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I wanted to plant some dwarf hairgrass in my 20 long. However, they come in pots at the store. I was planning on opening the pots and spreading the grass all over the tank. However, the LFS guy said this will kill the plant and pollute the tank. Is this true?

Umm... Your LFS guy must not keep planted tanks, because you are always supposed to remove the pots.

Besides looking ugly, the fibers in the pots are often packed so tightly that they tend to restrict root growth and prevent water/nutrient movement around the roots.






Last edited by Cory Addict at 07-Sep-2005 20:37

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Take off the pot and remove every bit of the rock wool that you can. Rinsing under water can help with that.

The thing with the rock wool is that it will eventually rot in your tank, and it can also have an abundance of plant foods and such that could cause problems with algae and the like.

It shouldn't kill your plants unless you're really vigorous and break the plants while removing the pots.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Remove the wool as best as you can without destroying the plant roots. Its tough to get it all sometimes. I got a dwarf anubias that was rooted in that wool pretty good and I managed to get it all off except for near the top. Rinsing with water fill help and sometimes some roots will tear off. It is certainly better then planting with the wool on since it limits root growth.

djtj

I have recently bought many plants in small pots and the roots were packed in a unknown medium. I removed this with a tooth pick. I also trimmed the roots a little this removes any damage that was done to the roots.

Before some jump up and down I do this to most of my plants aquarium or not and I can assure you after having several thousand orchids I would not do it if it was damaging the plant as orchids are 10+++ times more expensive than a few aquarium plants.

Keith

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Also,

I was reading yesterday that dwarf hairgrass is sometimes grown emersed and in this case it is recommended to trim it after planting to a size of 1/2 to 1 inch.

The enersed leaved rot off once submersed and allow new leave growth, and obviously a lot of rotting leaves are not good for the water quality.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It's better to remove the wool around the roots & plant them after rinsing them under running water & trimming the roots.


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Thanks
I was hoping that my LFS guy was wrong.

Dwarf hairgrass does seem to do better when left in at least small clumps instead of spread out in individual strands but you definitely don't need to leave it all together or in the pot.