java fern going beserk

[jimbooo]

Happy new year to everyone,

quick question for you. i have a Java Fern in a 10G with other basic plants. Every leaf of the java fern has a kind of brown spider at the tip (it is part of the plant not attached to it) i am assuming these are the start of new plants...if so how do i take cuttings from it to plant in my 40G. i was about to snip them off at the leaf tip but not sure what to do next. plant them in the gravel, tie them to bogwood or just throw them in the water and let nature take its course...


as you can see i'm quite new to plants.

 

[Stryker]

Mine does that. In my case given time the new growth at the tip will look like a little tiny tiny java fern plant. By this time it was almost falling off all by it's self.

 

[jimbooo]

did it produce a new plant?

i'm not sure if i should cut them off or wait for them to fall off.

i have 50 guppy fry in the tank who are getting hungryer by the day..... i assume new leaves will be the first to be eaten.

 

[opiesilver]

Do not cut the mother plant. The babies will grow out and look just like a miniature java fern. They will eventually drop off and that is when they are ready to plant somewhere else.

 

[Yenko]

I leave them on as a sort of challenge - to see if I can beat my dad's record for stacked Java-fern; 3. In other words, the bottom plant has a baby that never detatched, grew to maturity, and has a baby of its own.

If you want you can cut off the very tip of the mother plant's leaf once the babies have at least 4 leaves that are about 3". I personally wait untill they're absolutely huge to plant; they are easier to attach if they're big.

 

[jimbooo]

thanks i'll wait for them to grow a bit then then attach to bogwood with fine fishing line.

 

[lucky62]

I just let mine grow until they ....kind of fall off .