Oh lord help me plant these- (similar to "Baby Tears&qu

[plecoperson]

Now, I'm not much of a drinker. On holidays I'll have a glass of champagne. I just poured myself a strong one, after spending an hour trying to properly plant some corkscrew val, pygmy chain sword, and crypts.

I have a good 2-3" of EcoComplete as a substrate. Used fingers-"too big", I thought. Got my handy angled forceps out of the cake-decorating box. Tried essentially burying the plant and then gently pulling it to the right level, roots happily trailing. Tried excavating a hole and "kicking" substrate over the roots with a finger. Not so much good. Tried sorta dragging the unfortunate plant through the gravel, hoping roots would be covered. Ripped out hair.

I had to stop before I killed them all with manhandling. I need tips, secrets, or to be told to stick to java fern on driftwood....

 

[dapellegrini]

lol

If the plants are in good shape before you start, they will take a fair amount of punishment while planting. I have been guilty of almost all of the maneuvers you describe above (never tried cake forceps -- ?), with no longterm ill effects to the plants.

Val and Crypt can have tons of roots. I push them in at a down/sideways kinda angle (maybe like 60-degree angel or so). Then I just push in whatever roots were trailing as best I can. Sometimes you can't get it all in the substrate. The more important thing is once you have chosen a spot for these plants, to leave them there. They will establish a firm hold overtime and do not like to be moved.

From what I have heard, these plants have strong root systems to anchor themselves in high-current rivers in their natural environments.

As long as you did not leave them floating, and don't pull off all the "white stuff" like my son once did for me, they should be fine. Actually even my val that had its roots pulled off rebounded well.

 

[plecoperson]

Feeling a little better now, knowing the plants might survive my "care." If not, perhaps I'll try that root-removal thing next time. Easier to plant!!

Thank you!!

 

[fish 'n' fries]

LOL...I very much sympathize. My baby tears experience was also my first time planting in Eco...which did not help. I found that using my fingers worked best for me (tweezers seemed to require way more dexterity than I have). I had the best luck pushing down/back, making sure my fingers were toward the unplanted area (otherwise I was just bumping the already planted plants out of the very light Eco).

Plants are amazingly sturdy generally though...don't resort to just java fern! My crypts, vals and pygmy swords in my community tank not only survived my planting techniques, but fairly routine uprooting by the pleco before they were thoroughly rooted... Good luck.

 

[fish_4_all]

I have pearlweed and it was a royal pain toget it to take root. It has finally taken root after I took some of the longer stems and buried them from the middle out leaving the ends above the substrate. Might work for you with baby tears.

 

[Purrbox]

One thing that helps is if you get a crypt or other plant with an extremely large root system, go ahead and trim the roots back. This will make it easier to get the plants were you want with all the roots covered and will encourage new root growth so that they anchor themselves sooner. For example I've had crypts with roots in excess of 4" on a medium to small plant. I trimmed the roots back to about 2" and they did fine.

 

[plecoperson]

I stopped at the liquor store, then forced myself to plant the other tank tonight.

Purrbox-I did finally realize that it wasn't probly necessary to get every single root in the substrate, and got my little scissors. That made it much easier....

dapellegrini:

I push them in at a down/sideways kinda angle (maybe like 60-degree angel or so).

And the angle was key-much more successful than perpendicular.

I forgot to mention that I am doing all this in 5-gallon tanks that already have some plants in them, so extra fun to work in.

Oh, it also helped to stand up when planting; I thought sitting next to the tank would make it easier to see what I was doing, but really standing is the way to go.

Thanks to all for your advice--

The completely sober,

-Lisa