# Planting HC



## UncleJT (Apr 19, 2005)

I have some large mats of Hemianthus callitrichoides coming and looking to plant them in a tank having a footprint of 24" x 18" for growing out and later trading. The pieces of HC measure 3" x 4.5" and I have two coming.

Any suggestions on planting? I haven't planted HC before. Substrate will be Onyx and Fluorite in a 2:1 ratio. 1 bag of Fluorite with 2 bags of Onyx on top.


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

A few ways to go about this. 

1. Break the sod up into many smaller units, say 1/2" dia and plant as plugs

2. Drive yourself totally insane or enter a zen like state, pull the sod apart plantlet by plantlet and plant each one. 

3. Lay sod on substrate, sprinkle liberaly with substrate to hold down until new root work in.


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## amber2461 (Jun 15, 2004)

LOL, that is one way of putting it, thanks for the output.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

I have done all the methods, if you have bottom feeders and/or shrimp use the 3rd. If you just have middle rannge fish use 1 or 2 but I say the 3rd is easier.


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## UncleJT (Apr 19, 2005)

I will probably go with gnat's third method. Tank is new and currently has no fish/inverts in it. In the future, after the HC has rooted, I will be adding a large school of tetras or rasboras. This tank will only have HC in it, I'd like the entire bottom to become a "lawn" eventually.


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

I like no# 2, I place the plants about 1cm apart, they fill in quick thereafter.

You also can use less to plant more space with that method.

Then you can sell it for $$ and make your time and effort back.
Even the LFS grows it well here.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## shalu (Oct 1, 2004)

I have also done and liked #2, basically same method with glosso. It fills into pretty much uniform carpet soon. I started with a tiny patch in a 10 gallon. I have seen Luis Navarro's tank setup demo using method #1, you do need more plants for that.


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## markstr (Feb 23, 2004)

I have a question in regards to prunning this species..

I have EcoComplete for my substrate and I orginally planted small clumps throughout ( 37 gal. )
2 months after tank setup my forground is almost completly covered. Now some of the HC is growing in very large like clumps/hills. Do I sheer off the tops on this
to keep it more lower or just bury more of it in the substrate or just use more Substrate material and Cover
part of it??


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