Question regarding planting a shipment recv'd from Aquarium Co-Op

[Herefishie]

I received some plants (crips) that I ordered from Aquarium Co-Op. They are enclosed in little plastic baskets. Am I supposed to immediately remove them from that little basket and plant them in the substrate or leave them in the baskets for a while? Thank you.

[jwcarlson]

Typically, I don't want them right away so I leave them in pots in a bucket or a QT tank of some sort.  Dose some ferts and give them a few days.  When I plant them, I take them out of the baskets and do a decent job or removing the rockwool.  But I have been less aggressive with removing it of late in favor of avoiding root trauma.  Sometimes the plants have a lot of roots and removing the basket is tough.  I'll cut the basket up in that case.  

All that said, I think there's plenty of people who leave them in the baskets and plant that right in the substrate.  It's possible that crypts are OK with that and stem plants aren't... or vice-versa (meaning that I do not know).  I wouldn't leave epiphytes (java fern, anubias, etc) in the baskets for months and months, I don't think, but short term that's fine - those should be affixed to something like wood or rock long-term. 

Edited January 11, 2023 by jwcarlson

[Herefishie]

Good info. Thanks. I'm pretty new to the hobby. 

[JoeQ]

I think it's preference,  I weight down the pots and plant when I have time, others plant them right away. There isn't necessarily a procedure that increases success with the exception of unpack them and get them in water/light ASAP!

Edited January 11, 2023 by JoeQ

[Dutchaj]

Depending on the Crypt variety, I always remove from the basket and remove rock wool, then with Wendtii you can carefully pull apart the nodes to get 2-5ish smaller plants to spread out more.  In a couple months they fill in nicely. Spiralis can usually get 2-3 plants out of each basket.

[Herefishie]

Good to know! I am so grateful to have found this forum. So many knowledgeable people helping us novices.

[Rube_Goldfish]

I've de-potted and planted right away and I've let them sit in water in the pots for a couple days until I had time to plant, and I've never noticed a difference either way in plant growth or melt. I'd say it doesn't seem to matter.

[Ninjoma]

Some plants, like Dwarf baby tears, are really hard to plant if you remove them from the pot because the roots are so small and thin. For those you might want to plant them in the pot. Most plants I prefer to remove the pot and rock wool right away before planting them. 

[FLFishChik]

I’ve done both. Some plants I know exactly where they are going so I’ve removed them from their pot, gently removed the rock wool and planted straight away, others (like Pearl Weed) I left in the pot and nested it down into the substrate as is. It really just depends. If you bought them without an exact plan on where they are going, you’ll be fine to leave them in the pot for a bit until you figure out where they are going.

Edited January 12, 2023 by FLFishChik