View Full Version : how to plant plants with no roots
CHINABOY1021
08-11-2003, 6:53 PM
got some plant clippings from a fellow aquarist. 1 is water sprite. other is some fluffy plant that looks like cabomba. anyways, how can i plant these since they dont have roots? should i just leave them at the surface until they get roots? thanks
Anaxus
08-11-2003, 7:10 PM
Maby tie them to a rock. I have a anubias nana attached to a rock with a rubber band till it forms roots.
Just let the water sprite float until some roots form and stuff it into the substrate. Watch out though cause if you let it grow for too long on the surface it looks really different and won't grow straight in the tank. Water Sprite works well as both a floater and planted. A great easy plant to grow. And all you have to do is cut off mature leaves to make more plants.
Sorry I don't know about the other plant.
carpguy
08-11-2003, 7:47 PM
You're probably better off letting the watersprite float for a bit. It'll get a little weird, but it should grow roots or send off plantable daughters.
A regular stem type plant, just stick the stem in the substrate (clean off enough leaves so you can get enough stem into the substrate, you want one node buried).
CHINABOY1021
08-11-2003, 8:38 PM
will the water sprite rot if i stick em in the gravel? the stem part?
carpguy
08-11-2003, 8:59 PM
When I got my first watersprite (when I really had no idea what I was doing), it did ok planted. It wasn't a clipping. It wasn't thriving in very mediocre newb conditions.
After I had some idea what I was doing (still learning), I planted another whole plant, it thrived and throws off daughter plants at an astonishing rate. I must toss a half a dozen a week. These detach from the main plant and float, apparently until they find somewhere to put down roots (in nature). It can be perfectly happy as a floater or planted.
It seems to me that I've read somewhere along the line that it has a slight preference for the floating state, and sometimes weathers any adjustment period a little better if its allowed to float.
I've had parts of plants breakoff and form odd whorls where they don't really have a direction, just a center. Once they get to this state I think they're pretty much floaters and you'd have to wait for plantlets to actually plant.
HTH
They won't rot. Just stick them in. Water sprite throws roots really fast, and will also throw roots all along its stem as well. It is a plant that can be left for a wild look or needs to be pruned and trimmed a lot for a more cultured look.
cpr4cpu
08-12-2003, 11:33 AM
your fluffy plant might not be a rooted plant, but instead will grow 'anchors' like anacharis. They don't grow roots, but rather long tendrils that fasten it to the subtrarte, the rocks, or whatever else it can attach to ...