Dwarf Baby Tears + Others

[Temptress]

I have recently gotten a few plants from ebay, one of them being a potted plant, dwarf baby tears, I am wondering what to do with it? Do you just leave it in the pot? how does it spread to make this "Ground cover" it's little tiny plantlets in there so I guess I can't take it out.. can I? help please!

Also, a few other plants I have are stemmed plants, do you take them out of the "bunch" and plant them separately? one of the plants I got just broke free of the little metal holder and is now floating in my tank.. should I put it back in or do I plant the stems separate?

 

[phanmc]

Dwarf baby tears (HC) should be removed from the pot and then separated into either individual strands or small clumps and then planted using tweezers.

Stem plants can be planted in bunches or individually, it's all up to you.

 

[Temptress]

Good to hear.. I have just some regular walmart bought gravel for that tank.. is that going to be hard to plant those little guys? man I opened up the pot just to try to look at the root system and each one is it's own tiny plant! scary.. but maybe it's just cuz it's my first.. I think they will all be just floating on the top of my tank in no time.. lol Should I get a different kind of substrate? I've already debated on getting sand for this tank anyway.. I could mix sand and this gravel if it would be better for these plants.. ?

 

[phanmc]

The smaller the substrate grain the easier time you'll have to plant it. Mixing sand with gravel will eventually lead to the sand sifting to the bottom with the gravel on top so I'd go with just sand.

I've never been successful growing HC without CO2, so that's something to consider if you aren't injecting CO2 already.

 

[Temptress]

Ah I'm definitely not doing that.. I'm adding some plant ferts and waiting on a cpl grow lights but other than that.. I'm pretty plant newb.

 

[Kashta]

HC (dwarf baby tears) isn't the right kind of plant for a low-tech tank or someone just starting out with live plants for the first time.

Light: High (3WPG+)
Growth: Medium
Difficulty: Advanced

It needs higher light and CO2 to flourish and will benefit greatly from regular fertilizing. Often it is bought growing in its emersed state and therefore it is sometimes difficult to get it established in the aquarium.

http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2006/09/hemianthus-callitrichoides.html

There are a lot of truly amazing things available to us in this hobby. So much so, that it's really hard for a beginner to figure out what is going to work for the conditions they have. It will really help you a LOT to start looking up the care requirements for the plants (and other living things) you decide to get before you buy them. Otherwise, you're just going to get frustrated with this and end up wasting an awful lot of money.

This video will show you how to deal with different type of plants you might receive - from trimming them, removing the rock wool, and some planting tips. At approximately 5 minutes into the video, it shows you how to plant HC.

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[debaric]

bro, I tried dwarf baby tears with great patience and they just didnt work out for me. Not because I dont have the tank setup, but because they are VERY DIFFICULT to keep rooted as their roots are extremely shallow and limited. I also have kind of a light substrate (soilmaster select) so that may have made it worse.