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Hello,
I recently planted my 55 gallon tank. I ordered many plants from Aquariumplants.com. All arrived in great condition. I got Ludwiga pereunsis, rotala inica, brazilian pennywort, a bolbitis fern, and 2 square feet of micro sword (Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae) . The plants arrived on Friday and alll are looking great and begining to grow except the micro sword. I think it may be in shock or having problems adjusting because it isnt doing well. Basically it hasnt stood up yet, many leaves are dieing off and turning yellow.Maybe it is because I had to cut up the mats it came in to plant it?
I have 2.4 wpg and I use Flourish twice a week and Excel once.I also have Eco- Complete as a substrate, as it said I need a good substrate for this plant. Do I need to bump up my ferts to get it going? Please help.
Here is what aquariumplants.com says about it so I figured it would be easy to keep :
http://www.aquariumplants.com/product_p/bra592.htm

Platy_Punk,

That is the same place where I bought mine (a while back) and yes, it is a PITA to make plantable pieces out of that mat in which it comes. Unlike you though, I ripped it into pieces, somewhat gently if possible. Nevertheless, I had some fallout, injured plantlets during the ripping and others that just did not root well based on bad planting (one just cannot plant this species careful, in particular when one has a huge mat to go through).

As such, during the first two or three weeks, I was busy every day with removing browning leaves. In addition, I believe they don't grow them submersed but rather in a mat where the roots are the only part in the water. Eventually, but really slowly, all leaves will be replaced with new leaves. I am sure you have quite a few leaves where you can see some spade shaped tips, well - that is the emersed form.

Hang in tough, remove dead matter, and enough plants will survive to form a rather solid, or too solid, yard

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I cut my plugs using scissors (I thought ripping them might do more damage than cutting). Anyway thanks for the reply, and hope LF. I guess I will continue to remove the dead leaves. I do see the spade shaped leaves. Thanks again.

Oh, almost forgot,

When removing a dead leaf try to cut the runner that connects it with the other leaves before pulling it out, otherwise you will pull out the entire plant group that you plugged in.

Now my memory comes back, boy did I hate planting this stuff.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks for the tip, thats a job for my tiny scissors