[chevyguy20]

I would like some more information on starting my foreground plants emersed before filling and adding taller plants. how long before tank is filled. Are fertilizers added while emersed. CO2? anything else i forgot. It is a 10 gal. with flourite black substrate. I have micro sword planted like Church did in his 10 gal. project. Thanks

 

[Church]

Well, for what it's worth, I didn't grow my microsword carpet emersed. I planted a bunch of emersed-grown plugs of it, from 2 pots, then I immediately filled the tank. I also immediately began dosing ferts and CO2.

I think I can safely say in retrospect that microsword isn't really a heavy feeder. So you may very well be able to get by without dosing. It just likes lots of light and CO2. CO2 is not limited when growing emersed, so that won't be a problem. Just make sure you give it lots of light. I have 40w over my 10g.

Many people who do dry-starts like you're talking about are using mineralized topsoil, or aquasoil, or something that has nutrients in it, which Fluorite does not have much. If you start seeing yellowing of the microsword blades, you might try just breaking up some root tabs and plugging them into the Fluorite here and there, just to provide the roots directly.

 

[chevyguy20]

oh i see, did you have good luck with the way you approached it? I havn't been able to get it to grow in my 46 bow but I tried starting it with the tank established and filled. I also was reading that you "mowed" yours down. How did you trim it and how long was it.

 

[Church]

Yeah the way I approached it worked great. It was immediately growing and spreading around the tank!

The reason I trimmed was that the emersed growth is quite a bit taller and thicker than the submerged growth, so that was my way of jump-starting the conversion. But there's another reason too, and that is, when you trim microsword, it causes it to spread faster.

I just used a pair of regular old scissors.