best way to plant anubias (no driftwood)

[M.A.G.]

hey guys
my plants are coming in in a couple of weeks. cant wait.got them coming in from singapour. i just wanted to know what the best way to plant a big anubias barteri and gracilis is. my driftwood is taken up by java fern and moss, a. nana and a. nana petite. best way i can think of is to secure it to a piece of broken terracotta pot and let it secure itself. i know that i cant bury the rhisome so what should i do . if it comes in with long enough roots do i bury the roots and leave the rhisome above the substrate??

 

[reiverix]

Yes you can bury the roots, just not the rhizome. Attaching them to a pot is also fine. You'll find that the rougher the surface, the better the plant will take hold. A lot of my anubias are attached to plain old rock with a rubber band.

 

[Captain Hook]

You could just plant the anubias in the gravel like any other plant. I did this once and the plant was fine. I've since moved it to a piece of a wood but didn't have any problems with it growing in the gravel.

Some people have said they thought their anubias plants grew slower when planted in gravel but I'm not sure this is true.

You could also find some aquarium safe rocks and attach it to them instead too.

 

[RTR]

My Anubias grow better and faster and blooms much more often with the roots (but not the rhizome) planted in the substrate. BTW, it is used as foreground ground cover in the majority of my tanks. I do have a good bit secured on a rock wall in the N. leleupii tank, but it grows quite slowly in that position.

 

[M.A.G.]

ok. i will plant them in the subtrate then. could they benefit from aroot tab or it it not worth it for such slow growers?

 

[djlen]

I advise against root tabs. Especially for Anubia. They just don't need them.

I have pulled much of my bog wood out of my tanks and when planting Anubia, I just lay the Rhizome on the substrate and put a small rock over it for a week or so till the roots bite. Then pull out the rock and it's good to go. Lead weights will fulfill the same purpose.

Len

 

[anonapersona]

i read somewhere that the anubis prefers to have the rhyzome 1/2 inch above the gravel. So, I trim the roots to about 1 or 2 inches long and stick that in the gravel leaving 1/2 inch gap. I think the ones in the gravel do grow better than the ones on wood.