New to Plants - Hemianthus micranthemoides

[genoshin]

Hi Guys,

Love the site. Hope you can help me with this. Among the orders I placed on ebay, the first thing to arrive was pearl grass (weed). I was still waiting for some other things before I started aquascaping.

The plants are mostly cutlings with a few roots. The bush is about 2 inches thick and 8x8 inches.

While im waiting for the rest of my stuff to arrive will it be okay to house the pearl in a large jar with some substrate and spring water?

Can I house it there without having to plant it into the substrate?

When I'm ready to aquascape, should I separate the strands and plant them into the substrate?

Will they eventually root?

Thanks guys!!!!!

[frozenbarb]

you could just FLoat it, With some light shining on it, til you get the other plants

[spypet]

geno, welcome to PTF

while HM is a common plant, it doest not grow until it's long acclimated to your tank, and replanting it will only delay the acclimation process. so either let if float, or once you are sure where in the tank you want to plant it, bunch a few stems at a time down into your gravel about a centimeter away one bunch to the other, and leave it alone. with enough light, HM can actually be trained as to grow as a foreground plant, but you'll need a few weeks first of actual growth to start before attempting that. good luck!

[Momotaro]

it doest not grow until it's long acclimated to your tank

I don't know about that.

I have moved the plant form one aquarium to another. Each aquarium has different water parameters and have never had a problem having the plant settle in. It has always done very well.

You can let the plant float until you are ready to plant it. When you do plant it, don't bunch it together. One strand at a time works well, and provides the plant with plenty of light right down to the substrate. Frequent trimmings will send off many off-shoots and the plant will be bushy in no time.

Mike

[epicfish]

Mine grew like a week a day or two after I planted it after getting it online...don't think it needs to "settle" down at all. At least not IME.

[spypet]

interesting... it always melts a bit when I moved it.
I guess my tank is not what you'd call
optimal conditions
thanks for correcting my assumptions, guys

[genoshin]

Thanks guys! I'm floating it right now. I can't wait for the rest of the low maintenance plants to arrive. I'll post updates on a different thread once I start building. I'm learning most of my stuff from searching these forums. You guys are great.

[fishscale]

My thread is kinda related:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/pl...s-emersed.html

I think HM looks awesome, good luck with it

[Ryzilla]

Originally Posted by spypet

geno, welcome to PTF

while HM is a common plant, it doest not grow until it's long acclimated to your tank, and replanting it will only delay the acclimation process. so either let if float, or once you are sure where in the tank you want to plant it, bunch a few stems at a time down into your gravel about a centimeter away one bunch to the other, and leave it alone. with enough light, HM can actually be trained as to grow as a foreground plant, but you'll need a few weeks first of actual growth to start before attempting that. good luck!

Entirley false. Very fast acclimating. as a matter of fact very few plants in my experieence acclimate and grow as fast as this plant. Under high light and ferts this plant will grow so rapidly you will be cutting back weekly begging people to take it off of your hands. The only way to "train" the hm is by cutting it often which will create a bush like appearence. The higher the light the more the plant will creep instead of growing vertically.

[fishscale]

excellent...

[genoshin]

Hi Guys!

Thanks again for the help and the warm welcome. I was wrong about the plants. What arrived were Baby tears. They're floating and doing real well. I received the HM last saturday from Aquadise and 1 out of 6 were green the rest were yellow green or brown. I hope they'll survive. Aquadise has been real good with responding to my emails.

All I'm waiting for now are my co2 accessories I purchased from Aquatic Magic.

[frozenbarb]

isnt baby tears and hm the same?

[genoshin]

Originally Posted by frozenbarb

isnt baby tears and hm the same?

From what I researched,

Micranthemum umbrosum

Hemianthus micranthemoides

They look pretty much the same, I won't use the nicknames since I might be confusing the two.

[frozenbarb]

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ails.php?id=33

type in the search

Hemianthus micranthemoides baby tear

[genoshin]

Originally Posted by frozenbarb

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ails.php?id=33

type in the search

Hemianthus micranthemoides baby tear

Not gonna contest you on it. I did a search on google for either species it seems that half the world calls both plants baby tears. So to avoid confusion I'll depart from the use of the common name.