Stem plants - argh!

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trennamw

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Apr 2, 2014
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Portland, OR
One LFS told me to remove the plant weights or the stems would rot, another said yes they're frustrating without the plant weights.

I have tried to get individual stems to stay down for a month and, though they are often growing roots, they keep coming up (and getting their leaves mangled in the filter intake).

So what's the story on planting these?


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the weights will rot the plant?
I havent read that anywhere and in fact most of my reading so far has said to use the weights on things like the wisteria. If you go to the store they are all weighted and sit there forever until someone buys them.

That sounds weird.
 
What plants? Substrare? Depth?

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I have noticed people say that as well, but i don't think it has any merit. I plant a lot of plants, especially in my container pond, with weights attached. Makes it a lot easier for them to stay in place and also they are easier to harvest.
 
I have trouble planting two stem plants. Wisteria, stuff can't stay down and also my giant baby tears doesn't like to root strongly
 
Cabomba, brazilian pennywort, and something I think is willow hygro.

Substrate is gravel and sand. Several inches deep, I pushed individual stems down about a half inch. Sometimes when the hygro pops up it has made roots but the bottom of the stem is black and smelly. The plants seem fine so my guess was this is just the way it self prunes what it doesn't need.


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Are you using plant tweezers or hand/fingers? Sometimes I zip tie a few stems together...helps keep them down....tweezers help too.


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Best to plant stems individually. Leaves not quite touching. Otherwise they shade each other out and the lower stems look straggly.

I use sand and tweezers and my stems usually stay down. Hmmm ?



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No no tweezers. How deeply should individual stems go?


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I use tweezers and plant the stems about 1" or more deep in the substrate (I'm using EcoComplete).


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With stems, if you leave a few leaves on there and push them down into the substrate they'll anchor on the own, i usually push them in about an inch as well. It could be a light issue if they're rotting out. I have bacopa in with ludwiga, I've let the Ludwiga go nuts in hopes of suckling up nutrients and starving this darn clado that's plaguing my tank (fish love it, I'm aesthetically selfiish) anyways.. the bacopa being shaded is literally dropping it's lower leaves and rotting, it was growing like a weed prior to be over shaded by larger ludwiga leaves.

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Ahhhh thanks Brookster. I was pulling off the lower leaves.

The rotting is just like ... I bury it 1" and when it comes up the bottom 1/16th" is black and smelly. The plants above look fine, despite my pushing it with the light level.


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I'm old fashioned and I use my hands. I've never really had a problem. I usually stick each stem down around an inch into the substrate, and scoop a little bit of substrate around it, like a little hill. It takes practice.

Also, take the stem and actually push it down. Like push from the top a little bit. For more solid stem plants it helps a lot.
 
I wouldn't worry about it, the bottoms will sometimes rot off a little bit. It's self regulating, the roots only come out of certain parts of the stem (usually below each leaf/branch area).
 
That's what I was hoping ... That the rotting is no biggie. And I wouldn't even know about it if the durned things would stay put.


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