View Full Version : Java Fern in substrate???
Ryan45
03-06-2005, 5:50 PM
Can you plant are Java Fern in the substrate?
Leopardess
03-06-2005, 7:05 PM
No. The roots can grow into it, but the rhizome (the thick tube-y part) cannot be, or the plant will rot.
Ryan45
03-06-2005, 7:32 PM
I don't get it? Could you show me a picture?
WinterWind
03-06-2005, 7:41 PM
I'm not sure if you can do that, but you might if you don't bury the rhizome into the gravel.
WinterWind
03-06-2005, 7:42 PM
The rhizome looks like a root. It's a horizontal bar that the stems grow off of.
Lauren
03-06-2005, 9:13 PM
I don't see why setting it on the gravel, or planting it shallowly would be much different than setting it on a rock or driftwood.
I have several pieces in my tanks that I have planted like this. So far so good.
Leopardess
03-06-2005, 9:53 PM
You can set it on the gravel, but if the rhizome gets buried, 95% of them die. The roots themselves are fine in substrate, but not the rhizome. Its different than on a rock, for instance, because the rhizome isn't covered with dirt on a rock.
SnakeIce
03-07-2005, 6:49 PM
I have found that if you have really small peices and try to grow them bigger on the gravel that they tend to try to hug the surface and end up growing funny shaped and not straight across the gravel.
when I finally got some drift wood to put mine on some of the peices had grown like curly fries on the gravel and I wasn't able to put them on the wood.
Signus
03-08-2005, 2:19 AM
What's even more radical looking is when you just let them grow into a free-floating ball that races around the tank on the current. (I don't suggest this since the leaves never grow to full length and the roots tend to give up and die about 2 or so inches out.)
Robert H
03-08-2005, 3:37 AM
The roots are meant to be only anchors for the plant to attach to wood or rock. If you bury it, the rhizome gets cut off from oxygen and will rot. When this happens the plant dies. It will take some time for it to happen, but it will happen eventually.
The risk of rot is real and valid, but gravel is small rock and the holdfasts ("roots", which they are not quite) will attach perfectly well if you have a technique for holding it in place without burying the rhizome (I use hairpins) and if there are no fish in the tank which will disturb it while it develops the holdfasts. It can be used as a non-rock, non-wood plant, but it is a very slow process and very much dependent on the patience of the hobbyist and the nature of the tank inhabitants.
bigwater
03-09-2005, 5:56 AM
I have grown java fern in gravel and have had good luck. I started with 2 small plants 10 years ago and I throw some out regularly because it reproduces often. It seems fine for me. Maybe what I have is something different? I would post a pic, but I have not figured out how to do that yet.
Robert H
03-09-2005, 8:08 AM
Well it depends on how laiden your gravel is with silt and mulm. If your gravel is clean and the fern is not buried too deep, then it may be OK, but over time most peoples gravel becomes muck, and while plants that have real roots love it, it is the death for ferns. Rhizomes can rot even above gravel if they get covered in muck.
Robert H has a point, but then rocks and wood can also collect mulm - that is an upkeep issue, not a Java Fern issue.