How to keep plants alive before planting?

Don't dwarf baby tears do well with dry starts? If you keep the humidity high and air circulation up, they'll probably like the air more. I don't know about dwarf hair grass, but I've heard it's also good with dry starts. Should be okay in light and air, versus possibly melting in water.

Never done it though, so don't take my word for it. My dwarf baby tears are coming on Friday as well, first time grower.

Just letting plants float in the tank can actually save a plant that's not doing well
after planting. Some do this to get the plant closer to light but I have never done
it with either of those plants. In fact I had three plants doing just that recently
to see if they would sprout new roots but as the old roots had rotted off that didn't
work this time. But it has in the past with other plants for me. Those were all varieties
of Rotala which are easy to damage when planting.

Both of those plants will be detroyed by letting them float and potentially get thrown around in your tank. DBT usually comes in little pots. Just put the pot in the bottom of your tank and let them stay there until you are ready to remove and plant. Depending on where you bought these plants from, of course.

Not all plants do very well when letting them float.