Growing and propogating plants?

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cowgirluntamed

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So....I was looking into the best way to start growing and propogating some plants fairly easily that is not in a typical aquarium set up. Like....if I bought plastic tubs and added lights. Is submersed or emersed the better way for this? I am mainly looking at some different types of anubias and crypts. I'd like to try to buy like a few pots, plant them, and some how let them grow and propogate them. Then they could be ready to add to an actual display tank but hopefully save me some money!

I just wasn't sure the best way for this? Some seem to get good growth emersed but some things I read say submersed gets faster growth. Is there a good way to do this to get good growth? Thanks for any help!
 
Anubias, Crypts, Swords and most aquarium plants grow faster out of water. Besides floating plants that need to be on water, Vallis and Java Moss are the two main plants that need to be kept in water. Pretty much everything else can be grown out of water.

If you buy plants that have been grown out of water, you simply put them in pots with potting mix, and put the pots into a shallow container. Make up some liquid fertiliser (I use Thrive) and pour that into the container so there is an inch or so of liquid. Leave the plants in there and replace the fertiliser water every week. If the water gets used up during that time, replace it with fresh water that has no fertiliser in. You only fertilise them once a week and let them drink as much as they can.

If you are using plants that have been living underwater, you plant them up in a pot with potting mix and put them in a container with enough water to cover the pot by a couple of inches. The plant will either grow up and out of the water, or you can let the water slowly evaporate and as the level drops, the plant will develop terrestrial leaves. When it has plenty of terrestrial leaves, you treat it like a normal plant, as described above.

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Plants grown out of water will usually flower and you can collect seeds or take cuttings from them. The cuttings strike easily and you simply put them in a pot with potting mix and leave them in the container of shallow fertiliser and water. Within a few weeks they will develop roots and start growing.

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If you grow plants out of water, some of them will lose their leaves when put under water. Depending on the species, most will then grow new aquatic leaves and start growing.

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If you want to grow plants underwater, get some plastic storage containers and put the plants in pots with gravel. Put them in the storage containers and fill the container with fertiliser and water. The water usually goes green after a week or two but the plants keep growing. Replace the water each week with new fertiliser water.

When the plants get too long, take cuttings about 6 inches long and plant them in pots. They will take root and grow pretty quickly.

When you want to use these plants in your tanks, lift them out of container and let the water drain out of the pots. Put them in a bucket of freshwater without fertiliser. Lift them up and let them drain before putting them into a second bucket of fresh water without fertiliser. Lift them up and let them drain before putting them in the tank. This rinses any fertiliser out of the pots and off the plants.
 
Anubias, Crypts, Swords and most aquarium plants grow faster out of water. Besides floating plants that need to be on water, Vallis and Java Moss are the two main plants that need to be kept in water. Pretty much everything else can be grown out of water.

If you buy plants that have been grown out of water, you simply put them in pots with potting mix, and put the pots into a shallow container. Make up some liquid fertiliser (I use Thrive) and pour that into the container so there is an inch or so of liquid. Leave the plants in there and replace the fertiliser water every week. If the water gets used up during that time, replace it with fresh water that has no fertiliser in. You only fertilise them once a week and let them drink as much as they can.

If you are using plants that have been living underwater, you plant them up in a pot with potting mix and put them in a container with enough water to cover the pot by a couple of inches. The plant will either grow up and out of the water, or you can let the water slowly evaporate and as the level drops, the plant will develop terrestrial leaves. When it has plenty of terrestrial leaves, you treat it like a normal plant, as described above.

----------------------
Plants grown out of water will usually flower and you can collect seeds or take cuttings from them. The cuttings strike easily and you simply put them in a pot with potting mix and leave them in the container of shallow fertiliser and water. Within a few weeks they will develop roots and start growing.

----------------------
If you grow plants out of water, some of them will lose their leaves when put under water. Depending on the species, most will then grow new aquatic leaves and start growing.

----------------------
If you want to grow plants underwater, get some plastic storage containers and put the plants in pots with gravel. Put them in the storage containers and fill the container with fertiliser and water. The water usually goes green after a week or two but the plants keep growing. Replace the water each week with new fertiliser water.

When the plants get too long, take cuttings about 6 inches long and plant them in pots. They will take root and grow pretty quickly.

When you want to use these plants in your tanks, lift them out of container and let the water drain out of the pots. Put them in a bucket of freshwater without fertiliser. Lift them up and let them drain before putting them into a second bucket of fresh water without fertiliser. Lift them up and let them drain before putting them in the tank. This rinses any fertiliser out of the pots and off the plants.

So...I could do plastic tubs instead of pots though? As long as I drill some small holes anyway? Some people have one large plastic tub with smaller ones inside that hold the soil, and the larger one holds the water. Would this work? Also, I'm assuming I would keep the lid on the bigger container to help hold the moisture in?

As for the thrive, that is an aquarium fertilizer, correct? I normally buy easy green, would this work too?

And the lighting. Would just a normal led aquarium plant light work? What should the photo period be? 10-12 hours or less than that?

Sorry for the questions, I've never done anything like this before. Lol. My inspiration is that I have an awesome anubias nangi plant in my 10 gallon quarantine tank that had been in there for almost 4 years. It's just a normal led light(not plant light) but it's gotten so big I may have to move or split it. I would love to try to get to even half this size if I could way faster than almost 4 years in a tank! Lol.
 
This is the stuff I use, but you can use any liquid plant fertiliser for normal garden plants. I use Thrive because it's the main one in Australia.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/yates-1-8kg-thrive-soluble-all-purpose-plant-food_p3010216

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You can use pots or tubs, it doesn't really matter. I use normal garden pots because I have a heap of them and they are cheap. Use whatever is available.

You don't leave the lid on the storage container. Just treat them like a normal garden plant but keep their roots wet.

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I have my plants by a window that gets morning sun and in the afternoon I have a compact fluorescent globe on in the room. The room light (compact fluorescent) is on from about 5pm to midnight, and the sun comes up at about 7:30am.

Any sort of light with a 5000K - 6500K rating will be fine.

Have the lights on for 16 hours a day.
 
Thanks so much for the info! I will definitely have to give it a try. I will post pics of when I get it setup. This may be very interesting!
 
@Colin_T

So...I haven't set anything up yet. But I have some totes ready and soil and fertilizer. Lol. My question is...which of these lights should I get? They are all LED. This set up is going into a room that doesn't get direct light and these don't seem very expensive. And I can attach it to a shelf I have to get it a bit higher too...anyway...which do you think is best? They all seem fairly good to me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F7391M2/?tag=ff0d01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G5BSYYB/?tag=ff0d01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A9F85SO/?tag=ff0d01-20

I believe the first two are full spectrum with 6500k white lights. The last just has the white and blue. Would any of these work?
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
the nicrew Skyled looks better than the beamworks and the nicrew classic.
 

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