FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, everyone.

We know we can count on neem oil in many situations, keeping our carnivorous plants safe and free from poisonous alternatives.

However, I was wondering if our plants could also benefit from Indian almond leaves. These leaves – well known amongst Betta fish keepers – are said to protect fish from bacteria and fungi, while keeping the water naturally acid.

What if we could keep Indian almond leaves inside the bottles where we store our distilled water or rainwater? When watering our plants, they would benefit from these "almost magic" properties.

Any ideas?

Hodric.

PS: if you guys want to read about Indian almond leaves...

http://www.indianalmondleaves.com/aquariums.php

http://www.indianalmondleaves.com/chemistry.php

http://bettafishawarenessday.blogspot.c ... -leaf.html

http://www.bettasplendens.co.uk/almondleaves.php

That's really interesting. I'd be willing to test it out and see if it's safe for the plants. Where would I buy indian almond leaves?

KissMegan wrote:Where would I buy indian almond leaves?

Here in Brazil we can get them for free. Indian almond trees ("Terminalia catappa") are easily found planted on sidewalks.

Ohhh okay haha well I'll have to go on a scavenger hunt for some trees or see if I can purchase the leafs haha

Indian almond leaves should be reasonably available on a site like eBay; you may find some specialist aquatics stores stock them too. I was able to get fairly good bags full off eBay when I kept bettas, so hopefully there'll still be stockists about. If worst comes to it, you could always look at a betta keeper forum and see what suppliers the members use.

I'm not sure if they'd prove useful for carnivorous plants, but it is definitely an interesting idea!

Yeah haha I may check it out soon and do some tests

Would those leaves release anything negative to carnivorous plants?

I guess that's what this test is for. I think this summer I'm Going to water a d. capensis with almond leaf water and one with plain distilled and see what happens

The indian almond leaves and alder cones I have used in the past with various fish and shrimp breeding never made a significant difference in the TDS of the water and did not effect the fish or eggs negatively. So, unless the leaves come from a place that sprays herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. they should be safe in that aspect. It would be interesting to see how it would effect a carnivorous plant using an extract, or even having the leaves placed in the watering tray along with the plants.

In some instances it inhibited the growth of some species of filamentous algae as well. I haven't had algae growth in my containers, but I wonder if it would have a similar effect. This seems like something I may try as well since I have some leaves still.

Nice thanks for the input chevy. Let us know if you try. I'm really curious as well to see if it does anything