Pruning Hygrophila Polysperma

[pseud]

This may be a stupid question but I'd be more stupid if I didn't ask.

My hygro' poly' sends these shoot like things out of the nodes and down toward the substrate. Thye look so ugly! What are they for? Should I cut them off?

 

[lljdma06]

This may be a stupid question but I'd be more stupid if I didn't ask.

My hygro' poly' sends these shoot like things out of the nodes and down toward the substrate. Thye look so ugly! What are they for? Should I cut them off?

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I could be wrong, but they are probably roots. My plants have them too, especially my deformis. My anacharis has a silly looking one that just sticks straight out, but I don't think I'll cut it.

 

[modernhamlet]

Those are new roots. The way you prune stem plants like hygro is to pull the plant, trim the BOTTOM few nodes of the plant, and replant such that the new roots above the surface are now below. If you keep chopping the top, as I discovered the hard way, you just end up with a hygro jumble with stems going off at all angles.

 

[pseud]

Dude, are you serious? There's no way I'm uprooting, trimming, and replanting every stem every couple of weeks! lol

 

[modernhamlet]

This is why I'm going to avoid too many stem plants in my aquascape... I'm lazy!

 

[paulioo]

Yeah and thats why i'm not having any stem plants in my tank (eventually) just glosso and a few mossy rocks for me

paul

 

[George Farmer]

Dude, are you serious? There's no way I'm uprooting, trimming, and replanting every stem every couple of weeks! lol

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You'll find a lot of "serious" planted aquarists use minimal stem plants for this reason. There's more time to look at the aquascape rather than maintaining it. However some enjoy the continual tinkering with their tanks.

I used to fall into this "tinkering" catagory but with a newborn baby and work pressures I decided to make the switch from the classic Dutch style (lots of stems) to my current layout (no stems) - see the start of my journal. It also happens that I prefer the look of a nature aquarium over dutch. The fact that I still manage to spend hours trying to perfect the look is another matter .

Stems are great for establishing a tank, but when the algae-busting balance has been acheived one can make the switch to the slower growing and more demanding species with no problem, as long as the transition is gradual.

Anyway, enough waffle. I actually found that my Hygro sp. (poly and diff) only produced the roots you mention when nutrient levels or light were limited, it's as if the plant was trying to reproduce in an effort to keep going in less-than-perfect conditions. When I went upto 3.6 WPG, 30ppm CO2 and plenty of NO3 and PO4 I found the plants grew straight up, no mid-stem roots and generally more compact and attractive looking growth.

 

[pseud]

That's interesting, and logical too. Well, increasing my lighting again isn't an option, but the nutrients is. Better leave it a few weeks first though, don't want the missus to kill me

 

[@ombomb]

I have managed to get mine to form something of a carpet with those roots.

Rather than pruning them, plant the roots (still connected to the main stem) and will keep growing accross the gravel. Mine don't take much looking after either, they seem to have got the message that that's where I want them!