Potted Plants

[xing]

hi all

this may seem like a daft question but i've bought some tropica potted plants (including a really nice large echinodorus osiris with 12" flower spike from pets@home of all places - only £3 each) and was wondering if i should remove the rockwool or whatever it is from the roots or just plant them as they are (minus the plastic basket). I'm sure I've read some where that the rockwool can fragment or break up and get into the water column where it can irrritate fishes gills, but i've also read that they should be planted with the rockwool to avoid damage to the roots and help keep them anchored.

any advice anyone??

 

[Glod]

Leaving the rockwool on tends to be for planting tiny plants with small root systems just to help anchor them a bit. With reasonable sized plants it's best to remove the wool so the roots can spread better in the substrate.

 

[14gtr14]

ye, for larger plants try to remove as much as possible. For the smaller ones remove a fair bit of it (so roots are sticking out of it), but just keep enough on to 'anchor' it in the substrate.

greg

 

[Themuleous]

The only plant I've heard of that should have any wool left on it is UG, rest of 'em remove it all, even HC.

Sam

 

[xing]

excuse my ignorance but what are UG and HC?

 

[14gtr14]

Utricularia graminifolia

and

Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba''

 

[Themuleous]

Chers 14gtr14, was to lazy to write them out in full

Sam

 

[14gtr14]

I was on tropica anyway...copy and paste job!

greg