# Plants from Home Depot/Lowes



## Treyg (Feb 13, 2012)

So after reading other posts about this all I should do is wash the plant completely of with water then rinse with light bleach solution the rinse with water again?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Usually I repot them into a substrate better suited for high humidity growing (the substrate they are in is meant for low level house humidity and becomes a wet sloppy mess in higher humidity) and in rinsing off the plant and trimming the roots a bit I will give it a rinse and soak in tepid to mildly warm water. This is primarily for helping rinse fertilizers and other chemicals off the plant as it's the most dangerous thing about these plants - at least in respect to frogs.

I tend not to bleach if I don't have to because that can be rough on plants. After I have the plants set up from their soak and new growing substrate (often just long fiber sphagnum moss) I grow them out in quarantine to check for pests, grow out a bit to adapt to new conditions, and also so that I'll have new growth to put in the tanks since I won't trust the old growth that got covered in spray fertilizers. If there are pests/diseases then I'll treat accordingly.


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## VicSkimmr (Jan 24, 2006)

I may just be crazy, but all I do is rinse out all the soil really well, rinse off the leaves really well and throw directly into the vivarium.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I wouldn't say crazy, just more risky. I haven't had too many pest issues with these plants BUT - that also implies they may be covered with chemicals that helped with that. A good rinse can remove a lot of that, and if you give the tank plenty of grow in time then a lot of the rest may be at least rinsed off into the substrate or something so the frogs aren't in direct contact, and at a lower concentration where it may not be harmful. When I get these plants I often grow them out also just to have more than what I originally bought so I can put them in multiple tanks, etc. so the extra growing out not in a tank is helpful. I also like to have a backup in case I kill a plant because of something unexpected happening in the tank!!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I rinse all the dirt out of the roots. Soak the entire plant in room temperature water for 15 minutes or so to insure that it is fully hydrated. Then I soak the entire plant in a 10% bleach solution (one cup of bleach to 9 cups of water) for 10 minutes. This is both for pests, such as snails, slugs, and nemerteans (which will establish and wipe out your microfauna and compete with your frogs for the flies you add), but also for Chytrid. Then rinse the plant extremely well to get rid of any bleach residue.
The water pre-soak hydrates the plant. A thirsty plant can suck up the bleach. I have treated a lot of plants this way and never killed a plant with this treatment. In fact I have never seen any negative effects whatsoever using this treatment. The only thing I have seen any negative effects on is with mosses, but they bounced back fine.
There is still one thing you want to take into account. Systemic pesticides. Only time can remove or reduce these. After treatment, I will plant them in ABG mix and grow them out for 6 weeks, OUTSIDE of the viv. This can help reduce the systemics.


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## fieldnstream (Sep 11, 2009)

I do what Doug said...never hurts to be careful. 6 weeks is a good goal to shoot for, sometimes I go ahead and go 8 weeks after barerooting (rushing a viv build isn't the best path to success, I've made that mistake more than once). A lot of times I do what Corey said about letting them grow out and divide/take cuttings. Having a mother plant to use in multiple vivs is definitely preferable...you don't have to buy new plants for each build. Just to add to what has been said, it wouldn't hurt to do a second bleach rinse after the 6-8 week growout period.
EDIT: This may seem like a lot of work...but trying to get rid of snails, slugs, etc... is much more work in the end (yep, I've dealt with that too and it sucked a lot).


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

When I grow them out I should note that they are kept individually in containers (like 32oz FF culture containers or similar) to keep contamination down from plant or frog pathogens - nothing like having a case of those annoying predatory nematodes break out into a tray of plants! If they have pests, they usually get "cleaned" at some point, then repotted back into a container, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of my plants went through at least one sterilization at some point before going into the general population. If I'm at one of the plant stores at see a plant with signs of pests, or a slug is crawling around or something, I usually mark the tag and it gets hit at some point. 

If I know the plants are coming in "dirty" (as in critters, not pathogens like Chytrid - I can't guarantee this works on chytrid as I haven't looked it up to see if it would kill the spores) I do something similar to Doug with the soak then wash, but I do it with a home made wash with alcohol and a drop of soap (the drop of soap breaks water tension and makes sure it gets into all the nooks and crannies) rather than the bleach (but it gets the same rehydration and good solid rinse after). This is a plant pest solution that has been handy for me, and some plants (like jewel orchids) just automatically get it. For some reasons jewel orchids ALWAYS seem to carry mites, slugs, or both. 

I've been known to mark all the leaves of a plant when it goes into grow out. This lets me know what is new growth when I have a lot of plants to keep track of. If you follow the systemics grow out plan, and do a second cleaning rinse, at that point I'd be chopping off the old growth and rooting the new growth for a tank.


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

What do you mark the leaves with?

Jake


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Just a spot or dash from a sharpie, a paint marker, or nail polish or for more sensitive plants (or for vines that tend to not branch much) I may just tie a little string loosely on the stem below new growth so I know to cut above it. I try and use methods that have also been used for marking seed pods as they develop (since if it works there and doesn't hurt the developing pod it probably won't hurt the leaves too much). When in doubt, just mark one leaf and see if the plant is ok with your method.


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