Plant fertilization ?

[David Rose]

I bought some swords and wisteria yesterday and want to put them in little clay pots. What fertilizers should I use? When folks refer to "fert tabs" what do they mean...like normal jobes spikes?

[smiley]

Looking for this David?

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlourishTabs.html

Works perfect for my water lily ;)

[David Rose]

Thanks so much Smiley!

[smiley]

No issues mate...got mine from kens (as usual :D )

[Bilbo_wh]

You can use Jobes for planted tanks. The one to use is "Lush Ferns and Palms" because it is very low on phosphates. It isn’t as good as the seachem ones or other planted tank designed fertilizer spikes but it works well enough and it’s cheap.
Heavy root feeders like swords and crypts need something and I have been using these for quite a while without any problems and plants growing like crazy.

A few things to remember though.

Don’t allow it to get into the water column or it can cause problems. It must be fully covered as deep as possible in the substrate.

It wont completely breakdown and often you will find the roots wrapped around the filler part long after all the goodness has gone.

[rickztahone]

hey David i didnt see anyone suggesting to treat the incoming plants. it might be unnecessary but i always do a 4 hr PP dip on any plants no matter who its from. it just eliminates a variable for me

[David Rose]

Thanks guys....I'll be sure to treat the plants before adding them to the tank. I ordered the Seachem Flourish Tabs earlier today along with a few other things I needed. For now, I'm going to use 4" terracotta pots, so I can move them to clean the tank.

What do you use to fill the pots with? I was thinking it would be okay to use some of the sand from the tank they're going in.

[bs6749]

Thanks guys....I'll be sure to treat the plants before adding them to the tank. I ordered the Seachem Flourish Tabs earlier today along with a few other things I needed. For now, I'm going to use 4" terracotta pots, so I can move them to clean the tank.

What do you use to fill the pots with? I was thinking it would be okay to use some of the sand from the tank they're going in.

Swords are heavy root feeders and would definitely benefit from a nutrient rish substrate such as Eco-Complete, flourite, ADA Amazonia I or II. Go with as big of a clay pot as you can with the swords because their root base can get quite large. I wouldn't start them out in anything smaller than a 4" clay pot.

[David Rose]

Swords are heavy root feeders and would definitely benefit from a nutrient rish substrate such as Eco-Complete, flourite, ADA Amazonia I or II. Go with as big of a clay pot as you can with the swords because their root base can get quite large. I wouldn't start them out in anything smaller than a 4" clay pot.

Thanks for the tips. I'll see if I can get one of these at my LFS today when I go for some live foods.

Take care,
David

[rickztahone]

Swords are heavy root feeders and would definitely benefit from a nutrient rish substrate such as Eco-Complete, flourite, ADA Amazonia I or II. Go with as big of a clay pot as you can with the swords because their root base can get quite large. I wouldn't start them out in anything smaller than a 4" clay pot.

i second the eco complete substrate suggestion. that's what i had when i had them in pots.

[Greenheinie]

I like aquariumplants.com's root fertilizers. They work well for my swords and are a lot cheaper than Seachem's tabs.

You can get clay pots real cheap at Michael's or other arts & craft type stores. LFS might charge you more for a simple clay pot.