How To Plant Plants.

[DiscusKeeper403]

when I get plants from the pet store they come in these little cups with algae all over the bottom of them where the roots are. They algae is green and feels hard and squishey. Last platns i got i juz put in there with the algae on but it doesnt look very nice. What do i do? do i gently take the algae off then set the plant with the roots at the bottom? please help me!


Connor

 

[craynerd]

Hi Conner,

The best way to plant plants is to remove them from the pot.
Was the pot filled with a fibre wool material? If so you need to very gently remove this from around the roots. GENTLE is the key word, the roots are often a fine as hairs.
For stem plants, group your plantlets into 3 or 4s and put them in a few cm`s apart.
For things like amazon swords, then they use the same process but plant all together.
Thats the jist of it anyway.

For any serious planted tank hobbiest, i have realised a pair of long handle tweezers is a MUST!

Chris

 

[Boxermom]

Cut the roots back to about an inch long, as well. For the algae, you can make a bleach bath of 20/1 and dip them in there for a short period of time. Rinse really well in declor water, then just shove them into the substrate.

 

[craynerd]

Personally i don`t know why people advise to cut roots unless they are rotten!

i am not being rude friend, i have heard the same advice given a few times, but I just don`t see the point.
I know with some garden plants you are advised to cut the roots so they grow back stronger but with things like delicate orchids you do not so why should delicate aquatic plants be any different.

A strong plant has strong root growth. Althoug cutting can establish strong root growth, if it already has one in tact then leave it be and let it establish itself.

Would love to hear other peoples views for and against cutting roots....!

Chris

AND lol, again i`m not flaming you at all...but i don`t let bleach of any sort anywhere near my tank, 1/20 diluted or not!!! I know loads of you do and it seems very effective at removing snails and nasties.

 

[Boxermom]

Cutting the roots back encourages growth.

Bleach=chlorine. Guess what declorinator does? I don't use it as a plant dip, too many of my plants are sensitive, but its perfectly fine to use either bleach or Oxyclean to clean a tank. Just rinse it really well with declor.

 

[pseud]

I cut the roots when planting. I like to disturb the substrate as less as possible. So that leaves me with several options when planting stems with long roots.

1) Bundle them into a ball and push into the substrate. I hate doing this. Feels like I'm choking the plant.

2) just push the stem down and leave the roots that don't get down into the substrate to wave in the water. Looks messy

3) Cut the roots off. They're gonna grow back anyway, does no harm.

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Im with Chris, my mind tells me that the roots as they are- are more likely to help the plants acclimatise quicker and give more surface area ( root wise ) for the plant to access trace elements and ammonia NH4, so i leave them but do as Chris suggests.

 

[craynerd]

Cutting the roots back encourages growth.

How do you know that?
With such sensitive plants how do you know it doesn’t shock them and inhibit the initial growth period.

Amano and others leave plants 3-4 weeks to "bed in" and acclimatize before trimming! Surely we should treat the roots with the same respect and not be trimming these at the onset??!

lol, i haven`t a clue, not seen any research or topics elsewhere on the issue....just seems the logical answer to me.

bleach = chlorine

Hardly !!! Sodium Hypochlorite is the active chemical in "house chlorine bleach" but they can include many additives!!

Various other peroxide yielding chemicals are used as bleaching additives. Sodium perborate, sodium percarbonate, sodium persulfate, sodium perphosphate, sodium persilicate, their ammonium, potassium and lithium analogs, calcium peroxide, zinc peroxide, sodium peroxide, carbamide peroxide, and others are commonly used in detergents, toothpastes, and other products.
[from : http/en.wikipedia.org]

I can tell you now, none of them are coming even close to getting in my tank!!
Besides, even if it was pure cholorine, which as discussed above it is not, aquatic declorinators are given for very low chlorine concentrations.

Thats may thoughts on the matter.

Chris

 

[craynerd]

Repeat post deleted....my net connection is going nuts tonight, sorry chaps!

 

[Chris_Wood]

Hi All,

Thought I would give my thoughts as I have published many scientific articles on plant growth (I used to be a senior scientist at Kew Gardens in London)

Cutting roots....


If they are black and clearly dead sure they need to go!.... ...but if OK and not too long I leave mine alone(although roots always get partially damaged in replanting).

I only cut them back if they would really cause too much disturbance to the rest of the tank. This can be an issue as some plants (aquatic lillies for e.g.) can have massive root systems. The roots of one of my lillies pretty much covers the entire bottom of my 33 G tank!

Craynerd - the main reason why orchid roots are not cut is becaue they have a symbiotic relationship with soil bourne fungi and these would also be lost by cutting, in orchids this can be extremly detremental.... ...not sure what this means in relation to aquatic plants.... ...most aquatic plants used in aquaria cannot be considered delicate in nature, in fact the vast majority of them are weeds (which is why it is always so galling to pay over the odds for them).

CW

 

[Liam]

I don’t cut the roots off unless they are bruised or damaged and likely to just start rotting in the substrate. If you look at the roots of an amazon sword, its got two types of roots, the ones closer to the crown are chubbier the longer ones thinner and finer which are the nutrient collectors. The ones close to the crown store food for the plant so if those get cut off when planting it must make it more difficult for the plant to establish and grow. I prefer to plant as gently as possible spreading the roots out, it just makes intuitive sense to me, though I have no evidence to say that root pruning is damaging.
For any plant the disruption of replanting checks growth, so I think as little disturbance as possible gives the plant the best chance.

 

[craynerd]

Thanks for your input Chris, my point of the orchid was that it was a delicate plant, maybe i could have used a better example. Saying that most aquatic plants are weeds whether they can be defined as one or not is a little harsh, try telling me that HC, some rotala sp, didplis d., hairgrass and glosso grow like weeds...i only wish they did. Even """easy growers"", lol, like cabomba are very delicate!!
If they are not delicate why do we bother leaving them for 3 weeks to establish before trimming them ?

Regards

Chris