Planting Bacopa (and Other Stems)

[mossonthemoon]

I just got a couple dozen stems of bacopa, and none of them have roots. Should I cut a bit off the bottom of the plants before planting them? I realise I will be battling with them for quite a while to stay in the sand, but have never really been clear on whether to just chuck them in or cut the bottoms off as I would if they were cut flowers. They are floating in a bucket right now, waiting to be cleared of any brown (though it doesn't look like they have much if any).

 

[coolie]

I have never cut stems before planting, but who knows? Maybe they should be. Here's a tip for planting single stems into substrate in an existing setup; poke about 1cm of the stem
into the end of a 3ft bamboo stick (from the garden or a potted plant), then holding the plant along the legnth of the bamboo stick, move the stick through the water to
the desired location and simply push it gently into the gravel. Works for me.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Have a look here.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I usually trim then if they have sprouted at least 1 root from the stem. Then I tied them to a small rock and jam it into the gravel. Mine wilt for about 24 hours then start perking up and have always been fine after that.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thanks for the advice! They are floating right now. I will try a few methods I think, since I have so many stems.

Have a look [url="[/url]

And thank you for that link. I was looking last night for something like this, but didn't find it. It doesn't say whether or not to trim the ends, but all but a couple ends of the stems looked very healthy last night so I don't think I will. A couple were a bit brown, so I just took that part off.

 

[slimeneo]

If they aren't brown, you don't need to cut it. I have some in my tank as well and I find that you need a decent amount of light and co2 if possible. If they don't get enough light it will start turning brown on the bottom.