i would def watch.

As long as you carefully monitor it's relatively safe, I just take the hyper paranoid route

Bentley Pascoe I agree that why I don’t use strong diy. What I’m using is 9/2/7. All organic mix. That way it’s not to much.

@@BentleyPascoe Yes to be honest If used in moderation Osmocote can be great. Denis Wong uses individual balls instead of a whole capsule and this is what I do. On another note the commercial gel capsules must also use a generic slow release fertilizer. Have you seen Tropica's nutrition tabs? tropica.com/en/plant-care/nutrition-capsules/ Look familiar?

Rosette plants are root feeders (nymphaea, swords, crypts, lagenanadra) stems and epiphytes are water column.

It's still perfectly helpful to put fertilizer at the roots. It may not be necessary, but you'll see better growth and faster propagation doing it.

@@BentleyPascoe thanks for the quick response! I look forward to the rest of this series. 👍🏼

You can, just be very careful to monitor your tank parameters with testing before adding fish

@@BentleyPascoe Thank you

With tissue cultures since you're starting pretty fresh, just do root tabs. For the first few weeks you should be okay with just those, but as you start seeing those tissue cultures begin to grow, test your water and if you don't have nitrates at a small amount of liquid fertilizer to the water column so that they can feed off of that as well. Most tissue culture plants do a really good job of feeding from the roots from the start so I would start with that to help get them that initial boost. And then as you see that new growth coming in and then we getting to get some height then look to add some to your water column.

Are you referring to Mexican potting clay for iron? If so it's fine, otherwise not sure.

Almost all of the root tabs that are out there are roughly similar so don't stress about a specific brand. Just find something that's designed for an aquarium and not necessarily a DIY root tab and you'll be okay.

Growing in Terra cotta pots I just fine, you can split the child plants off into smaller pots if you want or just them together

Yes you can, root feeders will take advantage of the tabs while water column feeders use the liquid fertilizer

They act closer to floating plants with some restrictions because they can't be submerged

More algae than hurting fish, but yes it's technically possible.

nearly any root tab will do the trick, but something made with a red clay base will help give a little extra iron, but honestly this is pretty negligible. I personally have used a BUNCH of different tabs and in the end I just use what is easiest for me personally to get into my substrate. Aquarium Co-Op, Seachem Flourish Tabs, NilocG Thrive tabs, they're all good options and there's a ton more.

@@BentleyPascoe Thank you 😊

I'll have to take a look at it

@@BentleyPascoe osmocote water gardens and aquatic plants it's called. We have it in Australia so I assume the rest of the world has it. Unless the earth is flat and Australia doesn't exist. I may or may not be a payed actor

No they do not, you're good to leave them!

@@BentleyPascoe excellent. How do we know when it is used up?

@@dannybonsai7102 usually about a month

@@BentleyPascoe many thanks!

I don't personally recommend it, but if it's done carefully and in the right substrate it can be.

Sadly not really. Just deeper substrate

@@BentleyPascoe My problem is keeping it in the tweezers. My substrate is 2-3" deep, but trying to push it into the substrate kicks it out of the tweezers. Maybe it is just cuz I'm blonde....:)

@@BentleyPascoe Bentley I need help. Can't find your email. Been reading and watching for weeks re proper light for my 10 gallon tank. I saw 2 of your videos on the new Fluval and very helpful, but I need your magic touch. I have no Co2, new Fluval 3.0, what light setting should I use for R. Rotundifolia, Hygrophila Difformis, and a few Crypt Wendtii, plus my guppies? I would sure appreciate a simple setting and any advice. You ROCK, by the way.

@@cathylynn1382 email is bentley.pascoe@gmail.com.

Poke the capsule with a needle should keep it from floating up

So I'm simplifying some here, but if we want to be technical, the nutrients we normally use for aquarium fertilizer tend to be things like potassium nitrate whereas osmocote uses ammonium nitrate as its primary nitrogen source. Osmocote more specifically uses several ammonium compounds, which with most planted tanks where the pH tends to be lower and water tends to be softer - as this benefits plant growth and color, can lead to dangerous levels of ammonium or, more importantly cause an overload of nitrite as the bacteria that eats ammonia and ammonium forms far faster than the nitrite eating bacteria within the nitrogen cycle. Both ammonia and ammonium come up in the ammonia testing we commonly do, so for some simplification, its how I presented this. I suppose one could blindly scream "that's inaccurate!" but there's still a very palpable risk. A person who follows the channel has done a bunch of testing with osmocote and different depths of substrate, all of which produced noticeable increased levels on his API liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrite to potentially toxic levels for fish. To me, the risk is not worth fighting over semantics, but if you have success with it and like it - you'll have your own view based on personal experience.

Harder types for me personally

@@BentleyPascoe yes seems like the way to go. Easier to plant in substrate. Less worry of it leaching as you plant it. Md longer lasting

I would be concerned about ammonia from it. I don't think I would put that in an aquarium

@@BentleyPascoe I have to try…. I’ll put it under a sword or lily so it hopefully gets absorbed fast.

It's ok, it's similar to other root tabs of it's design

Water based should be fine in that case, but it doesn't hurt to have them.

Very good question!

Osmocote makes pond fertilizer and the ingredients are exact same thing as the osmocote plus but most aquatic fertilizer doesn’t contain all the micro and macro nutrients wouldn’t it make sense to get osmocote bc it contains macro and micro

The dosing is different on them, I would read each one carefully before trying one

For the most part, the real problem is it's hurting my ability to work on the online horticulture program

@@BentleyPascoe that sucks man. My barbershop is shut down until inslee changes his mind.

With what? I'm a little confused on what you're referencing