Buyers Guides

Preparing Aquarium Potted Plants

Potted aquarium plants will arrive in a small plastic pot with their roots growing in rockwool. This rockwool is a great growing medium for plants as it retains moisture and nutrients whilst providing a clean medium in which the roots can establish.

Preparing aquarium potted plants:

1. Carefully remove plant from its packaging and bag, taking care not to damage any leaves or stems
2. Remove the plastic pot
3. Remove the rockwool from the roots. Sometimes this is easy, with the rockwool breaking in half and slipping off in two pieces. Other times a little more work is needed. Use a pair of planting tweezers to gently pull the rockwool from the roots, taking care to cause as little damage as possible.
4. Separate into stems. Most potted plants will come with more than one stem planted in the pot. You can separate these to make planting easier and to cover more space in the aquarium.
5. Trim off any excessively long roots. Don’t worry, this will not damage the plant and will make planting much easier.
6. Using planting tweezers carefully pinch the stem just above the roots and push nice and deep into the substrate. Opening and closing the tweezer a couple of times before withdrawing will help stop the plant being pulled out with them.