Advice on setting up new plant

[Muthafodder]

I normally don't buy plants that don't already have roots, since my last attempt at this failed....roots never developed.

But, I saw this plant at PetSmart the other day and thought it looked pretty cool. It has the metal clamp on the end and the clerk assured me it would take root in time...I'm still skeptical.

I have it planted already, but have since read about not putting the crown in the substrate as it will rot...I guess this is what happened to my last attempt.

So, can someone explain to me what the crown is and just how exactly this should be planted.

Pics or links to pictoral examples would be nice.

Thanks.


It is the plant on the far right:

 

[Sammie7]

That's a stem plant, it doesn't have a crown. What you need to do is strip of the lowest set of leaves, which will give you about and inch of stem that will be under the gravel. Then stick the stems into the gravel. You want to take off the lower set of leaves, so that they don't rot and encourage the whole stem to rot along with it. They should grow roots within a few days.

If the stems don't want to stay down you can float them until they get roots or put the lead plant weight back on it but make sure that the plant weight isn't tight around it so that it crushes the plants stem. Keeping the plants bunched increases the chances the that the stems will rot from lack of light. Remove any dead plant matter(stem or leaf), so it doesn't foul up the tank. It looks like the bottoms are already rotting on the stems, so you will want to remove the stem up until the nearest healthy node. The node is where the leaves form.

 

[Muthafodder]

Thanks for the info!!

I took them out and undid the lead wrap around. I trimmed the leaves at the nodes and put the wrap around back on. You were right, the middle stem was beginning to rot.
Also, what you said makes sense, if you bury the leaves that are bundled as they come from the store, it would rot, thus rotting the stems. I took some more pics of the redo, tell me if it looks better, or if I still need to work on them.
Thanks again

 

[Sammie7]

Looks good. They should be alright now as long as you have enough light in your tank to grow them. Also they might not like being bunched up together so much, as it blocks light from reaching them. A few of them together isn't a problem, but when you have a lot the center stems don't get a lot of light. To solve that problem, you can either get more plant weights and divide up the stems or plant a few of the stems off by themselves and just stick them straight into the gravel. They should be able to stay put without the plant weight. You can also try just leaving it as it is and see how it does.