How often should I add more root tabs?

Nutrients get used up over time (even if you’re using a nutrient-rich substrate) and therefore must be regularly replenished. To maintain healthy growth, we recommend adding more root tabs about once a month to continually build the nutrient base in the ground, especially if you are using an inert substrate like aquarium gravel or sand that doesn’t contain any nutrients on its own. Also, remember that as plants grow bigger, they will require more root tabs. A baby Amazon sword that is newly planted may only need 1 root tab every six weeks, but three months later, that same plant may need six tabs per month to sustain it.

To determine whether or not your plants have consumed all the available fertilizer in the substrate, look closely for signs of nutrient deficiencies. These symptoms can include lack of growth, yellowing and browning, or melting leaves (after the plant was growing well previously). For more information, read our full article on root tabs.