Cutting Back Java Fern

[scottward]

I had some java fern in various places in my tank that was starting to look a bit straggly. I cut it back so that it is just the rhizome (no leaves at all anymore). I assume that it will grow back from just the rhizome alone and I'm hoping that it will come back a bit thicker than it was previously?

Has anybody ever cut Java Fern right back to the rhizome and had it grow back ok?

Scott.

 

[DarkEntity]

Ive done the same thing in the past, cut the huge leves off and within a couple of weeks i had twice as many smaller leaves

 

[scottward]

Ive done the same thing in the past, cut the huge leves off and within a couple of weeks i had twice as many smaller leaves

Thansk for the info mate. Did you actually get any of the new leaves growing directly from the rhizome? Have you ever cut off all the leaves and still had the fern grow back?

I've cut every leaf off so that it's just a rhizome. I'm hoping that it will grow back? The reason I cut all the leaves off was that they were really straggly and covered with algae.

Is there anybody out there who had cut Java Fern back to nothing but the rhizome?

 

[Rubix]

Ive done the same thing in the past, cut the huge leves off and within a couple of weeks i had twice as many smaller leaves

Thansk for the info mate. Did you actually get any of the new leaves growing directly from the rhizome? Have you ever cut off all the leaves and still had the fern grow back?

I've cut every leaf off so that it's just a rhizome. I'm hoping that it will grow back? The reason I cut all the leaves off was that they were really straggly and covered with algae.

Is there anybody out there who had cut Java Fern back to nothing but the rhizome?

i have done something similiar... i was rearranging some of my ferns one day and one of them had a really long rhizome. i snapped the end of it off (it was maybe a quarter of an inch - half an inch... sorry if your on metrics i would guess a little under a cm or right around a cm? dont know). i then wedged it in a nook in piece of wood in another tank and its now grown three leaves - the biggest leaf about an inch and a half tall. ive read that java fern rhizome will grow no problem, thats why i tried it. everytime i find a piece of rhizome or a single leaf floating around i grab it and attach it to something and usually come out with a new plant a month later

 

[DarkEntity]

Yip i also cut the rhizome from time to time and re attach it somewhere else, this will then root off and sprout new leaves

 

[scottward]

Excellent! Thanks guys for the replies - I was worried in case I had ruined my java fern by cutting all the leaves off. No signs of new leaves yet but I'll keep a close eye on it.

Thanks again.

 

[scottward]

Hey guys,

The java fern rhizome is still looking green and hasn't rotted away or anything like that, but there is not a single leaf on it yet. How long was it until the rhizome you cut right back started shooting?

Scott.

 

[Themuleous]

Give it time, I'm sure it'll recover If the prune was fairly wholesale then the plant will be in shock, it'll need time to get over that and start thinking about growing again.

Sam

 

[scottward]

Thanks for that Themuleous. Yeah, it was a very full on prune, I pruned every single leaf of every single plant about a month ago. Do you know how long it takes for them to recover from shock?