My plants come in today. Whats the best way to plant?

[PUNISHER VETTE]

I have a java fern and some micro swords for sure. Probably pick up 2 amonzon swords later as well.

I hear the moss should stick to wood but how do i attach it? Any trick to any of these plants?

[nanaglen2001]

To fix Javafern on something, fishing line is a perfect choise. Its almost invisible and it behaves like a normal cord. And its absolutely safe cause it wont leak any poisonous stuff into the water.

[smaug]

there are no real tricks to it,like andrea said use fishing line or black thread for the fern.for the swords trim alot of the long white roots from them back to where you have 3/4" of roots,dig a hole with your fingers and plant past where the stems branch ,after you have it where you want it then gently pull plant back up to where the stems branch and leave that above gravel.for a week or so just make sure that it doesnt lift out of its hole.The reason you trim its roots are to help encourage new stronger root growth.For the micro sword dont trim so much they are difficult to keep planted.If you get them in 2-3" clumps you will want to break them up and plant them in little 1" plugs about 2" apart if you want them to form a lawn.Good luck.

[CAF]

LOL looks like you guys have it handled....

All good info by the way.

[markbob]

For the micro swords, be real careful when pulling the rock wool off. That rock wool by the way is a great medium to throw in your filter to host bacteria. Then when you or one of your friends sets up a new tank you can just pull some of that rockwool out and start the cycle.:22:

[PUNISHER VETTE]

Well the java fern must be coming tomorrow. I picked up some amazon swords at the local pet shop and placed them in. They might not looks great so we'll see if they make it.

They came with about 5 little tiny bulbs. I'm guessing each will grow its own plant but i want a nice big one in the middle so i stuck 3 together there. Is this a bad thing?

I saw no possible way to get all the wool out from the microswords. I ended up breaking the bundle appart into 6 groups and getting as much of the wool out as possible without getting roots. I then planted them wool and all. In the pic should i keep breaking them up into even tinier pieces? I want it to look like grass.

I'm going to change the layout of the other 4 plants i have and the wood so i can fit more big stuff in the back.
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[smaug]

Im guessing the bulbs you got are some sort of apongentum.For the best chance of having them sprout take them from your tank,place them in a shallow pan{2"],place in a warm place witha little liquid fert and wait,if after a week they have not sprouted this way they probably wont.Let the ones that do sprout get an inch or so of growth without messing with them,then carefully plant them sprout up being careful to not touch the sprout at all.If you have clumsy fish,take a small flat stone and shield the bulb from being moved ,they are very fragile at first.BTW,I dont think its agood idea to plant the bulbs together.

[PUNISHER VETTE]

Im guessing the bulbs you got are some sort of apongentum.For the best chance of having them sprout take them from your tank,place them in a shallow pan{2"],place in a warm place witha little liquid fert and wait,if after a week they have not sprouted this way they probably wont.Let the ones that do sprout get an inch or so of growth without messing with them,then carefully plant them sprout up being careful to not touch the sprout at all.If you have clumsy fish,take a small flat stone and shield the bulb from being moved ,they are very fragile at first.BTW,I dont think its agood idea to plant the bulbs together.


my bad. By bulbs i mean a chunk of roots balled up together. They aren't "bulbs" but round things that looked like bulbs. They had roots so i planted them.

[smaug]

thats ok.BTW your tank looks good,the micro sword will spread,it froms runners and will eventually come up all over.You can carefully transplant it as well.I dont think it should be trimmed though,I tried that and soon it was all dead.I thought it was actually a grass,that was a year ago.

[KcEE]

Your tank is looking good. Be sure to put up some pics after you attach the java fern...I might want to do that as well! Hee hee...