Planting Tools and Trimming

[Sakura8]

I recently purchased a pair of planting tweezers that have made planting exponentially easier. Now I'm looking for a good pair of plant scissors for trimming. What would be better for the trimming of nodal roots off of stem plants and trimming a glossostigma carpet: bent scissor tips like these:

or just curved tips like these


And how often should I be trimming my plants? Should I trim echinodorus and if so, how? Total plant newbie here so any and all advice is welcomed and appreciated. In the meanwhile, my plants are quivering in their substrate going, "What kind of whacko owns us?!?!" :)

[Wyvern]

Hai Sakura8 - Im waiting on my order of plant tweezers :( Its hard to get them here. I was even looking at getting surgical equipment since its easier! Fortunately found someone who will import it for me.

As for the scissors - I use normal ones and I would give my eye teeth for the bent one. It makes trimming stems so much easier when you have a bushy plant. Most people I know use both. The bent one is used to trim deeper in the plants and the straighter edged one is used for trimming plants from the top down or mosses.

I would go on growth - I trim now about once a month and then I trim about 10 - 15cms off some of my plants! Trimming is a personal choice since it helps to create the look you want to achieve with your plants.



This is my tank after trimming. I prefer a more cluttered/wild look so my plants are not perfectly shaped or anything like that. I tend to trim when the growth gets out of hand (aka my fish doesnt have anywhere to swim - I kid - I just do it monthly since I see hectic growth in that time).

The Indian Ferns (aka watersprite) was one big bush that covered the whole corner there and I thinned it out and only kept some of it. Before I trim I normally make a post on our local forums to find out if anyone wants any of the plants. If they dont I trim and take the cuttings to my LFS or make compost out of it. Since we are very careful about releasing plants into our water systems - we cant even have a small piece such as a leaf from the watersprite end up in the drainage systems here in case it takes over - I tend to throw my cuttings on the compost or give it away if I am not going to use it.

[Betta311]

Call your local carpet or flooring supply house,we sell curved scissors all day.

[Betta311]

I can ship the curved tiped,the lowers one to you.they are 8inches.

[Oldfishlady]

My favorite tools that I use on my plants are my...hands/fingers.....rarely do I use scissors...I pinch my plants and use my fingers to cram the plant into the soil/substrate....I have regular finger nail type scissors that I use on the woody stem plants that are too hard to pinch and for the lawn type plants I use scissors and mow it like a lawn-then net out the clipping...

I bought one of those extended planting tools-that has the exchangeable tips (tweezer/scissor) and I never use it for plants...I tried but I found my hands work better and make less of a mess....

[Thunderloon]

Originally Posted by Oldfishlady

My favorite tools that I use on my plants are my...hands/fingers.....rarely do I use scissors...I pinch my plants and use my fingers to cram the plant into the soil/substrate....I have regular finger nail type scissors that I use on the woody stem plants that are too hard to pinch and for the lawn type plants I use scissors and mow it like a lawn-then net out the clipping...

I bought one of those extended planting tools-that has the exchangeable tips (tweezer/scissor) and I never use it for plants...I tried but I found my hands work better and make less of a mess....

^^ QFT.

Though I found that the little plastic card-with-notch letter openers are AWESOME at cutting extended roots around a plant that I wish to transplant to another tank or location. Just drag it through the substrate schick schick and you've got a nice freed up circle of roots! (put someplace very warm to dry out afterwards, rust is not good!)

When planting new plants, almost nothing beats dragging a trough with one finger to guide the plant in then closing it up with the other hand. This is how we plant grain crops.

[Banicks]

Wyvern: I must say mate, I envy your tank. Beautiful.

[Wyvern]

Thanks Banicks, its taken about 9 months to get it to look like that with various non aquatic plants and so forth bought. The biggest thing for me is that I have to constantly double check the plants that I want against a Black List before getting them. Now to way and see if they are finally going to take shrimps off the blacklist.

OFL - I use my hands as well but as a kid I injured my right hand so I cant use it properly anymore and the tweezers makes it easier for me to get in and of the substrate. Only reason why I want it. Otherwise I suspect I would stick to using my hands :D

[Princess Penny]

Yeah I don't use tweezers either, I just stick my hands in there lol. And for trimming I just use a regular old pair of scissors, nothing fancy! There is no "rule" on how often you should trim your plants... it's as often or as little as you want to achieve the look you are going for.

[Oldfishlady]

I understand Wyvern-I have limited fine motor skills and it limits what I can hold or how I can hold some items-especially really small items after my accident unless I have adapted it-if I am not looking at my hands I often can't tell if I am holding something...lol.....it can be frustrating at times......but....always more than one way to get the job done.......may take a bit of imagination with some things.....lol.....that what makes this hobby so neat.....hundreds of right ways to do it......its finding what works best for you.....