Best Way To Plant Hemianthus Microm.....

[AndyTaylor]

Just got a beautiful Hemianthus M. I know it's demands on lights etc but i'm not sure how to plant it.
Is it like glosso or can i just plant clumps of it around the base of the bogwood? Don't want to kill it before it gets a chance to grow!
Thnks for any help....

Andy

 

[jimbooo]

simmillar to glosso but not to the extreme extent of individual plantlets. if the bunch you have has only rooted at the base just plant each stem 1cm apart with tweezers to form a bush, if yours has roots up the stem you can cut it in half (making sure the top half has at least 2 roots at its "new" base) and plant as above.

obviously with the second option you can cover twice the area from the first planting.

prune as with stem plants. clip off the top one week, allow it to branch out, next week uproot and clip off the bottom inch or so and replant.

dont keep cutting the tops off and leaving the bottom or it will become permanently stunted and algaefied (hence why i just chucked mine, it did last 18 months of pruning though!! not bad for a tiny plant)

have fun as always

 

[AndyTaylor]

Cheers Jim.....looks like a long night with a tweezers for me! I have my glosso to redo too....it'll be worth it, i'm sure!

 

[jimbooo]

Cheers Jim.....looks like a long night with a tweezers for me! I have my glosso to redo too....it'll be worth it, i'm sure!

glosso as well ) have fun. ha ha

you may want to book that osteopath appointment in advance then!!

 

[AndyTaylor]

...and it's done! My back is sore but my tweezer hand is worse ;(... it was worth every minute of the 2 hours it took. Very pleased with the way it looks...

http/i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/Andy...2005/carpet.jpg

bad photo but i'm tired...

 

[kenneth_kpe]

looking good ! it should look best once it has filled in your tank

*when i replant glosso it takes soo long that sometimes my hands start to wrinkle up haha

 

[zig]

Jeez i hope you didnt buy it all lookin good mate lookin good, i bet your girlfriend thinks your crazy! can i borrow your tweezers darling!!

 

[kenneth_kpe]

Jeez i hope you didnt buy it all lookin good mate lookin good, i bet your girlfriend thinks your crazy! can i borrow your tweezers darling!!

 

[pseud]

Nice work. I got some HM once but couldn't be bothered to seperate, trim, and plant it. Will look great when it fills out

 

[jimbooo]

well done mate, looks perfect.

what next then??

 

[AndyTaylor]

What's next? Replanting all the bits that the fish uproot! Nah...I dunno, that well-travelled dwarf riccia needs doing but i need a plan for it first....and i've a java fern that needs to go somewhere...
i Think i'll just look at the tank for a week....

Zig, that's 1 plants worth of Hem. from Whackers.....not bad for a fiver, i thought?.....you can borrow my tweezers anytime! LOL

 

[zig]

Ok made it down to Whackers this morning and i got some Hemianthus M so it will be tweezer time later, also got a narrow leaf java fern and some Eleocharis acicularis, so very pleased they were the top three on my list, but they didnt have any Rotolas or Ludwigias which were next on the list, but a very nice selection overall especially the different Anubias and Ferns. I will drop back down in a couple of weeks time, did you order those Apistos specially or did they just have them? just wondering no particular reason, i just didnt see any there this morning.

 

[AndyTaylor]

You'll love the Hem. planting, mate.....it's so much easier than the glosso!...could be the next TFF plant trend!
I had been waiting for them to get some Apistos but they weren't ordered for me specifically...they seem to sell very quickly so i must have been lucky, i guess. They've settled in brilliantly, no aggression at all and the mating preliminaries seem to be starting!
Those narrow leaf ferns are beautiful, is the low light tank coming together?

 

[zig]

You'll love the Hem. planting, mate.....it's so much easier than the glosso!...could be the next TFF plant trend!
I had been waiting for them to get some Apistos but they weren't ordered for me specifically...they seem to sell very quickly so i must have been lucky, i guess. They've settled in brilliantly, no aggression at all and the mating preliminaries seem to be starting!
Those narrow leaf ferns are beautiful, is the low light tank coming together?

I thought with the HM you had to plant it as you have allready and then put a little stone on the other end to keep it down, and it will then grow roots as it creeps along and stay down as a carpet, i think if you just plant it normally and leave it be without anchoring the other end it will grow upwards towards the light, its very similar to glosso the way the roots come out.

I just want to grow it upwards i have the glosso and hairgrass allready as a foreground, HM can look great grown upwards as well.

The low light tank still needs some work, its really a highlight tank, but i just have 1 watt per gallon on at the moment, i need a new filter the juwel filter is brutal, its a Record 60 tank which i modified and added more light, i might get a fluval 104 for it, dont know of a smaller external filter than the 104........anybody know of anything smaller that wont break the bank?

 

[AndyTaylor]

I see what you mean about planting the Hem.....i'll have to add some stones alright. Never finished!