WABI KUSA – What is it anyway? TUTORIAL:
“At Wabi Kusa Aquatic Plants are being kept above water (emersed).
Different Species get grouped into a vessel, mostly made of Glass, where they can grow freely. The Japanese term originates from the concept of “WABI SABI”, it is rather impossible to translate. It is about to come to appreciate Beauty in Insignificance.
Some may ask: Why do such a thing? Aquatic plants belong under water, right? Well, most of the plants we use in an aquarium are Helophytes, which means the got the ability to adapt at both habitats. At high watermarks the develop their under water phenotype (submersed) and at dry seasons the show their terrestrial appearances. Many species can only be definitely identified by reference to their flowers. So keeping plants that way is not a new invention but has been practiced by botanists and enthusiastic plant devotees all the time.
Wabi Kusa today is some kind of sideline of aquascaping. The plants are not just being kept somehow, they become part of a synthesis of art consisting of plants, decoration and container. The aquatic gardeners take a lot of delight by presenting their fosterlings in an aesthetic manner. Like always Takashi Amano has got his fingers in this pie. At his Nature Aquarium Museum Wabi Kusas have been presented for the first time and Visitors payed a lot of attention and appreciated this.
So it didn’t take long to come up with copycats at this form of plant keeping, design and presentation. It became a trend which has now many followers around the planet. Some manufacturers now offer a great range of products especially for Wabi Kusa like plant glasses, fertilizer, lamps and tools.
I started myself out of a scrape in 2014. Unfortunately i couldn’t setup a new tank this year and that’s why I came up with the idea of an emersed project as kind of a bridgeover.
As an Aquascaper i had to make a switch because it has been a totally different approach. Plants are growing much slower and may have to do a hormonal transposition which strongly changes their appearance.
An exciting process to observe. Finally I guess that Wabi Kusa is a handy opportunity for beginners to start with plant keeping. It is very easy, you don’t need a big amount of time and you get intensively in touch with your plants.
Maintenance: You only have to spray your Wabi Kusas two times a day. Time by time you have to cut out parts which became too dense. The lighting is quiet similar to the strong one you use at Aquascaping. I often use 2 T5-bulbs with 24 watts to illuminate 4-5 glasses. You don’t have to add fertilizer if your Wabi Kusa isn’t older then one year. Nevertheless if you want to fertilize you can use a very small amount of liquid fertilizer, or you even better use your aquarium water of your aquascaping tank. I myself did add nutrients only with the substrate which worked out quiet well.
Doing Wabi Kusas is similar to cookie making. In the following i will give you a detailed Instruction how to setup Wabi Kusa step by step:
- We will need a dessert form
- A bowl
- Some aquasoil
- We fill in the soil
- Now we add some water. Not too much, the soil may not be too wet, otherwise it might become difficult to knead. We knead and press the substrate until it got a dough texture. It is advisable to wear rubber gloves when doing this. Not only that you spare washing hands, soil holds humic acid with a slight tan effect!
- Our soil dumpling is now ready. Theoretically you could go for planting.
- Now we do use our dessert form to press our dumpling into a perfect flat cake.
- Now we finished our first soil cake – let’s head for the fun part!
- We plug in our plants one by one.
The plants I used here are already emersed. If you want to use submersed plants you have to give the the chance to switch! I put those Wabi Kusas in an empty tank which is equipped with a fogger. Then i reduce the humidity slowly from 99% down to 40% in about 4-6 weeks. I use a normal hydrometer and set up corresponding Intervals with a time switch.
Now back to our current project! It slowly assumes shape…
No. 1 is ready!
So is No. 2, looks cute!
I’d be glad if someone gets inspired to come up with his own attempt. Maximum success to all of your projects! Cheers! Frederic Fuss“ Source link here!
Thank you to Frederic Fuss for this detailed tutorial and pictures!! Now off with you, making WABI-KUSA ! AQ*44
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