In my opinion, one of the biggest factors for lush and compact growth in growing Glossostigma Elatinoides emersed is the substrate & lighting in which you choose. I’ve grown this plant under four completely different parameters in terms of lighting and water parameters but I kept the substrate the same in all four specimens. The result’s were as follows…

Experiment 1 (Success)
– Four 36″ T5’s with 3000k spectrum bulbs (Wrong spectrum for plants)
– Homemade substrate mix
– PH 8.2+
– Lights on for 12 hours a day
– RESULTS= Glosso grew, but at a particularly slow rate, not sending runners as fast as expected. New growth was also not as “deep” of a green as it should have been. All in all the plant was still healthy, just not as vibrant as it should have been.

Experiment 2 (Success) (Same as Experiment 1 except for PH)
– Four 36″ T5’s with 3000k spectrum bulbs (Wrong spectrum for plants)
– Homemade substrate mix
– PH 6.5
– Lights on for 12 hours a day
– RESULTS= After dropping the PH significantly over the course of a week via almond leaves and removing the coral which creates such a high PH, the glossostigma didn’t seem to grow any different than normal over the course of one week. I left the PH at 6.5 for the remainder for the month (2 weeks) and the Glosso looked like this after…

Experiment 3 (Success)
– Four 36″ T5’s with two 6700k bulbs and two rosette “colourmax” bulbs. (NOW we have the right bulb spectrum for plant growth)
– Homemade substrate mix
– PH 8.2+ (I brought the PH back up to hard water as I was keeping the Glosso with other hard water plants)
– Lights on for 12 hours a day
– RESULTS= After successfully growing the first carpet of Glossostigma under the 3000k bulbs and different water parameters, I wanted to start over and now try this experiment with the right bulbs. After ripping out the Glossostigma carpet completely, only leaving a few nodes here are the results…

Plant growth was far more lush, compact, spread faster, and overall healthier.

Experiment 4 (Success)
– Two 23 Watt 6700k CFL’s, One 18 watt T8 ZooMed Plant bulb.
– PH 7.5
– Homemade substrate mix
– Lights on for 10 hours per day
– RESULTS= Lush and compact growth, very similar to experiment 3. PH didn’t seem to have any effect on the plant, as it even managed to flower a few weeks after.

In conclusion, Glossostigma Elatinoides is one of those plants that seems to love higher light, the higher the light the greener and more compact the plant will become. The lower the light and further away from the plant spectrum, the taller and not as lush growth will appear. Although this is considered one of the more advanced plants for submersed growth, Glossostigma Elatinoides grows under many different conditions emersed and is highly adaptable. One of my favourite parts of having an emersed set up is that when your submersed cultivation isn’t going as well as you planned, you can always go back to your emersed specimens to try again as opposed to having to purchase more at your local fish store.