crypt collection. Piet can most certainly grow them. Lush and massive
growth.
Here's a close up of one of the fish he's got in his planted tank.
In one of many growth trays, C. striolata (swwwwwwwwwweeeeeet)
Just look at the nice pattern and the healthy growth!
Jim probably has more pictures from Piet's setup - there were too many
people walking around in there for me to get a decent shot of anything
and I just gave up.
Moving along - on the ride back to the hotel we stopped to get
the essential picture.
Back at the convention Saturday night, just prior to the main
speaker session starting up.
From left to right: Neils Jacobsen, Romeo and the gentleman from Gula.
Couldnt remember ALL the names - there were 35+ people there!
From left to right: Piet van Wijngaarden and Jan Bastmeijer.
Piet telling Jan - "These folks from the US are completly NUTS!"
Closed container culture of C. fusca and I beleive C. minima.
A lot of folks are using this method now which they say is very stable.
Once in a while, new fagus soil is added to provide nutrients but other
than that, the bottles remain closed. Not to be kept on window sills -
but rather under flourecents.
From left to right: Mr. Bogner and Jim.
From left to right: Mr. Bogner and the only brown guy in the Netherlands.
From left to right: Jim and Niels Jacobsen
From left to right: Roland and Jim
Plant market! Free plants for everyone! Most of the plants came
from Niels collection. An insane amount of plants. Insane!
From left to right:
Kai in the brown shirt in the back.
You can see a glimpse of Roland.
You see Stephan's back.
Martin from Tropica standing infront of the screen speaking with Neils.
And the lady from Gula with a bag of Laganendra nairii I believe.
Peter talking with Xema.
Kai commenting on the specifics of some of the plants on the
table.
Roland checking out the available plants.
From Left to Right: Claus Kettner and Fredi Wasser.
Fredi Wasser - the name should ring a bell - since this man's
name is on a lot of recent collections. He doesn't grow too many
crypts - just goes to SE Asia every year to collect! One of these
years - I'm going to tag along!
A wider shot of the room
That's most of the pictures I have. Jim's got more. There was one day
that I thought my camera battery was done - turns out that the
memory card just wasnt seated tight enough - so I didn't get any
pictures from that day.
A few notes from the experience:
Most of the folks there are focused in growing healthy plants and getting
wild collected plants to flower initially for ID purposes / see variations
from different collecting locations. Another priority is the
long term cultivation of collections. Some plants here are
runners of plants collected decades ago! These guys can grow crypts!
Overall - the trip was very enjoyable and it was refreshing to see
how environmentally concious the folks there are. Everyone was
very friendly and even though some of them didnt speak very
good English, they made an extra effort to speak with us.
Next year's convention will be in Vienna. If you can make it out there,
I highly reccomend it. I know I'll certainly try and attend again next
year.
