The Importance of Plant selection

[Waterkeeper]

I want to take a minute to talk to you newbs about selecting the appropriate inhabitants for your tank.

Husbandry (huz-band-ree) noun . The care and management of captive animals.

this is not just limited to your frogs, toads, snakes, or cockroaches. It includes the plants that you incorporate into your setting as well. Don't go letting silly tems like "dwarf" get you all riled up about putting a plant into your new 10 gallon FBT viv. "Dwarf" in the plant world is only dwarf compared to that of the mighty oak.
Now I would love to drop an acorn into my new 44 and let it ride for 5 or so years untill I had to move out of my apartment and buy the tree a yard to hang out in all day... but that just isn't in the best interest of my budget.

Think it is smart guy?? well check out my tank..

the first 2 weeks.


not too crowded.. little jumping room, few plants, nice moss gives a nice visual... see that barely noticeable plant in the back just above the right piece of moss... that's a red krinkle. I have fragged that plant 17 times since I set this tank up 6 months ago.. luckily you can just clip it at the split and replant the thing over and over and over and over and over and over again.


and how about a nice view from the top


it's pretty cool watching my frog swing from tree to tree like a monkey looking for a banana, but something tells me this isn't in his best interest. (and I don't think he likes bananas...)

now having researched properly(as I should have done in the first place) I understand that there are many plants that I could have used that grow MUCH slower. or that I could have even slowed this plants growth with proper planting.

to slow the growth of your plants(but still keep them alive) you can bind their roots into a ball using some vinyl window screen. take your screen and lay it out. put a hand full of potting soil in the center. set the bare root plant down on the soil, and wrap that screen up around it tight making a tight little bag of roots and soil (looks like a cartoon money bag) and use some twine to tie the bag shut on the stalk of your plant.
This eliminates the spreading out of the roots, and thus prevents the upward growth of the plant itself.

I thought It would be fun to write up a PSA for all you hooligans to actually learn something for a change, instead of just looking at all the pretty pictures. I hope at least one of you finds it useful or at least slightly entertaining. hey, if it kept just one of you kids away from the Pipe for five minutes, then I'm happy I could do the world a favor.

Happy Planting Kiddies!
-Chris

[Green Ghost]

Damn! you let the cat out of the bag! Now everyone'll know I'm a Hooligan.

Seriously though, that's one of the reasons why I stay away from small tanks. Even my 45g, which is the smallest viv I have, is overgrown now and I have to prune it every week. So I totally agree with you, choosing your plants properly is so important if you care about your viv and your pets.

Oh yeah .. about the comedy routine bud,... don't quit your day job

[froggsong]

Something to add, if you have plants that are trying to grow in lanky like the ones in your tank (by lanky I mean tall and thin rather than shorter and bushy), you can cut the top of the plant of to encourage it to grow OUT, rather than up. I have a dieffenbachia in my tank that has been in there for years (started out in a ten gallon, now it's in a 36"x18"x17") I do have to prune it regularly, the new leaves are large and grow straight up to the light source until they fold over, and sometimes they get scorched that way from actually touching the screen where the light is. I have seen this plant in home depot growing around 4 feet high! By cutting off the top every month or so (just the top budding leaves) it has spread out rather than up. This method can be used for alot of plants. Another good thing about this is, you can make a root on the piece you pruned just by putting it in water (again useful for a wide variety of plants.) Also, if you want outward growth in a plant that grows similarly, you can train some of the branches to lay down and root, making the plant expand outward and then have new growth upward so you can do it again. Now, I'm not going to claim to be great with plants, the only ones I can keep alive are ones I don't have to keep up with, unless they are in my tanks. The dieffenbachia that I have is strong enough to hold up my banana frog, and he is very large and heavy.

I've seen him on leaves that I totally wouldn't think would hold his weight. When I first got the plant and let it grow without pruning it, my squirrel frogs couldn't even hang on the branches without weighing them down to the floor.

[jhanlon303]

Sweet idea. Just bonsai the roots! Never would have thought of that myself. Another question would be: Where to get references for which plants to put in with which frogs. I mean are some plants OK for toads and not OK for an Azureus? I see in the threads that people use lot's of different plants that I wouldn't think to put into a tank. Do we have a list of good plants VS. bad plants?
John

[froggsong]

Yup, here's a link:

Plants To Avoid In Your Terrariums

[jhanlon303]

Exactly what I needed. Thanks for the link. I want to make my Azureus happy and healthy.
John

[JohnEDove]

WaterKeeper,
I would like to thank you for this most useful post. Over the past few days I have been researching terrarium plants and have really been questioning some of the choices available as well as some choices that others have made.
To me it makes little sense to add a plant that grows 18 inches, or more, to an enclosure which is only 12 inches tall.
BTW I am watching your build log, hurry up and give this poor picture addict some more up dates on your progress.