Securing Plants Until Roots Grow

[DJRansome]

Planted some of my order from Anubias Design yesterday. I'm using 2.5" terra cotta pots containing Flourite sunk in pool filter sand.

I had trouble securing some of the crypts and found a couple floating this morning, along with a few bacopa stems.

The tank houses a trio of peacocks and synodontis lucipinnis. I don't think they were digging inside the pots, but just exploring and being exuberant.

I'm going to try pinning the crypts into the Flourite with hairpins. Any ideas for the bacopa?

Ideas other than letting the pots grow a couple weeks in a fishless tank, LOL.

[BlondeFishGal]

Until they get rooted, they can some up just from water movement caused by fish and fish just poking around. I get it too when I trim and replant stems, and my fish are gentle.

With the bacopa, make sure you have a lot of the stem planted. Pull the leaves off the bottom of the stem and plant that to help anchor the plant into your pot. Plus you can pile the sand up over the pot and even place some rocks on top of the pot to help secure it in.

Some folks float stem plants until they get roots then plant, but I always find that mine end up clogging the filter when I’ve tried that.

Most crypts don’t like to be moved once they get settled. So if they come up, replant them quickly. They may even start to look crappy and shed leaves. Don’t pitch them, they will come back and take hold.

[DJRansome]

I did strip/plant all of the bacopa stems that the depth of the substrate would allow (3"). Building off the idea of piling up rocks/sand, I'm thinking of making temporary 1" collars around the edge of the pot and piling in 1/4" pebbles.

Will that work for the crypts as well? I know the crown needs to be at/above the substrate, but maybe the pebbles would allow enough circulation?

If this doesn't work, then I will have to leave the pots in an outdoor aquarium for a couple weeks until roots form. And then I imagine the crypts will melt when moved in due to the different light levels in the aquarium.

[BlondeFishGal]

I did strip/plant all of the bacopa stems that the depth of the substrate would allow (3"). Building off the idea of piling up rocks/sand, I'm thinking of making temporary 1" collars around the edge of the pot and piling in 1/4" pebbles.

Will that work for the crypts as well? I know the crown needs to be at/above the substrate, but maybe the pebbles would allow enough circulation?

If this doesn't work, then I will have to leave the pots in an outdoor aquarium for a couple weeks until roots form. And then I imagine the crypts will melt when moved in due to the different light levels in the aquarium.

Couple of thoughts/suggestions for ya:


For the bacopa, three ideas:
1. Sure, try the collar; you never know if something will work unless you try something ;)
2. if you stripped the leaves off enough to plant it 3 inches deep, the next time it comes up, pull off the leaves higher and circle the stem in the bottom of the pot, place rocks/pebbles on the surface once replanted
3. try floating some stems and when they root, plant. Maybe they won't get caught in your filter. Again, never know unless you try ;)

For your crypts...
I did one of my columns on what I termed "Plant Divas" -- not necessarily difficult plants, but ones that acted like a diva...kinda moody, absolutely needed to have their needs met to do well.... you know, a "DIVA!" I included crypts in this category. They are moody. You can try the collar with them, and you can also try planting them outdoors. Remember that most do not like very much light. As for melting, it's not the lighting that triggers that. Not sure what does. I think they just like to drive us humans nuts! You can move them from one tank to another one, parameters are the same, and they will still melt. Sometimes. Sometimes not. Who knows what a diva will do? LOL. But once they are settled, they do really, really well.

[DJRansome]

The collar is working so far, how long until the crypts and bacopa form enough roots to secure them in the pots fairly well? I was thinking about 3 weeks?

[BlondeFishGal]

So happy to hear the collars are working for you! :runnningaround:

Hard to say how long you should leave them. My suggestion: when you think enough time has gone by, kinda wiggle a couple of the plants with your hand and see if they stay put. If they do, that would be a great sign and I'd probably just leave them there for another week or so ... just be sure. ;)

Stem plants don't typically produce deep roots, so you may still have some stems of the bacopa come up from time to time. The crypts will lock down with their strong root systems.