thoughts on my current plants needing root fertilizer…

[Magnum Man60 174]

I really typically like rhizome plants, as aquatic plants in my aquariums… but I’m branching out ( sorry, plant pun ) this is some generic Amazon sword, I got from the local pet store, a few weeks ago… no ID tag… how often does something like this require new / more fertilizer??? this one is in a small 4 inch resin pot that looks like a stump… it has a center hole on the bottom, over which I placed a fertilizer tab, then placed the roots of the plant directly on top of it, and filled the pot with gravel substrate it’s showing new vibrant leaves, so I think it likes it… the house plants had a stick you pushed into the dirt, for root feeding, but I don’t think I’ve seen aquarium safe sticks… if / when it’s ready for new / more fertilizer, I’d probably remove the pot, dump out it’s contents , and do the same original procedure again, but some plants don’t like being repotted… if this works out, I could see myself with several stump pots of rooted plants… suggestions on how you maintain them??? I typically don’t fertilize… but I had these tabs left over from my 1st water lily attempt, several years ago…

my current sword…

 

[fishorama53]

I'm not a great fertilizer, I try for every 3-4 months. But I see your sword is in a very small pot, I think it will be stunted (not necessarily a bad thing). I have had swords' root spread 3ft x 1.5ft in a 4ft tank with ~2 inches of substrate

 

[GaryE20 18]

Whatever root tab you use, in a pot like that it'll be right in the roots. With many plants, that's not great, as they are better reaching for the ferts. I'd use the tabs you have and see how it goes. I replace tabs about every 3 months.

I started adding liquid ferts to a couple of tanks recently, to grow more guppy grass. It has worked, but you should see what it's done to the emergent plants. They like it. I think because I'm a fish first guy, my water can be stripped of plant nutrients by the number of changes I do.

 

[Magnum Man60 174]

reading up on cooler water plants, and that took me to a couple “ stem” plants, particularly Ludwigia repens… and brings me to my caffeine thought of the day… being a fish first aquarist, I see these colorful plants, and they look nice, however with colorful fish, I prefer green plants, so not to compete with the colors in the fish… with a base silver fish, the colorful plants might be better, so to me, the fish choice determines what I’m putting in the tank for plants…

to go back to my original thread topic… has anyone planted Val’s in a pot for ease of maintenance and fertilization??? I did, years ago, where I put some val’s in pots, with capped black dirt, and the old house softened water, and they grew well, but the angel fish kept nipping them off, at the crown, and they eventually died… I was using squat glass jars with no drain hole, as I was trying to contain the black dirt… I’m thinking of trying them again, with the stump pots, root tabs and gravel method shown in the 1st post… thoughts???

 

[Magnum Man60 174]

BTW…. I have a Cryptocoryne usteriana coming this week, that I plan to use this same method, and while several of these plants won’t take the cooler over wintering in my 3 season porch tank, having them in the pots like I’m doing, should allow me to move them into a tropical hard water tank during the winter, and move them back to the cool water tank, during the summer, when that tank reaches tropical temperatures