Vallisneria Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 I think i'm going to put a couple extra sword plants in my fry tank. I'd like to keep them in pots as the tank is bare bottom. How large/small should the pot be? would a 4" pot be ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 5, 2006 Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 They'll grow to fill the pot, so a 4" will be great. When using pots, you can go gang-busters on soil ferts. Many people fill the bottom parts with potting soil, then top it off with normal sand/gravel. They'll grow pretty quick. Then when they get nice and big, fiddle around with the photoperiod, and they'll flower lots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 Cool thanks I planted 2 little ones in a 4" pot and i have to find another pot for the larger one. I filled it with some left over flourite and gravel on top. I think i'll add a piece of jobes also. I added the sowrds yesterday to my yellow lab growout tank and they have already ate some of the leaves, grr :grr: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted February 5, 2006 Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 Use common sense when selecting pots. Bigger plants, bigger pots ... Similar to what you would do for terrestrial potted plants ... You can fill pots with whatever you would normally use as substrate. However, an inexpensive and effective choice would be Aquatic Plant Soil (Profile). RONA used to sell it, and it was less than $7 for a 10lb bag. You can fill many pots with this ... For heavier rooters, such as swords, you may want to inject ferts directly into pots ... A syringe with a ~2" needle, such ones for animal use, would be handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 Well i planted up the other sword yesterday. So they are now all in 4" pots. If they get too big i can always upgrade them later. I also added a piece of jobes stick to each pot. I'll keep in mind the injecting liquid ferts for later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Jobes sticks are fine .... Just make sure it's a fern type, as this one contains minimum amount of N in the form of urea (ammonia). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 are are jobe stick? Js Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 are are jobe stick?Js They are concentrated, slow release NPK fertilizers used for house plants in the shape of sticks which you stick into the soil close to plant's roots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 are all plant fertilize aquarium safe? how do i know the safe vs. unsafe? Js Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 No, they are not. Terrestrial plant fertilizers mostly use urea/ammonia as the source of Nitrogen. This would trigger serious algae blooms and possibly harm fish. Jobes sticks (fern type only!) is the only one to my knowledge which contains very small amount of it. The rest of N source is KNO3, which is safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 No, they are not. Terrestrial plant fertilizers mostly use urea/ammonia as the source of Nitrogen. This would trigger serious algae blooms and possibly harm fish. Jobes sticks (fern type only!) is the only one to my knowledge which contains very small amount of it. The rest of N source is KNO3, which is safe. I totally concur. Definitely stay away from ANY liquid ferts for terrestrial plants! I have used other plant spikes, but, if it ever gets desturbed you're going to see algae. Make sure your spikes are burried as deep as possible, and I wouldn't use them unless I had over 2" of substrate (gravel or Flourite). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 When i went shopping for Jobes sticks the only ones i could find were Jobes"house plant" sticks(I checked 4 stores and thats only what they had). They are 13-4-5 so a bit different then the "fern and palm" sticks. I won't be using these in my tanks as I dont' want to cause an aglae problem if i uproot them but i did put a little piece of stick into each of the pots i just planted. Does anyone know of a store that for sure carries the "fern and palm" formula? I tried Canadian Tire, Home depot, Revy, and home hardware, none had that type. Also just a little update on the swords that i potted. Well they are only tiny sticks now. I put them into my 25g yellow lab grow out and the little buggers ate all the leaves. Hopefully once the labs re all gone the swords will recover. Man, I've never had any luck putting plants with africans. I've even had then eat java fern and anubias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpy Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Would sphagnum moss be a good base instead of the potting soil? I'm putting some cabomba in a pot, and I plan to add some vals and anubias as well, in separate pots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Sphagnum moss, or peat, is another good addition to your pots. It has a high Cation Exchange Capacity, which means it'll hold your ferts for the plants to use 'em. Peat also doesn't have the nutrients that potting soil does, which means if it gets into your water column, you won't see an algae bloom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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