Tying aquatic plant is one of the very important techniques in Aquascaping. The correct way of tying aquatic plants not only allows the plant to grow better and look nicer, it will also help you saving the quantity of plants you need to cover a particular area (less amount of plants is needed for the same area). Aquatic plants that need tying include various types of mosses, Fissidens, mini Fissidens, riccia fluitant, pelia and many others.
Same principle can be used in the tying process, once you understand the basic, you can apply the same technique to almost all the plants. In this article, I will use Spiky Moss and Fissidens as 2 of the plants for demonstration. I will also try to use different tying medium like rock, wire mesh and wood but basically the same principle apply to all.
Basic tools needed for the tying process are cotton thread, fine fishing line or other commercially available plant tying lines. Pincer or tweezers to separate the plants and to lay the plants on the tying surface, scissors and your tying medium (rock, wire mesh, wood or others).

Before the tying process commence, it is recommended to have some small container that you can temporary store your plants before separating and tying them. it is also worth noting that if you prepare to tie a large quantity of plants, you might want to have a container with water to temporary keep your rock/wire mesh that has already been tied with plant just to avoid them getting dried during the long tying process.

The first step in any plant tying process is to separate your plants, this is the most critical step but many people tend to overlook. If you do not separate your plant properly, you are not only wasting and using unnecessary amount of plants, but the end result will also be not satisfying. Moss, foe example, if you do not separate them properly, you will tend to tie them this way:

The above 2 photos show that the moss are all crumple together and when you place them on the rock, there are a lot of overlapping. We must try to avoid or minimize overlapping of plants during the tying process, to achieve that, we need to separate the moss neatly, as demonstrated in the following photos:

Regardless how big or how small is the moss, it is always better to separate them. After the separation, lay the moss neatly on the tying surface and try to arrange them facing 1 direction so that when it grows, it will create a nice “flow”

Similarly if you are tying moss on wire mess, the following photo shows the wrong method if you do not separate the moss properly:

The correct way to do it is as follow:

Tying moss on wood is the same, if you just put a whole clump of moss on the wood, it will not look good and the growth will not be nice, like the following photo:

The correct way is to lay them one by one and all in the same direction, as follow:

To give the reader a clearer view, I use a white plastic rod to simulate the wood so that the reader can get a better on how the mosses are being laid on the surface.

Wrong method will be as follow:

The correct method as follow:

Fissidens is another popular plant and the tying principle is similar to moss: separate them appropriately and do not overlap them on the tying surface. If you do not separate them, they will look like a clump as follow:

If you directly put this clump on the tying surface, wire mesh for example, you will not only waste a lot of Fissidens unnecessarily, they will not look good after they grow.

The correct method for tying Fissidens, starts with the separating process. If you have enough time and patient, you can separate them strain by strain as follow:

Otherwise, it is alright id you just separate them few strain in 1 small unit as follow:

The most critical point is, when you lay them on the wire mesh, try to spread them and minimize overlapping. The following photo demonstrate how you should put the Fissidens on wire mesh:

You do not have to cover every inch of the tying surface, it is OK to leave some wire mesh/rock/wood surface expose as when the Fissidens grow, all this exposed surfaces will be covered.

After you have nicely spread the Fissidens on 80-90% of the surface, you can use the tying thread of your choice to securely tie them.

Tying moss or Fissidens is as important as laying them, you need to tie them very securely, try to cover every strain and avoid having any strain “hanging”. The finished product should look “flat” and if there is any part of the moss/Fissidens that is not securely tighten, you can just trim them off.

The finish product in the tank should look like this:

If you follow these recommended steps, you will get nice and healthy moss or Fissidens when they fill up your tank!