Aponogeton species are commercially important as they fetch high values in the export market related to the aquarium trade. Since the collection of the plants from the wild for export purposes, has been banned, they are cultured in nurseries for this purpose. However plant culturists believe that these plants can only be propagated through rhizome propagation and collection of rhizomes for propagation in nurseries continue up to date. The present study investigates the possibility of seed propagation of Aponogeton species and comapares the rate of growth between the 3 commercially important species.
Seeds of the three aponogeton species, A.natans, A. rigidifolius, A.crispus were collected from the wild,and propagated in glass tanks, using river sand as the substrateA commercial liquid fertilizer and compost were used as treatments with no fertilizer in the control. Growth was monitored weekly together with nitrate and phosphate concentrations for 6 months.Aponogeton rhizomes collected from the wild were grown under the same conditions for comparison. Results were analysed using anova to find any variation between species ,treatments or propagation method.
The results of this study has shown that they can be easily propagated through seeds. But the time taken for plants to reach the export size is longer than those propagated from rhizomes. It has also shown that Aponogeton rigidifolius which is an endemic species shows even slow growth compared to the others. However the quality of plants produced through seed propagation is better for export. Therefore it is recommended that seed propagation of these plants be popularized so that they can be conserved in their natural habitats.