I’ve started posting my experiment with cheap aquarium plant seeds direct from china. I posted about the first and second days previously to show my progress. It’s been a few days so I’ve lost track for this update.
A lot of seeds were lost due to them floating up and/or being consumed by my angelfish who seem to love these things. The ones that did stay have started growing in nice little clumps.
There’s been a problem, however. The roots don’t seem to hold well to the gravel, so the individual plants have a habit of breaking loose and floating to the top. They sort of resemble duckweed, which might explain a lot.
Also, it turns out my angels really like to nibble on the grown plants as well. That doesn’t help with them coming unrooted.
Previously, I mentioned that my gravel bed is pretty shallow, so this can be part of why things aren’t staying put. Thankfully you get way too many seeds in one of these little bags, so I’ve started replanting.
This time, i did things differently. I still used the gel capsule method. After I planted each gel cap, I added a small hand full of extra gravel in a mound over the planting spot.
The new seeds haven’t sprouted yet, but, there’s a lot less seed “leakage” than the first time I tried this. I remain optimistic, but time will tell. Stay tuned for further updates.