Attaching Plants To Bogwood/driftwood.

I've recently bought seachem flourish glue, though I've not had a chance to actually use it yet. I will be using it for an anubias and Java fern as well as a bolbitus. It is essentially super glue.

@Helen - that Seachem product is a gel. Apparently it can be used underwater! I can't imagine how as, @Sue, I have read that moisture/water is the activating agent for cyanoacrylate. I imagine it would bond very quickly. Over to you Helen! My major concern is that some of the Anubias will be at least 15" high.

                         Skittler

Just a word of warning when using glue to attach plants. It will discolour the wood permanently where it touches it so just use small amounts that will be covered by the plant itself.   To explain what i mean a little - I would suggest glue is a poor choice for attaching moss for example as you would have to cover the branches in it liberally. Of course using string means you can see the string but you can also remove it later down the line once the plant has attached itself to the wood.

I've used the Flourish glue to attach anubias to wood on several tanks, because I'm rubbish with the thread.
I use wood that has previously been soaked, take that out of the water and wipe it dry with paper towel. If the wood is particularly craggy and holding a lot of water, a quick blast in the right place with a hairdryer works wonders. Dry the anubis with paper towel, as a small blob of glue (which I normally put on the rhizome or stem, and place it on the wood. Apply pressure & hold firm for a minute or two, until the glue sets.
I've had some bits of wood & plants which have taken quite a lot of glue & time to get things to attach, and it's been a bit trial and error for me.

Thanks all. That's good information. @Littlefish - did your Flourish glue stain the wood badly? How tall was the biggest plant?

I now have 4 pieces of wood in one bucket, and various Anubias and Java Fern in another. That's me committed then. (Some say it should have happened years ago!) All the wood sank immediately, which surprised me. They came from 3 different LFS's and were described as "Rosewood Bogwood" (MA), "Mangrove"(MA), and "driftwood"(PAH). It all has to be done now because a w/c without those buckets will be very time consuming.

             Skittler

Thanks @Sue. That's a very good point about the w/c's. Perhaps I can do more smaller w/c's for a while. I won't know if I am going to have a "height/depth" problem until it's done.

                   Skittler

@Skittler the glue leaves a white residue on the wood, which is usually hidden by the plant. If you end up moving the plant to another piece of wood in the future you can scrape the marks off the wood.
Some of the plants are quite tall. I have a lot of different sizes, especially in the axolotl tank, which is probably the worst tank for plants because it's a cold tank, the axolotls don't like too much light, occasionally mistake a leaf for food, and tend to rest in the leaves.

So I used the seachem flourish glue.

It was successful for attaching the anubias to a rock and for attaching small bits of bolbitus to a rock. I see what you mean about the white. From a science point of view, it only looks white when it goes in the water so (prepare for geek mode) it must be something to do with the different refractive properties of the glue Vs water.

I also tried using it to attach some monoselenium to bogwood. When I took the wood and liverwort out of the tank, it was clear that my attempts with thread were all but a total failure - the liverwort was floating several cms above the wood, but the thread was stopping it float off all together. I used 3 blobs of glue on what I thought looked like core clumps and then pressed the wood onto the plant. Out of the tank, I was pleased that I had done a good job. When I put it back in the tank, most of the plant floated off! But there is just about enough left to give the right effect. It ideally needs a really good vacuum following the substrate reshuffle, but I daren't incase I vacuum the whole lot off the wood. Does anyone have any tips for attaching moss like plants to wood, particularly liverwort? Do I just need to use lots of thread? Will liverwort ever attach itself to wood?

The only other thing I can think to suggest is to put it on with thin tights stretched over it so it can grow through this but I imagine this would look pretty ugly...

Or a hairnet.