# stupid plant question?



## cocoa3212000 (Jul 31, 2010)

When you buy plants at store they have apiece of foam wrapped eith metal band,or basket with rockwool cube in it.Do you remove the metal band and foam?Plants often bunched together wondering if they should be seperated?Stupid question but never seen anyone else ask.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Absolutely remove them.

The rockwool will eventually lead to the root systems rotting. It can be difficult to remove it all (especially from DHG), but as long as you get a majority of it off they will do fine.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Yep, but as far as those bands go, those are to weight the stems down. they can be used as I doubt they are lead anymore due to texture versus the old ones from 10-20 years ago.


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

I'd like to ad to this

I purchased a Java Fern and a Lace Java Fern from the local Petco; the ones that come in those clear plastic tubes

The plant is packaged as what looks like one big bunch, and the rhizomes are bunched together and wrapped with string. Do I need to remove this string that they're wrapped together with in order to get the roots to grab onto a piece of drift wood?


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## mk4gti (Jun 15, 2010)

yeah when ever i get new plants i usually remove all that stuff and snip the ends of the roots on a slant to encourage new growth.


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## Akinaura (Nov 8, 2010)

My husband and I get our plants from various sources but we always remove anything that comes with the plant. This allows us to fully look at the roots of the plant and separate individual plants as well as do a lookover to see if any of the roots need to be trimmed to allow new growth or whatnot.


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## swampcat874 (Dec 12, 2010)

automatic-hydromatic said:


> I'd like to ad to this
> 
> I purchased a Java Fern and a Lace Java Fern from the local Petco; the ones that come in those clear plastic tubes
> 
> The plant is packaged as what looks like one big bunch, and the rhizomes are bunched together and wrapped with string. Do I need to remove this string that they're wrapped together with in order to get the roots to grab onto a piece of drift wood?


I would remove all. I attached my Java Ferns to both rocks, real driftwood and Fake with thread used for sewing . Just tie tight enough to hold in place, when plants take hold on their own remove thread. Java will slowly , but eventually completely cover what ever you attach them too. The java will also soon start to produce sister plants on tips of their leaves, these will eventually release themselves and can be attached in same matter somewhere else.


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