rock wool rant

F

fishorama

AC Members
Jun 28, 2006
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SF Bay area, CA
Ugh! I hate rock wool! I bought 4 potted plants yesterday & have been picking out fibers for a while now, 2 down, 2 to go. Taking a break to let my eyes & neck rest. Swords aren't so bad but trying to tease out the rock wool from crypts without damaging too many roots or tiny offsets is a major PITA.

I don't like to leave it though I know some do. I worry about it irritating my digging fish like fiberglass insulation.

Back to work, pick, rinse, pick, rinse, using a toothpick for the tiny leftovers. Thanks for letting me complain.
 
Agreed. the stuff is nasty. Hairgrass may be the ultimate PITA plant to extricate from rockwool, or if not then possibly HC. Can't believe there is no other material they could use as plant-growing base.

Finely ground cardboard? Lint? Actual dirt? You could pull the pot off, drop the plants in a bowl of water, swish around and the material would just fall off leaving the roots exposed. You would still have a lot of inter-tangling no doubt but still a lot easier to deal with than what we have now. First plant-breeding operation that comes up with such a material is going to make a large ton of money with this product.

/need emotie for "Grump, I say! Grump!"
 
Done! The last 2 weren't so bad, mainly because the crypt ciliata didn't have too many roots :thumbsdown:. Oh well they were only $2 each because the far LFS doesn't know emmersed from submersed growth & think they're dying, so worth a shot. Plus I'd never seen c.ciliata or c.undulata before, wish me luck!
 
Its okay to trim the roots on the crypts pretty drastically, and that makes the job a lot easier (especially if they are already melting). Just don't cut the meaty rhizome part, and you'll be fine. Whenever I move them from one tank to another I always trim the roots down to about 1.5-2" just to make planting easier and I never have a problem aside from a couple leaves melting- which happened even before I knew I could trim it, and used to move the whole mess.
 
Thanks Turbo. I know there will be meltage with crypts but Dang! I don't like losing lots of healthy roots or baby offsets. I try to plant some in 2 different tanks to optimize growth possibilities...you know what I mean...light & substrate etc...Accidentally smunged a new leaf/rhizome on the sparse c.ciliata, fingers crossed for it.
 
Sometimes when I get frustrated, I go postal on the roots. They seem to recover fine, though, like Turbosaurus said: Leave the rhizome alone and about 1.5-2" of roots.
 
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