NetMax wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

I know what you mean.
I am doing alright with it, but it just doesnt make any roots at the
bottom.
I usually bury it in the gravel to hold, but it either rots or the fish
suck too much on it, and I have it flooting in the water.

I really want that plant to develop, it is beautiful.



I wrap them in lead weight as well, but in groups of about 4 to 5 (less
is too thin, more and they lose their bottom leaves), but I found that it
was difficult to not damage the stems with the lead, so I first wrap the
stems in a pinch of thin sponge, and then put the lead over that. Other
tricks are to snip off the ends of each stem (unless they already have
roots), and to be very careful to not damage the ends when planting
(place them in a depression and then push substrate in to fill the hole).
You can also put a small piece of fertilizer near the roots. I've seen
these mentioned http://www.petmeister.com/item801.htm and Elaine is using
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Root Tabs plus Iron laterite pellets. hth

There's another good product for a few dollars by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals called Plant Plugs. They're rockwool with a stretchy
netting to hold stems against the rockwool. You put the stems between
the netting and rockwool or into slits in the rockwool and then you bury
the whole thing in the gravel. The rockwool has fertilizer for the
first couple of months to help root development and then you start using
the fertilizer tabs NetMax mentioned. (Good memory, BTW!) They're the
best product I've ever found to help difficult stem plants stay
submerged and root - saved my otherwise impossible Rotala macrantha many
years ago.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com