Frag gluing

[Chamkeeper]

I just got a variety of frags from a local meet. The ones that I acquired attached to a piece of rock seem to be adapting well. The others need help. I have read the superglue gel along the edge and tried it. It seemed to work ok for my GSP, leather and rics, but the caponela isn't doing well. it's kind of laying over, not looking 'tree like'. Any ideas?

[tinyreef]

bump

 

caps and leathers can be glued but sometimes you have to almost smother the base like you're using cement. capnella and leathers tend to attach better when the optimal 'rooting' area can be provided. this tends to be a sheltered crevice or depression in a rock fragment or even specially prepared base.

 

the trick lies in preventing the frag from being blown away. you can use bordering rubber bands to lightly prop it up and somewhat hold the frag down (this is where leaving a branching section on a frag is very helpful, i.e. for the band to catch over) without being too constricting is the key imo.

 

for example, the attached pic shows a colt in a small 'valley' of a piece of lava i picked out for it with the bordering rubber band concept. while the small clay pots are an example of the sheltered concept. none of these used glue, altho i have used glue for other frags such as: colts (after many attempts), shrooms, acros, etc. i've found au natural holds the best and grows the fastest. hth

[Crakeur]

natural is always best and with soft corals you do exactly as tiny says, find a crevice. stonies need the glue to get them to stand and then they should start to grow over the glue and onto the rock as they continue growing taller.

[kennerd]

tiny: I always get a kindergarten-humor kick out of that pud in a pot! Thanks for posting that again.

 

Another method is to needle & thread your branching softies to a small rock. The key is to make it happy without too much flow to knock it around, and it'll attach rather quickly.