Getting seeds to stick

[nirbhao]

Hello,

A few weeks ago I was looking at plants at Petco. One of the employees (I am pretty sure he's a manager) gavemg me some of the ugly plants to "nurse back to health."

I'm pretty good with container plants and trees, but rhizomes are a whole new ball game. Most of the plants are doing fine, but not the ....um.... this one:



The rhizome was rotten, and I had hoped I'm could encourage the healthy leaves to drop new roots. Nope. As you can see, the stems are starting to rot.

I've been removing the little baby plants and setting them up to grow on their own. These guys:



I don't want to leave these leaves in my aquarium any longer, because I started to see some planaria. I don't want the seeds to go to waste, though.



I am a ceramist and have some bisque fired stoneware that would make a neat hardscape base. It would be really great if I could attach the seeds so that they grow directly on it.

If I can do that, how?

If I can't, how can I grow these seeds?

Thank you very much!

 

[traceyrollin]

Hhmm. Intersting. Youre sure those are seeds? If they are yeay! Because i have a plant like that and it has those on there! So my step mom works with ceramics... she said what she would do is take a small drill like a dremel and make small pockets to slide the seeds into. Like golf ball dents. And then use a little bit of maybe some sort of nontoxic sticky stuff to secure them... what to use i have no idea. Or you could just use a piece of flat stoneware and nust lay them in there out of the way of any heavy current and wait for them to sprout and then stand it up!

 

[traceyrollin]

Maybe wrap it in some filter media mess bag material? Thats what i would do. And id put some holes all the way through so tbey have places to grab onto then the roots start to grow.

 

[nirbhao]

take a small drill like a dremel and make small pockets to slide the seeds into. Like golf ball dents. And then use a little bit of maybe some sort of nontoxic sticky stuff to secure them..

Like a DIY chia pet!

Except instead of terracotta, I'm using fully vitrified stoneware.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Holes for the roots is a good idea.

 

[nirbhao]

I decided that I wanted something that actually looks like a tree, so I've been building. I made some little caves, but I'm far more excited about the trees. I want to attach plants so that they look like they have leaves. I'm thinking of some sgraffito to give the roots something to hold on to.




These are hand built, although I do want to throw something. It's been a while since I've thrown because of a wrist injury.

This is stoneware that I will fire to 1300° C, so it will be completely inert. If I glaze them, it will be with food safe glazes, so they won't leech any chemicals into the water.

Right now my goal is to determine which plants I want to use and how to attach them.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Looking good! Can't wait to see them in the aquarium!

 

[nirbhao]

Thank you!