# General Topics > Plants, Plant Care & Plant Identification >  Snake plant

## Stephanie

I recently bought a snake plant from my local lowes. I want to incorporate into my white tree frog tank. I usually free feed my frogs and was wondering if I planted my snake plant in the abg soil mix in a container of it would be frog safe? I also wanted to know how to properly clean the plant of the pesticides and current soil that it is in. How long should i let it grow out before adding it to my viv?


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## bill

You can plant it in it's container or you can just plant it directly into the substrate. Just rinse it under running water for a few minutes, roots and all. That wil clean off any spray pesticides that may be on the plant as well as eliminate any excess soil. Once clean, you can plant it directly. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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Snappi13

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## irThumper

Good question on how long it takes the pesticides to dissipate. I have some smaller sanseverias I've had for quite a few months now (purchased in the fall for a grocery store sell out) and then a larger one I got from Lowes a month or two ago. Would it be safe to put the smaller ones right in the tank or should everything be rinsed anyway?

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## bill

You should always rinse a plant off before putting it into the tank. There are 2 types of pesticides used in commercial growing, topical and systemic. Topicals are the most common used for house/garden plants. They are sprayed on, and will be removed with a nice rinsing of the plant or a rainstorm. Systemic pesticides are a spray pesticide used primarily in agricultural applications. They soak into the soil and the plant then absorbs it into itself via the root. The will stay within the plants for a few months. That's why they are used for agricultural applications. It would get expensive to spray a crop after every rainstorm. 

So basically, if you rinse a plant well, you are good. If you want to grow them out in a qt grow tank, it will take, on average, about 6 months to grow out any systemic pesticides. Although, IMHO, this is unnecessary, especially in this day and age where "organic" is the trend. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## irThumper

Ok, good deal. The plants had what appeared to be Osmocote in the soil too. I will have had the small ones 6 months as of April, so will give them a nice bath before transplanting into the container they are going into. I've hear Sanseveria like a bit of a dryer more desert like soil that is well drained because they hate wet feet and are susceptible to root rot, I was wondering about a sandy organic cactus soil but was worried about sand and the frogs; could the Sanseveria be planted in this and then topped off with ABG or will straight ABG be fine for Snake plants?

Oh, and I'm going to be putting the potted plants in the terrarium vs planting the terrarium itself. I've heard using ferts for fresh water aquarium plants would be safe for frogs, but is this proven?

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## Stephanie

I wanted to plant my snake plant in a pot as well. I prefer repti carpet for my substrate which I also use some leaf
Litter on top just to add so naturalistic texture. So im with u irthumper. Although I'm not sure how exactly to go about this. 


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## irThumper

You and I are both basically on the same page then, lol.  :Wink:  I also use Repticarpet (paper towels still for some of my guys) and have fake silk leaves strewn around on top of it. One thing I'm planning on doing is cutting the Repticarpet to fit around bigger pieces of decor, plan containers, etc. This way it will be easier (hopefully!) to take it up and clean it when I need to.

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Snappi13

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## bill

You can use straight ABG in the pots. I grow all my plants in ABG. Even when I purchase new plants, i repot them into ABG. The only thing you don't want to do, obviously, is plant them into peat or any other biodegrade pots. 

Ferts for aquatics are safe. I use them. There are several that are excellent.  Seachem flourish is pretty good. I used that for years, but since switched over to florin multi by bright well aquatics. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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irThumper, Snappi13

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## irThumper

Good deal, thanks!  :Smile:

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## Stephanie

Thanks a bunch happy frogging 


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## Crunchy Frog

> Ok, good deal. The plants had what appeared to be Osmocote in the soil too. I will have had the small ones 6 months as of April, so will give them a nice bath before transplanting into the container they are going into. I've hear Sanseveria like a bit of a dryer more desert like soil that is well drained because they hate wet feet and are susceptible to root rot, I was wondering about a sandy organic cactus soil but was worried about sand and the frogs; could the Sanseveria be planted in this and then topped off with ABG or will straight ABG be fine for Snake plants?
> 
> Oh, and I'm going to be putting the potted plants in the terrarium vs planting the terrarium itself. I've heard using ferts for fresh water aquarium plants would be safe for frogs, but is this proven?


Hi.  Been away for awhile, but I'm baaaack! :Devilish: 

Anyway, I've got a couple of snake plants growing in my Grey tree frog viv.  One of them is planted directly in the wet gravel substrate, and has been for a few months.  It seems to be doing fine, and is currently putting out some new leaves.  The other one is planted in ABG mix in a cork bark planter, and it is also doing really well, putting out some impressive new growth currently.  I think they are one of the tougher, more versatile plants, and tolerant of quite a wide range of conditions, so you probably can't go wrong, whatever you end up planting it in, though it probably will spend some time acclimating.

I got both plants from http://www.neherpetoculture.com/index BTW.  The site also has a good article on their recommended protocol for processing plants prior to introducing them into a viv http://www.neherpetoculture.com/plan...singprocedures.  I've modified the procedures a bit for my own plants.  If I think something's been exposed to pesticides, I do a vinegar/water rinse, since this is what's recommended for cleaning pesticides off of fruits and veggies.  After a bad experience with mealybugs, i now clean with a light mix of bleach and Dawn, with a really good rinse, and then a long soaking in plain water afterwards.  And you can get some really nasy pests, even with plants from Lowes, and even if they've been heavily treated with pesticides.

Also, in my experience, frogs do a pretty good job of providing fertilizer, without any need to add anything else.

I've been doing lots of messing around with plants the past few months, since it's been too cold here to ship the new frogs that I've been wanting to get, and the once it warmed up, they were out of stock.  I should be finally getting the frogs in sometime next week.

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