January 2010 Meeting

Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 11:14 pm

Ghazanfar Ghori hosted GWAPA’s 2010 kick-off meeting at his Brambleton, VA, home on January 23rd. Kris Weinhold provided a state-of-the-club summary, discussed the results of the 2009 year-end survey, and presented the board’s agenda for the year.  2010 marks the “Year of the Aquascape”, with the express goal of having as many GWAPA members as willing enter this year’s Aquatic Gardener’s Association aquascaping contest.  In support of this goal, talks will include DIY projects, layout and design demos, plant care, and photography.  Cavan Allen also will continue his species identification talks.

Ghazanfar’s brief lecture, Conserving Rare Aquatic Plants Using Tissue Culture, provided a general overview of tissue culture as a method of plant propagation not only on a bulk scale, but as a method of variety development.  Ghazanfar touched on items necessary for successful home culturing (readily available over the Internet) and discussed the need for a “clean” (ideally aseptic) environment when planting.  He also stressed the need for good note-taking both for identification as well as recording observations.  While he spoke, Ghazanfar passed around examples of plants at differing culture stages during the culturing process.

As an added bonus, Ghazanfar also described his thoughts on the aesthetics and practicalities of his ADA 90-P nature style aquarium. An island from afar is the theme.

The monthly auction followed, and everyone went home scheming about how to make a bundle off of tissue culturing so as to finance their next aquarium adventure.

Photos from the meeting: (Courtesy of Jim Michaels)

Ghazanfar's 90P Aquarium

Ghazanfar's Emersed Setups

Ghazanfar's Emersed Setups

Socializing

Amano Shrimp

Ghazanfar 210G Aquarium

Ghazanfar's 210G Aquarium

Ghazanfar's 90P Aquarium

Ghazanfar's 90P Aquarium

Fissidens on Rocks

Mini Pelia

Fissidens Moss

Listening to Ghazanfar speak

Socializing

Shrimp

Cryptocoryne

Cryptocoryne

Plants in Tissue Culture

Emersed Setup