Heteranthera Zosterifolia (Star Grass) Question

[stevereade]

My Star Grass is doing fantastic in my tank, problem is it grows fast so the stems hit the surface quick and when they do they really bush out and the heads get huge. Every time I trim it down I normally re plant the cuttings and leave the stems to grow new shoots. But, when this is done I end up with loads of it, the cuttings looking great and the original stems looking a bit sparse. Was wondering if I could take it all out and just cut a few inches off the bottom each week instead of cutting off the beautiful tops. I want to ask in case I do it and kill it, but at the same time this is a plant that shoots roots out of about the bottom six inches of the stem. So I thought chopping three inches off the bottom every week or two might be ok? Plus chopping the bottom off will stop the top having to grow back very quick so may slow the growth?

 

[lljdma06]

When I worked with Stargrass in my 8g Dutch, I would often cut from the bottom rather than the top and then just make sure I had stems of different lengths to create that "bushy" effect. It has a fragile stem and I find that it didn't bush so well for me when I trimmed the typical way, but when I started trimming from the bottom, it would branch and I got nice results. I also found that when I cut away the bottom, I was able to get leaves all the way down the stem instead of having the dead spots near the bottom. It did, however, make maitenance extremely time-consuming.

My stargrass below... It's on the back right.

 

[stevereade]

Thanks, just wanted a fellow plant keepers advice before I started chopping lol. I'll give it a go today and put up a before and after pic.