# Darn Stem Plants! How do you keep them in the substrate?



## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

Well just like the title says... How do you keep the darn things planted? I get them planted, they look great and then a few days later they start to be uprooted and float on the top. I then replant and they wait the few days before popping out again. After uprooting and replanting enough, the roots are generally shot and the whole works needs to get tossed out. What am I doing wrong???


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## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

well you could possibly have an animal in the aquarium thats uprooting them like a large fish or something that borrows like a Khuli loach or something like that....

if thats not it then honestly thats just something that stem plant groweres eventually learn how to handle them! Most of my plants are stem plants in a sand substrate and its very difficult (since they dont have roots yet and im working with rotala indica (very very very thin stems)). anywho... its just something you eventually learn how to handle, if you can get the plant to stay in llong enough until it grows some roots then the plant should be ok on its own.


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## tanker (Mar 13, 2010)

When I put my plants in, I added more gravel. That seemed to hold them down, but it only lasts until I stick the gravel vac in and up they come. I'm going to replace some of mine with another sword.


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## iamgray (Jul 16, 2010)

I pick up some of the substrate and drop it on top of the plant. It seems to weigh the plant down a bit as the grains fall in between the stems.


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

Blaxicanlatino said:


> well you could possibly have an animal in the aquarium thats uprooting them like a large fish or something that borrows like a Khuli loach or something like that....
> 
> if thats not it then honestly thats just something that stem plant groweres eventually learn how to handle them! Most of my plants are stem plants in a sand substrate and its very difficult (since they dont have roots yet and im working with rotala indica (very very very thin stems)). anywho... its just something you eventually learn how to handle, if you can get the plant to stay in llong enough until it grows some roots then the plant should be ok on its own.


 
I used to have Rotala as well. I had to finally get rid of it or I would have become a drinker from the stress of each morning having to replant it. I don't know if My Rainbow shark does it or the Corie's maybe? I don't know but it is a lesson in frustration. I fear that I am doomed to a tank full of swords, Java Moss, Java ferns etc...

I am coming to the conclusion that my green thumb... not so green. 

I LOVE plants and I love how they look once I have them all just so but apparently my fish have other decorating ideas. Kind of like my dogs and my outdoor plants. I finally just gave them the backyard and claimed the front yard for myself. If you can't beat them, join them kind of thing. I might struggle for awhile longer just because I love the look of so many of the stem plants. 

Maybe I should just start a plant tank and skip the fish altogether?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Inga said:


> I LOVE plants and I love how they look once I have them all just so but apparently my fish have other decorating ideas. Kind of like my dogs and my outdoor plants. I finally just gave them the backyard and claimed the front yard for myself. If you can't beat them, join them kind of thing.


Inga, I had to laugh when I read this. My front yard lawn looks like a putting green. My backyard looks like a football field after a game has been played on it during a rain storm. My dogs don't share the same idea of me as far as how to keep a lawn looking nice. The front lawn is mine, the back lawn is theirs. I gave up on the back lawn long ago. Now it's just a mess of weeds that I mow weekly. :lol:


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

LOL We have a lot of similarities don't we Kymmie?  Last year, I would have died of embarrassment had anyone seen my back yard. The weeds got so out of hand along the fence line it looked like a jungle. I have one dog that thinks we need an in-ground pool and insists on taking the excavating into his own paws. The worst part is he hasn't settled on a spot and has tried a few options out there. 

I broke down and bought him a small pool of his own and now he doesn't excavate anymore. Now he just digs out the landscaping fabric a few yards at a time and brings it to me.  

At the end of the day when I am laying in bed or eating or whatever, the most important thing to me is my dogs, not my yard. I can't say my front yard is anything special either but it doesn't have holes in it and the weeds are kept a bit more under control.


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## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

practice makes improvement . I know you can do it! Its possible the shark is the culprit but what you COULD do is... leave the stem floating until it grows roots... or set up another bare tank until the plant grows roots...


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## dfbiggs (May 19, 2010)

Everyone has this prob. The key is doing it right the first time then being patient to give it time to get establish before your critters get at it. With super fine stems like Dwarf baby tears you really have to bury it in bulk and let it spread or tweezer in a couple sprouts at a time but you need really fine substrate otherwise it won't be held in place. Another guy recommended that I sewed it to some mesh one stem at a time..sounds crazy but it may be worth it if you have to go through all the frustrations of it floating back up. Of course you need to find out if your inhabitants like to rearrange the tank to there taste if so I think it is a losing battle. Another thing to watch for is the current flowing through the tank..if your water gets low (depending on your filter) the water fall will dig up where ever its landing and will make a mess..

Note- Even the smallest snails will turn up plants ..especially if they aren't established..

