 3 weeks added into the water should be enough fertilizer for it.
Don't forget pics when you get it set up!

[Amanda L]

Will the roots that are on it now die back? This one is sucking water down like it's going out of style! I just thought maybe water culture would help it.

[Psyguy10]

I'd say that you might see a little bit of die back as the roots adjust to having more moisture, But PL's grow quickly, it'll get used to the water fast

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Hi Amanda

I just noticed this thread by accident since before I thought the title referred to a lily. If you are referring to the white flowered Spathiphyllum it should be similar to the anthurium I am growing since it is also an aroid. I just posted it.

Anthurium crystallinum in water culture

My experience has been that the roots of plants that previously grown in potting soil, bark etc, come with rot producing bacteria and fungi that thrive best in the juncture between water and air since they seem to require wet and dry cycles to reproduce. For this reason I found that new roots and rhizomes grown completely under water tend to be free of these and as soon as new growths and roots are strong enough I remove all old roots as soon as they deteriorate and parts of the plant that contain any signs of rot that penetrated deep so it cannot be cleaned off.

I also like to grow the clean new parts separately to get plants that grow healthy in water culture for years. If the plant is a fast grower l don't even bother keeping the old sections that involve much more cleaning and retain the decayed parts which I don't want to have around. My Anthurium cristallinum has produced over a hundred offspring this way in the last 5 years. As you can see in this photo a shoot that developed 2 inches below the water level ( which is indicated by the red pen in the photo) has just emerged from the water. Some of them are coming from much deeper in the water.



If you have any questions I will try to answer them.