Java fern propagation
 

I have a couple of questions about how to propagate Java Ferns.

First, I have a small Java fern that has two small platelets forming on one of it's leaves. The little leaves and roots are growing as expected - slow and steady like Java fern does! I'm wondering when they will be ready to become their own plants, and if I have to (or should) do anything to separate them? How will I know? Will the babies develop their own rhizomes?

Next question. . . I recently got a batch of plants (NOT Java fern) from a chain store, and a broken leaf from a Java fern (the leaf is only about an inch long) ended up in the bag. That single lonely leaf has a tiny baby Java fern planet on it - very tiny, really only just the tiniest little root. I chucked it into my grow-out tank, figuring it would die, and after several weeks, that lonely little leaf is still green, and somehow still hanging on to life - though it doesn't seem any bigger.

Is it possible that I can grow a new plant from this tiny little. . . thing?! If so, what should I do to properly care for it and nurture it into a plant-able fern?

If you leave the daughter plants on the leaves, they will continue to develop. At some point they may break off on their own; I'm not exactly sure when, it might be a while. If you remove them after several leaves and a decent patch of black roots have formed, attach them to wood or rock, in a crevice is easiest. Or let them float. In their habitat they float around a bit and find something they can attach to.

Yes. The developing daughter plant is assimilating nutrients from the water, as is the "parent" leaf to some extent. The old leaf itself would not develop roots of its own or anything, but it is serving to sustain in part the plantlet.

I plucked off half a dozen from my large java fern once, each one had some roots and two leaves. That was about 4 months ago ... they're all still handing on, but the largest of them all only has four leaves now o.O

Talk about slow growers :D However, the original Java Fern has doubled in size so... While another in my wife's Betta tank looks honestly just about dead. I've no idea what happened to it.

Cool, very interesting stuff - thank you both for the information! I had NO idea they actually float around in nature, I guess this explains why my lonely little leaf is still around! Hopefully it continues to do well, and I'll end up with a new baby fern! The others, that are actually attached to a plant, sound like yours, Geo - two leaves and a few roots. I'll just leave them be for a while and see what happens - oddly enough, they're in my daughter's beta tank! They seem to like it in there *shrug*

Thanks again!