How do coop (and others) get their plants into the pot?

[CT_]

Are they grown like that from day 1?  or do the farms move  them into the pot before shipping?  or does the coop actually package them into pots?

[Streetwise]

That is a good question that I have been thinking about since this thread:

I have a feeling that all live plants come to the Co-Op in pots.

[Patrick_G]

All the plants I’ve bought seem like they’ve been in the rock wool for a long time. Soooo much tedious picking ☹️

[CT_]

heh yeah I spent an hour picking and untangling two pots of crypt parva, but the results i think are going to be worth it!

 

 

[Odd Duck]

On 2/14/2022 at 4:17 PM, CT_ said:

Are they grown like that from day 1?  or do the farms move  them into the pot before shipping?  or does the coop actually package them into pots?

I suspect it may be a mix of the first 2.  The vids I’ve seen I only saw plants in pots, but I’ve obviously never worked at the ACO and couldn’t say for sure.

I’ve gotten plants from multiple places that have clearly been in the pots for weeks to months with roots well imbedded into the rock wool.  I’ve also gotten plants that practically fell out of the rock wool as soon as I popped it out of the pot.  I don’t know for certain, but I think that most places order plants in pots and just resell.  But they may be getting plants that were just recently potted or were grown in the pot for weeks or months depending on the flux of supply and demand.

I’m sure there are also some that order bare root and pot them up or just sell as bare root.  I would be surprised if anybody repots once a plant has been grown in a pot for a while since the fertilizer can penetrate the rock wool and roots will grow out into the water anyway.  Not to mention how much of a pain it is to remove the rock wool once they’ve been in it a while.

[gardenman]

There are YouTube videos showing the wholesale production of aquarium plants for Tropica and Denerle. They show them potting the plants and then growing them on in the pots.