Petco Sealed Plants

[Rokuzachi]

Sorry if someone has posted this before - but has anyone seen/tried these out yet?

Now, I'm not really a fan of Petco, but they sell Prime and are half a block away from my apartment. I hadn't been there for a while, and the other day I found these on the shelf. Seemed kind of cool. I might give them a trial run in my new 56g setup and see if they're worth anything (I sort of feel like a plant is a plant, as long as it doesn't die in short order it's probly fine, lol).

Would be nice to have some place so close by to get plants that I have a hard time finding elsewhere.

 

[Zimmanski]

They're about 50/50 I guess, most of the time the ones I see for sale are almost too far damaged to recover but I have bought these a few times. I like the tube plants better

 

[Mebbid]

Those are a good source of plants. The only problem is they they are grown emersed which leaves the plants unsuited for water. When you place them in the aquarium they will tend to melt and die until they adjust to being underwater. I bought Water wisteria, dwarf hairgrass, and an Amazon sword. They have all finally melted back and are growing with a vengeance now and all look great. One big change that I noticed is that the leaves will change shape from what I originally bought.

So if you buy them and notice they look like they are dying, just wait it out they are probably just adjusting.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Alright, cool! Thanks for the heads up. Now I just need to find ones that I know my fish won't make a meal out of.

 

[JesseMessykinn]

I got a plant that was in one of those tubes before. It came with 3 different stalks, They seems to go quite well in my tank, no longer have them tho.

 

[Zimmanski]

The tube plants are really pretty awesome. I bought two tubes of the hydrophila corymbosa labeled as "compacta", the stalks were two or three inches tall and now they're my background plant in this tank, all sprouted a ton of daughter plants and grew to about 16".

 

[eAts]

I've used the plants from those packages as long as they looks good. I just put them in maybe two weeks ago so I haven't seen tons of growth yet. I bought some sort of rotala and some moneywort I don't have the package in front of me for the rotala. If they look good, give them a shot

 

[Rokuzachi]

Very nice greenery Zimmanski!

Funny you should mention that plant, I'm looking to replace some of mine that has been eaten into submission and doesn't seem to want to recover. I'll have to give the tubes a good look when I'm there next time.

Maybe I'll walk down there today and grab a few plants for the new tank.

 

[jetajockey]

The plants that come in those little plastic pouches are tissue culture plants. That's basically where they take a piece of a plant, sterilize it, then introduce a growth enhancer so that it spawns tons of plants off of that initial piece. They are grown in a sterile agar culture usually with a mixture of vitamins and nutrients.

If you can find them in good shape, they are actually a great deal. Pretty expensive, but you get a ton of plants for the price.

 

[Fresh2o]

The plants that come in those little plastic pouches are tissue culture plants. That's basically where they take a piece of a plant, sterilize it, then introduce a growth enhancer so that it spawns tons of plants off of that initial piece. They are grown in a sterile agar culture usually with a mixture of vitamins and nutrients.

If you can find them in good shape, they are actually a great deal. Pretty expensive, but you get a ton of plants for the price.

Oh, so that's what that stuff is (agar). I had purchased some Bacopa caroliniana in one of those pouches and had to rinse off the gel. I used to work in a lab once so it looked vaguely familiar. The Bacopa did not melt but the newer leaves are much larger than the leaves at the time of purchase.

 

[tarheel92]

I've gotten some tubed anubias and java fern from petsmart/petco and they all took off. The Java fern had at least 10 plantlets before I got rid of it.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Hah, cool. I didn't realize it was agar (yum!).

 

[Rokuzachi]

Well, the Hygro was pretty sad looking. Lots of brown squishiness. Being the impulsive person I am, I bought something anyways!

In hindsight, I really didn't need a sword. Probably really really didn't. Oh well. Life's an adventure!

 

[Fresh2o]

Well, the Hygro was pretty sad looking. Lots of brown squishiness. Being the impulsive person I am, I bought something anyways!

In hindsight, I really didn't need a sword. Probably really really didn't. Oh well. Life's an adventure!

What kind of sword is that? By the looks of the paper towel, they look pretty big or have the potential to get big.

 

[Rokuzachi]

What kind of sword is that? By the looks of the paper towel, they look pretty big or have the potential to get big.

The packaging said Echinodorus argentinensis, but I don't know if I can trust it

The towel was folded up, so they aren't quite as big as they look, the tallest one is ~6" from tip to tip.

 

[Zimmanski]

The packaging said Echinodorus argentinensis, but I don't know if I can trust it

The towel was folded up, so they aren't quite as big as they look, the tallest one is ~6" from tip to tip.

Looks like argentine sword to me too, I had some in the past and loved them, kinda miss them now to tell the truth