Planting plants

[Missladybug77]

I have put off planting live plants long enough and found some nice water sprites at the lfs. I have the lighting for it but have no idea as to planting it. It is in a little black bucket with some sort of spongy material around it. Does it come out of the pot or do I leave it in? I do have plant weights if I need them. The roots are also pretty long and stick out of the bottom. Can these be cut back or do they just grow wild? Any help would be wonderful!
I do regret not getting live plants sooner as the fish love the water sprite plant

 

[mfdrookie516]

Carefully take it out of the pot and just shove the roots down in the substrate. If you break them, they'll grow back. You could trim them off, but I don't see a reason to.

 

[BigJim]

Water sprite is pretty tough. Like mfd said, pull the plant out of the pot, pull the rock wool away from the roots, and put the roots in the substrate. If you break a stem, stick the end in the substrate and it'll grow.

 

[Missladybug77]

Thanks for the help! At the next pwc I'll unpot them and stick them in the substrate. I might just stick with the water sprite as the fish do love it a lot! Any ideas on a small yet bushy type plant that would look great in the foreground? We have a bubble volcano and an actual real plant would look great by it.

 

[BigJim]

Crypt Parva maybe? It's tiny and a slow grower, but a potted plant is usually pretty bushy.

 

[Ches]

I grow water sprite with its look-alike - water wisteria, which resembles it but has wider, bigger leaves. They go well together and grow really fast & get bushy like a shrub. =)