Cuba Growing Up!

[Rorie]

I have a carpeting plant, Cuba i think, but as it is growing outwards, it is not doing so under the substrate, but upwards! I have long trains of the stuff coming out now but its annoying seeing them all floating.

I have tried to sink them down as they grown, but this is proving to be very tricky!

Any suggestions or explanations why this is happening?

 

[Verminator89]

How so do you mean?

I have HC growing in my tank and it has standard trailing growth along the bottom. I have quite large gravel clumps and it sort of grows over the top and underneath all at the same time. Creating a matt of HC both above and throughout the gravel. It does also grow 'up' periodically and i have to trim it much as you would your garden lawn, takiing off the top layer and allowing it to re-grow. Do you mean like this?

Or do you mean it has trailing growth that reaches out but doesnt root into the substrate, and appears to grow off the surface at an angle that rises up off the bottom?

Your post is a little unclear as to how it is growing 'up', that is all.

If i was to have a guess at a possible cause i would say maybe your lighting isn't high enough to promote propper horizontal growth that is rooted well enough. Another thing, might sound daft but i've seen people mix them up before, are you sure its Hemianthus Callitrichoides that you have and not Hemianthus Micranthemoides. With the latter growing more vertically and out like a small bush.

 

[Rorie]

by growing up, i mean that it is rooting above the substrate, so the plant is still growing, but not as a carpet! Any new roots which should grow beneath the substrate and propagate outward, is in fact waving about in the current

 

[Verminator89]

Or do you mean it has trailing growth that reaches out but doesnt root into the substrate, and appears to grow off the surface at an angle that rises up off the bottom?

So from my initial post you mean sort of like this? A picture would help lol.

What substrate do you have and what lighting?

 

[ian]

It's actually not caused by a lighting problem, it's normally a flow problem. According to the boffs @ the Barr report, it's caused by a hormone response in the plant. The particular hormone responsible for this is a gas called Ethylene. Poor flow to the substrate suppresses the ability of the plant to rid itself of the gas and results in a buildup of this gas. Just about all aquatic plants respond in a similar fashion, which is actually an ingenious adaptation to being flooded. The build up results in the plant growing upwards.

 

[Verminator89]

Thats why your a resident plant guru. I never knew that, but its fascinating!

 

[ian]

lol, i no guru James, the guru's are the boffs.

 

[Verminator89]

Let us decide who's a guru on the forum Ian, and you are one of them! (ya)

 

[Rorie]

it can absolutely not be due to LACK of flow!! it is right in front of a powerhead and i have high flow in the tank haha. I almost thought it would be because the flow was lifting it!

I have ADA substrate, so its really tricky to push these tiny new bits of the plant into the substrate as its like soil!

 

[Katch]

To me (and I am no expert whatsoever) it sounds like it never got the chance to root into the substrate properly. Hence the runners are very shallow in the substrate or above the substrate and your high flow lifts them up.

I'm guessing you dose the water as well so the plant thrives above the substrate and keeps producing more runners.

As for a solution... not sure. I failed at Glosso and HC Cuba on my first attempt for this reason. I'm trying a new patch of Glosso that I have planted firmly into my substrate (now sand and cat litter) still in a block of rock wool in an effort to encourage strong root growth.

For the HC Cuba I'm doing a little nano tank with minerlized soil and I will be dry starting the Cuba.

 

[ian]

If its right in front of a power head, then i agree with Katch.