Advice needed for planting "Dwarf Baby Tears"

**bairwin** · 03-27-2010, 04:32 PM

Hello. I'm reasonably new to planted aquariums and I need some advice on planting "Dwarf Baby Tears" (Hemianthus Callitrichoides). I received a bunch yesterday and I want to plant them tonight. The plants are in small pots and rooted in rock wool. What is the best way to plant them? Do you try to pull them out of the rock wool? Do you separate the pot into several portions or can you plant the entire pot as one piece? The rock wool/pot is approx 1.5" deep - do you cut off most of this wool first before planting? ........ Basically I'm clueless.....any and all advice would be appreciated along with any tips on caring for them and making them grow well. Thank you very much!

**wlepse** · 03-28-2010, 02:04 AM

I am just learning myself but found this page that goes over potted plants.http://www.aquariumplants.com/Articles.asp?ID=111

**Jacko** · 03-28-2010, 03:18 AM

I would leave it in the pot for another 2 or 3 weeks to make sure that it was grown sumberged, dwarf baby tears (HC) is commonly grown emersed because it grows much faster that way and having it melt off isn't unheard of when an emersed plant is submerged, if it does start melting away then leave it be...
if your lighting is good it should come back and then you'll want to take it out of the rockwool and plant it into the substrate... HC has shallow roots so use a tweezer and it should pull right out of the rockwool without a problem, if you plant small sprigs every few inches it will fill in alot faster than if you were to plant the whole mass of it.