Planting Fresh Cuttings and why they’re the best type of plants to get

When ordering plants online, you’ll generally find one of four options available. The most common is generally lead bunches, which often means the plants have been grown emersed (above water). You’ll also find tissue cultures, which are generally the most difficult to grow. Finally, you’ll find fresh cuttings- either rooted or fresh cut.

Lets dig into each of those options.

Firstly, lead bunches. Now, a lead bunch doesn’t necessarily imply that you’ll be buying emersed plants, and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with emersed plants. But large retailers like Buceplant and Aquarium Plants Factory grow all of their plants in a greenhouse rather than in tanks, meaning you’ll get plants that need to be “Converted.” Converting plants is the process of planting a plant used to being grown above water, and getting it to form new growth in its submerged form, which generally looks very different. Check out this Ludwigia Arcuata I got from Aquarium Plants Factory that my cat is trying to eat- note the entirely different color and shape of the lower leaves versus the cool needle-red leaves from the submerged form up top. These are generally harder to grow and require a lot of pruning to adapt to your tank, but usually won’t cause too much trouble when growing.

The next most popular way to get plants is in the form of tissue culture. Tissue cultures are, in all seriousness, a pain in the ass to grow. They’re also one of the cheapest ways to get a lot of plants, if you want that. They’ll come in little cups and you can usually get 5-6 plants for the cost of 1 normal plant, which is especially nice for crypts, swords, etc. However, just remember that since everything is extremely short they’ll be extraordinarily difficult to plant into substrate. And the more sensitive plants will prove to be a lot more difficult to convert, such as Hygrophila Chai.

The final, and in my opinion best way to purchase plants, is fresh cuttings. Fresh cuttings come from already flourishing, submerged plants so the plant doesn’t need to spend any energy converting itself from an emersed form. They also usually come with a healthy and large enough stem that they’re easy to plant directly into the substrate, and most growers sell good looking cuttings so you won’t need to prune the plant after a few weeks to avoid ugly or weird looking leaves at the base. I’ll continue focusing on fresh cuttings for the remainder of this post, as that is what we sell here at Sunken Treasure Aquatics.

What to do with a fresh cutting

You’ll receive fresh cuttings with or without roots. Many sellers will charge extra for rooted cuttings, which in most cases is a waste of money. Any stem will grow healthy roots a few days after planting, and stems are very easy to cut and replant. Additionally, preexisting roots make the stem harder to plant cleanly, and the plant will likely wind up growing new roots anyway because the existing roots are bunched up.

This leads me to fresh cuttings, without roots. Snipped straight from the stem and shipped straight to you door. Thats what we sell here, both because it is the easiest for us (making it cheaper for you!) and because it is the best for customer tanks. Simply shoving a freshly cut stem an inch into substrate and waiting a week has almost a 100% success rate for me, and the plants will grow their own roots and new leaves adapted to your tank.

So how do you properly plant fresh cuttings?
Realistically, the answer is “However the hell you want.” Just shove it into some substrate with your fingers or tweezers, give it some light and fertilizer, and a few days later you’ll see loads of new growth. If you’re looking to do it properly, try these things:

1. Trim the bottom leaves. If you gently pick off the bottom leaves of the stem with your fingernails, up to maybe 1/2”, you may see better luck with planting. Removing the leaves at the bottom of the stems promotes rooting. Personally, I like to leave one or two leaves in as little “barbs” to hook the plant into the substrate so it doesn’t float up.

2. Clean snip the bottom. We always send cleanly cut plants, but if you’re replanting your own plants or plants from someone else then make sure the cut at the bottom is clean, especially for thicker stems. If it looks mushy or not perfectly cut, grab some scissors and snip them straight across to make the cut clean. This promotes root growth as well and keeps the bottom from rotting, which can cause the entire stem to rot.

3. Evenly trim all the bottoms. This is more of a planting tip than a growth tip, but anytime I get fresh cuttings in with roots or bundled together I always try to line them up then cut them across evenly to remove roots, the bottom of stems, any dirt, etc. I start with a totally clean stem, which also makes all the stems in my hand even and easier to plant.

In the case you planted something and it doesn’t seem to be doing well, your first step should be to recut the stem. Plants usually rot from the bottom up, so cut the stem above any rot and replant it, ideally somewhere else if possible. Discard the rotting stem. If it still rots, you should check your tank conditions to ensure you have the right amount of nutrients, CO2, etc. In fact a lot of plant rot can actually be caused by too many nutrients in the substrate, or not enough aeration which can cause root rotting (black roots). Malaysian Trumpet Snails are one of the best solutions to this issue, actually, as they dig through the substrate and aerate the roots.

Hopefully this helps explain how to properly plant cuttings and other plants! Feel free to ask us for any advice.