# Trouble with java ferns



## Kehy

I know these are supposed to be easy plants to grow, but I've pretty much just had trouble with them from the start. The plant I got had a few nice long leaves, but most of them had brown spots. Over time, I trimmed these off since it was growing new leaves, but these leaves have never gotten as tall as the old leaves, and all of the taller leaves get the brown spots too. It's been growing plenty of new leaves, and there's a few tiny plantlets, but it just doesn't seem to be growing much at all, other than that. It's also never attached to anything, even when it was rubberbanded to a rock for 5 months. Everything else is growing really well in my tank, I just don't know what's going on with my fern.

It never attached to anything, so I can take it out when I clean the tank


----------



## majerah1

Looks like the root system is covered in something black.You need to clean it really well.Also be sure the rhizome can get light and water movement.


----------



## Kehy

majerah1 said:


> Looks like the root system is covered in something black.You need to clean it really well.Also be sure the rhizome can get light and water movement.


hmm, I think part of that might be a wood plug it was grown into? I don't know, but I'll try that and see if there's a difference.


----------



## majerah1

The roots of course are what it uses to attach to things.You should be able to see the rhizome,which should be the same color as the leaves.This should never be covered by gravel,or anything else.Even if you tuck it into a crevice,you should still have the rhizome visible so it can get the nutrients it needs from the water column.


----------



## Kehy

Well, I tried to remove the black stuff. Turns out it was rootlets all tied together with string. Now I have 11 tiny plantlets, when all I wanted was 1 larger plant. No idea what I'm going to do with them, I don't have room for them all. They look pretty healthy though, so I might try to grown them a bit more then sell them or give them to LPS that has a plant tank. Or just get rid of them. I hate to throw them out, but I really don't have room. :/


Any good ways to grow them quickly? Right now they're just sitting in a quart jar I had laying around.


----------



## majerah1

I would try to grow them.If I had money I would offer to get a few,but Im currently saving for some CO2 supplies.


----------



## BBradbury

*Re: Trouble with Java fern*

Hello Kehy...

Aquatic plants are finicky about water conditions. Even if the reference says it's suitable for beginners or hardy and adaptable, sometimes conditions aren't right.

Java fern doesn't like bright light. You can keep it in a tank with bright light, but it needs to be shaded by other, taller plants. I have varieties of this plant in tanks with less than one watt of light per gallon of tank size and it does pretty well. It's a slow grower and the old leaves will become tattered and get black even on a small plant.

The plant needs to be attached to a hard, porous surface. I attached mine to driftwood and lava rock with sewing thread and I tied it loosly. If the rubberband you used was too tight, it may have damaged the roots.

B


----------



## Kehy

*Re: Trouble with Java fern*



BBradbury said:


> Hello Kehy...
> 
> Aquatic plants are finicky about water conditions. Even if the reference says it's suitable for beginners or hardy and adaptable, sometimes conditions aren't right.
> 
> Java fern doesn't like bright light. You can keep it in a tank with bright light, but it needs to be shaded by other, taller plants. I have varieties of this plant in tanks with less than one watt of light per gallon of tank size and it does pretty well. It's a slow grower and the old leaves will become tattered and get black even on a small plant.
> 
> The plant needs to be attached to a hard, porous surface. I attached mine to driftwood and lava rock with sewing thread and I tied it loosly. If the rubberband you used was too tight, it may have damaged the roots.
> 
> B


Mine was shaded, attached loosely, had a plantlets free floating, some wedged down, more light, less light...nothing worked. Except now that I have all (12) of my pieces floating loose in a quart jar, sitting in a window, and they're as happy as can be. No circulation, no ferts, not attached, and only a bit of sunlight...go figure, lol.

I might go to the LPS and see if they have any driftwood or rock I could attach them too, but I've never had issues with them not being attached, except for algae when they hung out in areas of high light.


----------



## Kehy

They're still interesting to watch though, bubbling more than I thought they would be


----------



## BBradbury

*Re: Trouble with Java fern*

Go figure...

Sometimes plants just don't grow every well, even though you try to give them what you think are the best water conditions.

I do dose a couple of different kinds of liquid fertilizers two to three times a week when I top off my tanks.

I've found over the years that low light plants need a little boost to grow well.

