Tried a cool way to propagate Downoi (Pogostemon helferi)

[hedge_fund]

I read on here that you can just rip off a few leaves and let them float in the tank so they develop roots. I recently purchased 25 downoi plants so I had tons of left over leaves once I was done cleaning them prior to planting. I let them float around in a spare tank that just grows moss. I inject co2 but I do not fertilize (fish do the fertilizing for me).

So they have been floating around for about 3 weeks now and they developed roots from the leaves. It's just the leaf and the roots...the stem is not present.

Can these be planted already even thought it's just one leaf or do I need to wait?

[l8nite]

I tried planting a few floating leaves of my Hygrophila Corymbosa that sprouted roots like that, but they never really grew (didn't die either, though...). If you have 2, maybe put one in the soil and leave the other floating?

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi hedge_fund,

Very, very cool! Now that you have some rooted plantlets what do you think your next step should be?

[hedge_fund]

I have about 10 of these leaves which sprouted roots. I plan on using small dressing "to go" containers as minature pots where I'll fill half with potting soil and the other half with regular gravel. I'll stick them back into my spare moss grow out tank and hope for the best. The spare tank is a bare bottom tank which means I'll need to use some type of pot (my high tech tank has no more room for more downois).

If anybody has any other ideas then let me know.

These types of containers:

[wicca27]

i would let them float for a bit longer and then plant when they get more roots. i know with house plants the roots are alot more fragile when starting in water. things like spider plants and african violets will root well in water but when you go to put them in dirt it can easily breat the roots. so i would think the more roots the better. and might go with sand instead of gravel. i would poke holes in the bottom of those type containers put some gravel in as a weight, then potting soil (i like miracle grow organic in the brown bag) and top with sand..... set just the roots on top of the soil/dirt and then sprinkle a bit of sand on it to hold in place and then stick under water and add a bit more sand to make sure it was held down well. might still let one float and see if other leaves will form as well cause it would prob be better to plant with more leaves on it but who know cause i dont keep these. good luck and awsome you are getting new starts off the old plants

[hedge_fund]

Yeah I'll probably let them float for a few more weeks and see whether they develop more roots or leaves.

[sapphoqueen]

wow! how much I love this plant...

[Green_Flash]

how easy is downoi to grow?

[hedge_fund]

Originally Posted by Green_Flash

how easy is downoi to grow?

Some say it's easy while others say it's hard. You can usually gauge how difficult a plant is by how much it costs...downoi definitely is not cheap. I actually had 25 plants shed about 50% of their leaves (melted) when I put them in my tank. They are finally starting to grow but be aware that they can melt on you for a bit.