Ceramic Filter Media as Stem Plant Anchors

[MapleNeil]

Hi, I'm new to this so please go easy on me with this possibly bizarre idea...
I've seen lots of videos about glueing plants down to ornaments or driftwood using superglue.
I am going to try using those ceramic cylinders with the hole in them, put a stem plant through, and glue the stem into the hole. And use this to anchor my Moneywort plants.
Do you think the plant will survive, and will this be successful?

 

[Aiken Drum]

I wouldnt do that to a stem plant. Just plant them in the substrate. I have moneywort, and just plant it.

Glueing plants is normally done to rhyzome plants like java fern or anubias, or mosses.

 

[MapleNeil]

I know its bad form to ask for advice then ignore it, but I had already done it before I asked!

So here are 13 moneywort stems glued into 13 ceramic thingies with holes, covered with a bit of sand. I'll post another picture in a month or so and see if they're still alive

I really like moneywort, but it seems they're always coming out of the sand and floating to the top of the aquarium. I've had enough of that

 

[Aiken Drum]

Its an interesting idea. If it works ok for you, next time i take a cutting from mine to replant, i may give it a go.

 

[Barliman]

I'd be interested to see how well this works. Do report back!

 

[MapleNeil]

It's time for a 1 month update on this experiment

I had a lot of brown algae that grew on the plants, and they got quite tall so I decided to clip them and put the clippings in the background.

8 of the 13 are still there and the clipped stems are producing new leaves. The other 5 broke off and floated away.

 

[KellyKelly]

Hi, I'm new to this so please go easy on me with this possibly bizarre idea...
I've seen lots of videos about glueing plants down to ornaments or driftwood using superglue.
I am going to try using those ceramic cylinders with the hole in them, put a stem plant through, and glue the stem into the hole. And use this to anchor my Moneywort plants.
Do you think the plant will survive, and will this be successful?

That’s a really interesting idea! Let us know how it worked out for you

 

[MapleNeil]

That’s a really interesting idea! Let us know how it worked out for you

I'd say it was more of a failure than a success.

The plants survived and continued to grow, but the part of the stem inside the ceramic was slowly "melting" and eventually it would break off. Another one broke off yesterday, so there are only 7 left out of 13 after 6 weeks. The other 6 broke off and were planted elsewhere just by sticking them in the sand. I'm just more careful not to knock them out now.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Good to know. I took some cuttings myself and tried this about 4 weeks ago. No problems so far. Hopefully i have better success but either way ill let you know how i get on. Ill report back in the new year.

Im presuming there must be a downside otherwise it would be a more common practice. Maybe you discovered the downside.