What do you do with cuttings?

What do you do with cuttings?

  • Into the garbage

    Votes: 6 35.3%

  • Give them away

    Votes: 4 23.5%

  • Compost

    Votes: 4 23.5%

  • Into farm tank

    Votes: 3 17.6%
  • Total voters
    17
Art

Art

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    Oct 29, 2022
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    Trimming and uprooting comes with the planted aquarium territory. What do you do with the cuttings/uprootings?

    Please vote and post a comment telling us what you do? Any best practices? I hate throwing them away!
     
    I mainly add a few to my low tech tanks to keep around. Our chickens love the trimmings but “turning them into eggs” was not an option. The chickens get the bulk of my trimmings. Ducks love them too, but a fox and a couple raccoons put an end to our duck flock this past spring.
     
    I hate to throw them away, as well. I compost them, but I could certainly give them away, probably even sell them on fb marketplace or my local aquarium club page. I just don’t want to bother advertising, fielding messages back and forth and having people I don’t know come to the house. Too much effort and risk for so little a return. I asked and my local shops don’t want them.

    If I lived in an area with a large community of aquascapers/planted tank aficionados, and I had higher end plants I might make more of an effort. Luckily, my best plants (various buces and pinto anubias) still have plenty of room to spread in my own tanks : )
     
    I usually throw them out. If I'm going to a LFS, I'll save them and give them to them. A little good will never hurts and eventually it works both ways. :)

    I've sold them at times in the past, but from a time/packaging/postage/value proposition, for me it really isn't worth it.

    From the 180g tank, it's sometimes a 5-gallon bucket full if it's a big trim/rescape.
     
    Once apon a time I used to sell trimmings.
    The thing is you have to very much plan for that day if you do sell. IE Post pictures of the plants your going to be trimming and then get a buyer. Trim, which is usually on a weekend then hussle to the post office. Here where I live the main post office is the only one open on Saturdays and its a 40min drive.
    I have in the past taken them to the local LFS and traded for goods but it is hit or miss if they will even take plants anymore. Not a big market for them.
    So they mostly go into the compost bin pile and become carbon again.
     
    BigWave said:
    Once apon a time I used to sell trimmings.
    The thing is you have to very much plan for that day if you do sell. IE Post pictures of the plants your going to be trimming and then get a buyer. Trim, which is usually on a weekend then hussle to the post office.
    Click to expand...

    I can definitely see it becoming a loss on opportunity-cost alone if you’re coordinating shipping.

    I’m taking a stab at trying to sell some locally on Marketplace right now. Just trimmed a pack this morning for local pickup today. I’m really just trying to help out some locals and grow the hobby in the area. I’ve given away some before, but for the effort involved I’d like to see if I could make $10-$15 to help cover a bottle of fertilizer or something.

    This $15 pack has:

    3-4 stems of Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' and Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig’
    3-4 stems of Bacopa monnieri
    3-4 stems of Limnophila hippuridoides
    4-5 stems of Ludwigia repens and Ludwigia ovalis
    2-3 stems of Lobelia cardinalis
    7-8 stems of Rotala macrandra ‘green’ and Rotala rotundifolia
    And a cup of Salvinia minima floaters.

    Also packed up a ceramic planting ring, some filter floss, and rubber bands.

    The ad includes a full plant stock list with the more difficult plants in case someone wants to take a stab at the not-so-easy ones and I can create a networking opportunity.

    IMG_9985.jpeg

    IMG_9984.jpeg

    IMG_9983.jpeg

    IMG_9975.jpeg

    What do you think? Does this seem fair?
     
    Singapore has a very active hobbyist sellor market for rarer species, ever since a couple of influential folks spread the techniques for propagating difficult species. Prices for rarer species cratered 5X to 8X, prices for stuff like the Red Eriocaulon was below 10 USD. For hobbyists that were within the planted hobbyist plant dealing network, this meant very cheap access to plant species.
    However, the active hobbyist selling/trading market killed off sales at physical aquatic plant shops. Most physical shops now stock only the most high sales volume species (such as carpeting plants, and Java fern/anubias for the low tech market). There are very few physical shops that stock any higher level plants, since the sales prices doesn't justify the effort. So for folks that do not know how to source plants from other hobbyists, it would seem like Singapore shops stocked only very limited varietals of plants.
    On the hardware side, online sales direct from China similarly trashed hardware sales at physical shops. Any light unit you see at the shop (that is made in China) can be bought for 30% less if you bought directly from China sources.
    The combination effect is even though the hobby is growing, physical shops have poor sales and poor margins. Perhaps this is not dissimilar for retail shops as a whole, in an era where consumers can buy direct from brands and cut out the middle man.
     
    Well, even though I'm in an apartment at the moment, I've decided to try composting them. Amazon sells a small container (5 gallons) that is meant for this.

    At least I feel better that I'm recycling them into nutrients for my future balcony planter.
     
    Would anyone be willing to sale or simply give to me once tank comes online? I'm pay for shipping of course.

    For corals, its very common on some forums as corals that have been in tanks for years do much better than anything from the ocean.
     
    Count Krunk said:
    Would anyone be willing to sale or simply give to me once tank comes online? I'm pay for shipping of course.

    For corals, its very common on some forums as corals that have been in tanks for years do much better than anything from the ocean.
    Click to expand...
    This is what the ROAK (random acts of kindness) forum is all about. Would love to get more people sharing plant cuttings.
     
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