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Fixing HC to the ground

Henrik

Member
Joined
16 Nov 2008
Messages
67
Location
Chester, Cheshire
Hi there,
I am growing HC Cuba in the foreground, which I started off with one Tropica pot split into five bunches that I fixed into the ground with the growing substrate attached. It spread out very nicely, but unfortunately I had to fight a battle with Cladophora and overtime had to remove a lot of the HC that was overgrown with algae. I seem to do better on the algae front after changes to flow, CO2 and dosing levels, but I am now facing the problem of fixing the HC to the ground...I thought that this simple problem did not merit a post and tried my best to push it into the ground, but it keeps uprooting, which breaks it apart further and makes pinning it down trickier and trickier...
Does anybody have a simple idea how to pin the HC down?

Thansk, Henrik
 
i had the same problem with mine and ended up killing it all, after that i got 3 large mats that individually broke up into 4 1.5-2" square pads that were easier to root, have you tried a net and weigh down the sides with small pebbles to get it rooted?
 
Hi, the only way to plant HC properly is by using tweezers, planting each individual plantlet is by far the most effective way but it does take longer. In this article George has a nice photo of planting glosso which is a very similar method.
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... cle_id=684
 
I was worried that this might be the reply...I think I will have to give up on HC, it is just too high maintenance given the time I have available. What a pity, it had started off so well, and i was hoping for the same effect as in the TGM show tank that I got the inspiration from...
 
get one stem of HC about an inch long shove it in to the substrate leaving maybe 5mm job done. it does become easy. i've even buried it and its still grown.
 
saintly said:
get one stem of HC about an inch long shove it in to the substrate leaving maybe 5mm job done. it does become easy. i've even buried it and its still grown.

I love your reply, it's nice to know that i'm not the only one that's ambidextrous(sp), I also go from imperial to metric without thinking about it :lol:
 
On the tropica website, there's a video showing HC being planted with the rockwool still attached to it, to anchor it. The guy in the video - I think it's Oliver Knott - cuts off the bottom of the grow cube leaving 1cm of rockwool, then divides the plants by cutting them in half again and again.
 
great vid, probably one of his better iwagumis. i like his trimming style. not quite the butcher i am....sharp kitchen scissors straight through my stems in one swoop :lol:

The man sure can grow good HC
 
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