Wondering if / how you guys train your baby vining plants???
Mine all start out pre rooted in hang on back pots with a handful or ceramic media to hold them in place, I always acquire them in starter pots, mostly because I wanted them faster, than I could get them to root, and start growing ( I do have a Hoya plant we trimmed, from the house plants in the living room, that I started with no roots ) but that adds an extra month or so, to the vigorous growth, I get otherwise… if I’m buying starter pots of plants, I rinse them down to bare roots, before they go into my hang on pots… depending on the plant type, it may sit dormant, before rapid growth begins… but I can pretty much watch daily growth of roots under water a little before the vine starts really putting on length… I have mature Pothos vines ( been in a tank for going on two years, that are growing 6 inches a day ( so I could easily make my own cuttings, if I wasn’t after the jungle effect ) … and I entwine them around things to stray with, bit they’ll find places to grow, on their own, when they are growing at that rate…
But when they are babies they need help staying off the water, until they reach a length that they can either drape over the side, or reach the 1st place you want them to start growing… I used to just take some string, and tie a loose loop around something above the tank, and stuff the end of a vine through the loop, to hold it up temporarily, until it gets it’s legs… but lately, I’ve been using a small long stick, or tool handle to hold it up, and out of the water… putting the stick across the top of my tank keeps the plant close to, but out of the water, speeding it’s growth ( my tanks are almost all open tops ) of course if you have yours covered, they are fine on the cover… adding vines to my tanks, I feel is an extension of the hobby, and good for the fish, and most don’t require any extra fertilizer
Mine all start out pre rooted in hang on back pots with a handful or ceramic media to hold them in place, I always acquire them in starter pots, mostly because I wanted them faster, than I could get them to root, and start growing ( I do have a Hoya plant we trimmed, from the house plants in the living room, that I started with no roots ) but that adds an extra month or so, to the vigorous growth, I get otherwise… if I’m buying starter pots of plants, I rinse them down to bare roots, before they go into my hang on pots… depending on the plant type, it may sit dormant, before rapid growth begins… but I can pretty much watch daily growth of roots under water a little before the vine starts really putting on length… I have mature Pothos vines ( been in a tank for going on two years, that are growing 6 inches a day ( so I could easily make my own cuttings, if I wasn’t after the jungle effect ) … and I entwine them around things to stray with, bit they’ll find places to grow, on their own, when they are growing at that rate…
But when they are babies they need help staying off the water, until they reach a length that they can either drape over the side, or reach the 1st place you want them to start growing… I used to just take some string, and tie a loose loop around something above the tank, and stuff the end of a vine through the loop, to hold it up temporarily, until it gets it’s legs… but lately, I’ve been using a small long stick, or tool handle to hold it up, and out of the water… putting the stick across the top of my tank keeps the plant close to, but out of the water, speeding it’s growth ( my tanks are almost all open tops ) of course if you have yours covered, they are fine on the cover… adding vines to my tanks, I feel is an extension of the hobby, and good for the fish, and most don’t require any extra fertilizer
