Plant Cuttings

[blue_ram]

My ludwigia is growing out of the tank as is my red temple. I also have several large pieces of water sprite wic fell off when I moved it. How do I plant these and can I cut and plant the ludwigia and temple and water sprite?

[joy613]

Yes you can trim the plants you listed. Depending how tall you want them and the look you are going for. What I do is cut the plant my plant then plant the top. When the old plant starts growing it will send off 2 stems usually and both of those can be cut and planted. After the second cutting I throw away the first plant and plant both new stems. It fills a tank in nice and fast. Some people think once the plant grows out of the water you need to discard that portion of the plant but I have planted it and it grew very nicely.

[blue_ram]

What are the long white things growing from the red temple? They look like roots

[joy613]

Those are roots...it will give a jump start to the cutting you take if you cut below them and plant that part.

[Mercury]

They're either runners or roots, but I don't understand why some of them come out of the middle of some plants rather than the bottom.

[blue_ram]

They are not very attractive. Can they be trimmed or is it just the way the plant is?

[pwrmacG4]

it is just the way some stem plants strive to get more nutrients.. perfectly normal.. you can trim them.. but they will probably grow back.

[forrestcook]

for a long term stem plant bush, try cutting the plants at about 4" off the ground. When they split into two, cut another 2" up and so on. This way, your bush gets thicker and thicker with fewer stems in the ground. When you get it where you want it, just keep trimming it down to that point...

[blue_ram]

Originally Posted by forrestcook

for a long term stem plant bush, try cutting the plants at about 4" off the ground. When they split into two, cut another 2" up and so on. This way, your bush gets thicker and thicker with fewer stems in the ground. When you get it where you want it, just keep trimming it down to that point...

The stem before it splits is about 12 inches off the ground and then it branches into two, I cut in the middle of the branch, does this mean I will now have 4 branches? My ludwigia does the same, but with 3 branches; will it now get 6?