Plant Bulbs from Walmart

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ringfinger

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
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Location
Cedar City, UT
Has anyone had any luck with them? I bought two packages which contained about 8 bulbs total, but only ONE sprouted after a month. Not too reliable in my opinion. Of course, you can return them to the company for a free replacement if you care to take the time.
 
I have a lot of luck with those bulbs, which come from aquariumplants.com btw.

If you have insufficient lighting, CO2, or less than ideal water parameters, they won't sprout.

Also keep in mind that when Wal-Mart orders from distributors, they order for EVERY store in the country to get the best discount. This means they tend ot have lots of warehouse backstock which can take forever to get used up. In other words, your bulbs could have been over a year old, and stored under bad conditions (dry, cold warehouse) which made them duds.
Next time you might just wanna order them direct...but you have to get 2 packs...that's just how they sell them.
 
I've bought them and all of them sprouted. I believe it says they are guaranteed to sprout after 21 days? I can't remember but, some of mine took much longer than that. I just left them go and they eventually popped.
 
I've had a few that didnt sprout, but the ones that did grew like weeds once I upgraded the lighting. I could make a mark on the tank and literally watch the plant grow past the mark. I've seen it grow a half an inch an hour and in two days there were flowers opening at the tanks surface. This was shortly before I mived and had to tear it down, but I would have quickly become overgrown had I let them go. I havent gotten any more for the new tank...Those long stems that flower at the surface just didnt appeal to me.
 
I bought one pack that contained about 8-10 bulbs, labeled "Hybrid Aponogeton Bulbs" at Wal-Mart. I've had about 75% success rate with them sprouting and all those that sprouted are growing decently in "poor" tank conditions - in one tank they are in <1" plain coated gravel with about 1wpg and have been growing slowly but steadily for the past 6 months with no CO2 or ferts added.

I have always buried the bulbs just under the surface, otherwise my Goldfish would dig them up. Actually, they still dig them up, but I would just keep burying them until they finally took root. I found it was best to bury them "sideways" since the roots and leaves seem to come out of the same end.
 
I bought the lilly bulbs from walmart and there was only 3 bulbs in the package. There were 2 big bulbs and a small shriveld bulb. Ends up, the 2 big bulbs were total duds, and the small bulb has been in my tank now for 2 months and is showing signs of growth. I can see the leaves and roots coming out of it. I have anacharis and hornwort growin wild in my tank, and this bulb just doesn't seem to want to grow. I didn't bother sendind back the dud bulbs because it wasn't worth the money to spend to send them back.
 
I have had good luck with the apons in my tank. I sent back the ones that were duds (for the price of a stamp) and they send me back three times as many.

I like them because I am paranoid about introducing snails into my tank. That and they are cheap.
 
the only thing that happened with the 4 i got from wallmart was after a few months my lobster walked around at night and dug up all the duds for me and ate the roots off them. they hadn't grown at all anyway so i didn't mind him doing the digging for me.

-Jim
 
I have had 50% luck from them. i have two very nice "arrowhead" plants from them. they grow large. one shoot always grows to the top of the water.
 
I have had really good growth from them. My sister did to, and she just planted them in regular old epoxy gravel and they sprouted like weeds.Usually theres a dud or two in each pack, but the company will replace them and theyre hell of cheap
 
I've had two varieties of those "Wal-Mart" bulbs in my tank for about two and a half weeks with no sign of growth. My green severum likes to forage around in the substrate, and I know the bulbs have been tossed around quite a bit. I guess I had attributed all the rough handling to the lack of growth, but it's nice to hear I'm not alone in my struggle with these particular bulbs.

A few of you said that it took quite a while for your bulbs to sprout, so hopefully mine still will. Otherwise, like it was stated, the bulbs are guaranteed and I can just send them back.
 
The bulbs i got for my wife took a long time to sprout in her betta tank. I bet a month to even start growing, but then look out they go nuts ! I was/am very happy with them ! So is the betta ! And a happy betta is a happy wife :) Makes a happy firefighter hah...
 
I bought some of the lily bulbs from Walmart and it took a little over 3 months for it to sprout, but now it seems to be growing very well and much faster than I expected.
 
Lance M. said:
I bought some of the lily bulbs from Walmart and it took a little over 3 months for it to sprout, but now it seems to be growing very well and much faster than I expected.

Hey I bought hybrid aponogeton bulbs 3 days ago and they are showing their roots anyways they are in with angelfish and they don't seem to mind the bulbs but what I'm askin is can 3 angelfish and a pleco go with it plz tell me
 
I got them too but nothing sprouted so I just toss them away...it rotted in my tank...so it actually raised my ammonia level, once it was gone, the tank was fine...so i think it's hit or miss...
 
daileene said:
I got them too but nothing sprouted so I just toss them away...it rotted in my tank...so it actually raised my ammonia level, once it was gone, the tank was fine...so i think it's hit or miss...

Did u bury them it says to but don't bury them
 
I bought 2 packs of the Aponogeton bulbs and 1 pack of the Lily bulbs. After a month, only one of the Aponogeton bulbs has germinated.
 
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