# Dwarf hairgrass from Petco?



## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

When I got some wisteria from Petco the other day, I noticed that they had some dwarf hairgrass in little plastic bags on the shelves. Each bag cost about $6 and had several small clumps of hairgrass in some sort of plant gel. They looked pretty healthy, and were short with no seed-like tops...which, I believe, means they were grown in water? 

Has anyone bought these? Did they survive and grow well?


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

I got them for my 3g NPT, and within three months it covered the entire bottom of the tank. As long as you have good lighting and a good substrate, it should do fine.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, I've bought them before. Hairgrass are heavy root feeders so if you have a soil based tank they will do very well in that, otherwise you'll have to add root tabs to keep them growing. They are moderate growers so don't expect them to carpet your tank overnight of course but in a few months with the right nutrients and light they will be just fine! What kind of light do you have?


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Thanks! I have organic soil and gravel substrate, so I think it should be fine for hairgrass. I grew hairgrass in this tank once before, but got discouraged and removed it when 90% of it turned into mush...but I've read now that it does that sometimes when it's getting used to being grown in water. Is that true?

My light is a 13w 50/50 compact fluorescent. The tank is a 3 gallon and about 8" tall. I may get a better light for the tank at some point. Would the 13w be good enough for hairgrass?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yep, that's called melting although sometimes the plant completely dies if it came from parameters that are much different than your parameters.

As for the light, wattage isn't what grows the plants it's about the Kelvin rating. Kelvin rating is the color temp of the bulb, you want to look for 6,500K also sold as Daylighting although anything 5,000K and up is Daylights so make sure you find on the box what the exact kelvin rating is.


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## merrycat (Mar 29, 2014)

Is hair grass similar to pygmy chain swords? Do they stay relatively short?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

merrycat said:


> Is hair grass similar to pygmy chain swords? Do they stay relatively short?


Pygmy Chains get a little bit bigger I believe, Dwarf Hairgrass stays short mostly, around 5 inches or less depending on your lighting situation. There is Giant Hairgrass that of course gets much bigger.


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