java fern

My java fern is making new shoots on its leaves how does one plant the new plants same as one does with the adult plant ?

 

Leave the new shoots to grow to a reasonable size and develop some roots.
Then you can snip it off and attach to rock or wood hardscape.
If it comes off the old leaf by itself do likewise.

 

Ok mine are pretty big and have a lot of roots already. So I will b able to transplant them now thanks @JCL

 

I wait till there's a couple, then I bunch them together and tie them to a piece of rock or wood.... Makes a nice display, and it mats nicely!!! I create a new bunch every month or so!

 

I have a lot of new plants all my leaves have new shoots on them with roots so I'm going to try what u just said badger

 

Java ferns rock like that. Many smiles!!!!

 

You can say that again

 

A clump of baby java ferns attached to a small rock

 

Ur java looks good @BadgerBadger

 

Thanks! I got about 4 clumps like that at the moment, and create another 2 every couple of weeks. I must say, once the clump has been in a while it settles nicely and starting matting. Plus i can move them around a bit until i find a perfect place. I started placing them on my big roots, but didn't like that i couldn't easily move them around...

 

Yes they are very slow starters but once they do start to take then they grow like wild fire what kind of tank do u have @BadgerBadger?

 

Just a simple 30 liter low tech with gravel substrate. I dose with Flourish Excel every now and then, and am running a 10W "pinkish" fluorescent tube for about 8 hours a day.
The room gets quite a bit of indirect sunlight as well.

 

Is the excel expensive ? Have u thought about going the diy C02 way it is very cheap ?

 

If I recall it works out to about R100 for 100ml, so not too bad considering how much i use, the size of my tank and the type of plants I have.
I ran a DIY yeast reactor for a while which worked quite nice, but it was a bit of a mission to get it going every time.
If i start using it again i'd modify it slightly by adding a catchment bottle, to prevent potential yeast spills. But so far, the Excel is working great.

I'm going to give the Scape Carbon a try next to see how it works, but that might be a while considering how little i use.

 

Ok that makes sense I also heard excel can melt some. Plants but I don't think java fern as urs looks good

 

If you look closely you'll see that some of the tips look black. But as far as i can tell after some research that's because the addition of CO2 (or a derivative in the case of Excel) causes the plants to grow faster than the plants can produce chlorophyll. What happens from that point is quite straight forward... I hold back a bit on dosing Excel, and within a day or two the plant has caught up nicely.

If you refine the process you can get the java fern to grow a nice slim shape.
If you mess the process up a bit the worst that can happen is a funny shaped java fern (I have one like that, its pretty funny).

 

What do you use to tie the plants on? String?

 

I just use plain old simple cotton thread (brown). I wrap it around a few times, and then knot it. After a while the thread starts to break up, but by that stage the java fern is hanging on for dear life.

 

I didn't. Know that I have a diy setup in my tank very basic one shows one is never to old to learn. Something new @BadgerBadger

 

I use fishing line but. Its the same as cotton thread just takes longer to rot