# Tropica Plants~Someday or Never?



## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

Just feel like ranting a little about this tonite. Was browsing my saved Tropica home page and came across its Dealers section. Both of our neighbors above and below all carry Tropica plants. Made me wonder......Being the free country that we are, being the most powerful nation on the face of this planet..... What gives.... Is it really to protect our soil from foreign infestation? Contamination? I am not so sure. As of now, I guess I can only drool over those quality plants hobbyists of other countries get to enjoy. I compare it to being able to have greater choices in selecting higher quality paints on the color palette we call aquascaping~ Someday seems so far away or perhaps it will be never for us?!


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## Jdinh04 (Oct 7, 2004)

Paul, I feel the same way! I wish we were able to receive plants from Tropica. After looking at some of the shops at Oliver's website, i've been drooling ever since on the quality of the plants they offer.

I'll keep dreaming =D


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## shake (Feb 26, 2006)

At least you can get plants from Singapore and Malaysia.

Try living in Australia. 

The good thing is we have a guy here (that's you Dave  ) who is growing and discovering some wonderful natives.

Until I discovered his business, I never knew we had some great plants right in our backyard..


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

I, too, share your frustration at the lack of Tropica-quality plants available locally. 

It's because US Customs will not allow plants to be shipped in a pot filled with rock-wool and Tropica is not willing to grow their plants without rock-wool. Not sure any of them will change their methods/regulations anytime soon. I see no reason why Tropica would need to, regardless of how big the US market is.

The only way it could work is if Tropica decided to open a facility somewhere in the US.


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Please explain the rock wool. I know what it is but; Why do they use it? Why does it matter that they use it?


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

T-Bone said:


> Please explain the rock wool. I know what it is but; Why do they use it? Why does it matter that they use it?


Tropica grows their plants using hydroponics and instead of growing it in soil (which would cause their plants to be banned in most countries), they use rock wool as a substrate. It's porous and it keeps the plants upright without inhibiting root growth. It also makes it much more efficient for them, as they sell their plants without having to remove the pots.

Now US Customs does not allow any plants to come into the country with any form substrate on them. Hence, if Tropica wanted to enter the US market they would need to remove all the pots and rockwool from their plants headed towards the US. They are not willing to do it because it will cost them considerably.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Raul-7 said:


> Now US Customs does not allow any plants to come into the country with any form substrate on them. Hence, if Tropica wanted to enter the US market they would need to remove all the pots and rockwool from their plants headed towards the US. They are not willing to do it because it will cost them considerably.


Interesting. I didn't know that before....


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## Jdinh04 (Oct 7, 2004)

I hope Tropica opens a company in the U.S. how sweet would that be?


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Interesting, thanks for clearing that up  Well I'm in Canada so I have bought tropica plants. I know that they probably wouldn't be able to remove the wool, if they wanted. Lol getting that stuff off without ripping appart the roots is a real PITA. Especially with ground cover that you rally need to seperate that stuff. Which is why I'll never buy ground cover from them anymore.


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## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

T-Bone, I think in their manual, Tropica did cover a section on how to remove their plants from the wool. For foreground plants, you want to cut a section off of the wool and leave the rest of it intact. But then if you are really determined to have no wool at all, then yeah, this might be a problem But then again, you make me so darn jealous to have access to quality plants at your fingertip!


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> Hence, if Tropica wanted to enter the US market they would need to remove all the pots and rockwool from their plants headed towards the US. They are not willing to do it because it will cost them considerably.


If that was true, how is it Oriental Aquarium is able to ship plants bare root into this country? OA's production volume is huge, I think quite a bit larger than Tropica. They grow many plants in rockwool and have no difficulty in preparing them for shipment into the USA.

Not all of Tropica's plants are grown hydroponically either. They have very large nursery greenhouses and big cement ponds full of hundreds of plants. You can see it in their photos from anyone who has toured the place.

What I find interesting is you never hear anybody in Canada jumping up and down about Tropica plants. They are taken for granted, generally higher priced and not much different than any other plant. In Europe there are several other growers besides Tropica. Dernnelle for one. Hans Barth is another. Amano stores started with only plants from Oriental Aquarium and Rayon vert. Supposedly now they carry a little bit of Tropica.

The USA has much tougher restrictions than Europe or any place else in the world. Thats never going to change, in fact its only going to get worse, but if Tropica wanted to sell plants in this country bad enough they would do it. Its not that difficult.

I can tell you though Florida Aquatic Nurseries is making big changes. They are adding dozens of new plants in the coming months and taking it very seriously. They want to be the Tropica of the USA. They want to appeal to every hobbyist out here from beginner to advanced. Will people take them seriously? Is just having the rare plants enough? I don't know. I think people want something more when they can't have it.


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## shake (Feb 26, 2006)

Robert Hudson said:


> If that was true, how is it Oriental Aquarium is able to ship plants bare root into this country? OA's production volume is huge, I think quite a bit larger than Tropica. They grow many plants in rockwool and have no difficulty in preparing them for shipment into the USA.


I guess cheap labour would account for this. In Europe wages are alot higher than Asian countries



> The USA has much tougher restrictions than Europe or any place else in the world. Thats never going to change, in fact its only going to get worse, but if Tropica wanted to sell plants in this country bad enough they would do it. Its not that difficult.


Not as tough as Australia. At least you can get plants in from Malaysia and Singapore.


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## Adragontattoo (Jun 3, 2007)

My two crypt wendtii that I have in my 20h were some of the largest potted from a LFS that I have ever seen. The pots had to be cut off and I had to plant the crypt with the rock wool for a few weeks before I could start removing it. Wherever the LFS got their crypts from grows them in soil AND rockwool which I had never seen. I wasnt able to get all of the rockwool off without totally shredding the poor crypt so I picked as much as I could off and then replanted it. I am guessing they were grown emersed because all of the existing leaves are dieing back/melting but there are tons of new shoots coming out in place.


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