B


----------



## NeonShark666

Java Fern is one of the easiest plants to grow (it is a true Fern). Your plants aren't deep green like mine are. They also have brown patches that aren't normal. Java Fern does fine whether rooted or drifting. This Feern is one of those plants thart doesn't need strong lighting. That may be your problem.


----------



## Kehy

NeonShark666 said:


> Java Fern is one of the easiest plants to grow (it is a true Fern). Your plants aren't deep green like mine are. They also have brown patches that aren't normal. Java Fern does fine whether rooted or drifting. This Feern is one of those plants thart doesn't need strong lighting. That may be your problem.


Easy is a relative term. I've had great success with dwarf lillies and anubias, and some people have trouble with them. I've had my ferns under all three lighting conditions I can give them (low light, higher light, and sunlight) and the only thing they really seem to like is the sunlight. 
I don't know what the brown patches are from, I'm guessing too much light (which doesn't explain why they like sunlight) and the water they were in being unsuited for them (which doesn't explain why everything else loves the water). I've never tested my water, and probably never will, so I can't really say for sure, what made the patches.


----------



## majerah1

I think the issue was with that many tied together,most of the rhizomes wasnt getting the light and circulation they needed.Now they can breathe,lol.

Looks nice in the jar.


----------



## Fearmancer

If you still have some extra plants I'd take them off your hands. PM me what you want for them and we'll work something out. I can't find java fern at the lfs around here and I don't want to buy a large amount like most online stores want to sell.


----------



## Kehy

Fearmancer said:


> If you still have some extra plants I'd take them off your hands. PM me what you want for them and we'll work something out. I can't find java fern at the lfs around here and I don't want to buy a large amount like most online stores want to sell.


pmed


----------



## FAIRCHILD

if you have any more of those ferns I am looking to get some as well. Just pm me. 

Thanks!


----------



## Kehy

28Photos said:


> if you have any more of those ferns I am looking to get some as well. Just pm me.
> 
> Thanks!


sure, I'll have some more, but for now I'm just letting them grow. The ones I'm keeping are less than an inch, but I'll be selling them when they get to 2"


----------



## Kehy

So just an update:

I now have 6 ferns left, with one having 2 baby ferns on it. I'm going to test which conditions the ferns like better, with 3 being in the jar they've been doing great in, and 3 in the tank. The three in the tank are in different conditions, just to see if they do better one way or another. One is lightly wedged (lightly!) under a rock where it gets medium lighting. Another is stuck to my filter intake (it's too small to clog the filter) and gets higher light. The last is free floating. 

Any guesses as to which ones are going to grow the best? The ones in the tank are getting the benefit of having fish around, but the ones in the jar get real sunlight. I'll check all the plants again next week for growth.


----------



## jrman83

And the rhizome is not buried, correct?


----------



## Kehy

jrman83 said:


> And the rhizome is not buried, correct?


no, it's not buried and water can move around it


----------



## Kehy

I'll be checking the growth rates in a few more days, but couldn't resist getting this picture!


----------



## jrman83

Nice!


----------



## Kehy

So I checked the growth rates today, it's been a week since I started my little test. 
3 ferns in my tank, 4/6 were in my growout jar. The ferns from the tank are on the top, the ones from the jar are below them.

I noticed that two of the three ferns in my tank found their way into the darkest corner of my tank, right next to the filter intake. The third was hanging out in a medium light area, also close to the filter intake. The ferns in the tank did not have the same growth as the ones in the jar. Instead of putting out tons of new growth, the ferns in the tank grew taller.

In the jar, the ferns had lots of new growth, although they stayed shorter. There was also more algae on the ones on the ferns in the jar, but gently cleaning them seems to get off most of the algae. I'm assuming that this is from the sunlight that they get.


While I'm wanting to get taller growth on all of my ferns, there just isn't room in my tank to have all 9-10 of them. Why did the numbers change? I got 2 fernlets from a mother plant, and I have a rhizome that might grow leaves. Maybe. For now, I'll just leave all of them in the jar, and be patient. And hope that they'll stop multiplying.


----------



## Kehy

At last count, I have 10 baby ferns that somehow keep multiplying. The largest one is about an inch, and there's too many of them to stick in my tank so they'll get taller. If I wasn't worried about how well they'd hold up, I would happily trade them away or sell them. 

I do have an actual problem though, the brown spots I was originally wondering about seem to have spread onto all the plants. Could it be that they're getting too much light? That's the only thing I can actually think of that might be the problem.


----------