Good Luck!


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## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

ah yes! i also heard that some use foreceps and tweezers to put the new stems in the substrate. i main problem is when i put the stems in the substrate, as i remove my hand from the area, my oversized baseball glove hands pull them right back up...


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

You wanna know how fun it is planting stems around both my 2 foot eels?:lol:


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## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

Mikaila31 said:


> You wanna know how fun it is planting stems around both my 2 foot eels?:lol:


i cant imagine :shock:


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

dfbiggs said:


> Note- Even the smallest snails will turn up plants ..especially if they aren't established..
> 
> Good Luck!


I kind of thought they might be the guilty parties too but thought myself nuts. It is easier for me to blame them regardless as I am not a fan of those darn things. My Assassin and Mystery snails I like but the ramshorns, not so much.


> as i remove my hand from the area, my oversized baseball glove hands pull them right back up...


 
Same issue here. I guess I am not delicate enough for such work.


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## tanker (Mar 13, 2010)

I also manage to get them tangled in my hands and pull them up. One of my sponge-things-on-a-handle-for-cleaning-the-tank-walls has a little fork thing on the end for planting. I can *sometimes* manage to use that to push the plants in and not manage to uproot them straight away.


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

The other issue for me is getting them straight. I just got done putting them back into the substrate again. I took great pains to put them in just a few stems at a time so they would get light all the way down to the roots. Well, When I finished I stood in front of the tank to look at a job well done and I see that they all lean the same way (back toward the back of the tank) Ugh! Slo my tank is currently unbalanced but I can't for the life of me figure out what I should do to fix it. Right now, It looks like someone just dropped the plants all in and let them land where they may. 

I took out some of the wood too as it just seemed like too much wood and not enough plants. At the rate I am going soon I will have all Sword plants in my tank. At least the fish cannot uproot them so easily.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Inga said:


> The other issue for me is getting them straight. I just got done putting them back into the substrate again. I took great pains to put them in just a few stems at a time so they would get light all the way down to the roots. Well, When I finished I stood in front of the tank to look at a job well done and I see that they all lean the same way (back toward the back of the tank) Ugh! Slo my tank is currently unbalanced but I can't for the life of me figure out what I should do to fix it. Right now, It looks like someone just dropped the plants all in and let them land where they may.
> 
> I took out some of the wood too as it just seemed like too much wood and not enough plants. At the rate I am going soon I will have all Sword plants in my tank. At least the fish cannot uproot them so easily.


Not that you'd want to do this but here's something I do for stem plants that works great. I have a 6gl tank that has very find sand in it for substrate. The sand is so fine it's a piece of cake to push the stems in and they stay. This little tank is well lit and I put my stem plants in it and in about a week's time to 10 days they have good roots growing on them, I uproot them and than replant in my bigger tanks. It's my little 6gl propagation tank. I keep my RCS in this tank. I also put all my cuttings from the big tanks into this tank and once they have roots then it's back to the big tanks. 
Just what you need, another tank, lol. But at 6gl it's super easy to take care of. Just a thought.


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

better lighting? 

I honestly don't have this problem. Sure a couple stems get knocked loose every week in the eel tank, but there is close to 2 dozen stems in there. Snails certainly don't uproot stems, I have snails in all my tanks and stems generally don't get uprooted. I think I run higher lighting then most, which may be why I don't have this problem. My stems normally need to be pruned every week this involves uprooting them chopping off the bottoms then replanting the tops. They will root in about 4 days. 

Plants angel themselves towards the light. When I trim my tanks they always look very sloppy right afterwards because the stems point in all different directions. Within 24 hours the plants will readjust so they are facing the light. If your plants are always leaning to the back of the tank, I'm guessing that your light is mounted on the back half. Either add more or move it so it is placed over the middle of the tank. 

Stems root like crazy in soil tanks. Hygro is impossible to uproot in soil. When I am trimming I usually grab the base of the plant and pull till the roots break. Never have that problem in the regular gravel tanks.


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

Yes, my lighting is over the back half of the tank with the opening on the top in front so you can access the tank. I think the biggest problem is the Tiger Barbs and the races that occur through the freshly planted stems. They have even ripped a few of the leaves on the larger swords with their antics. They will be out of there soon. I am also certain that the fact that I do not purne my plants often enough is an issue. Things get a bit unkempt looking from the pruning perspective. Truth is, I am not sure how much or how little needs to be pruned so I avoid it. 

I did just remove a bit of mess looking stuff t his morning and it looks a bit better. I hate being armpit deep in fish water too so... It just doesn't get done often enough.  Wish I could afford to hire a knowledgeable person to work in the tank for awhile to see what they do.


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