Plants weaken after flowering?

[checkerboard]

My Barclaya longifolia 'green' threw up 3 flowering stalks over a period of 2 months. After the plant flowered, it seems to have grown much weaker.

previously, the plant can have a new leaf every week, but now, it takes 2-3 weeks for a new leaf. I have maintained my fertilization regime, if not added to it.

I notice this previously with my Echinodorus "red flame" quite some time back, but the effect seems more pronounced in Barclaya.

Anyone knows if this is natural? or something is not right?

[theodore]

New Barclaya bulbs can throw new leaves every week because they are drawing energy from the bulbs. Flowering is, at times, a last ditch effort to reproduce because the plant is no loner able to sustain itself. I've seen this in at least 2 of my plants previously - 2 flower stalks at any 1 time until the plant died. Have you tried to enrich the substrate around it using root monsters or other forms of fertilizer tabs/sticks?

[ptero]

Having been a half-baked terrestrial gardener myself, I can say that this is true of most land plants. In fact, the books often say one should remove spent flowers, because bearing fruit takes even more out of the plant. Some plants, annuals, die soon after flowering, e.g sunflower, marigold.

But is it true of aquatic plants?

[checkerboard]

i have some root monster around it. anyway, this plant has been with me for close to 3 years. think whatever energy in the bulb have to be fully expended by now. relying more on root monster for the boost. use to work fine, but now, after flowering, growth have slowed considerably. =(

[juggler]

My Barclaya "Red" seem to be like that too. I have kept it for 7 months starting from a small rhizome. Last few months it has been sending up probably about 7 buds (no flowering though since none reach above the water). After that episode, it seem weakened. There's less leaves and some more the leaves have pin-holes and "rotted" edges.

The fertilisation is the same.

Here's a proable explanation from Kasselmann's "Aquarium Plants" book [p.151]:

"After a period of good growth and ample flowering, Barclaya will usually retreat in development, but will grow again after a few weeks. Under good cultivation conditions a plant may survive several of such periods; new plants should nevertheless be reared from seeds."

[illumbomb]

My barclaya longifolia green died without offspring after successfully flowering once. All the leaf stalks slowly rotted away.

My barclaya longifolia red did not managed to flower successfully but produced lots of fruits and seeds. The leaves of the parent plant have slowly rotted away also but a substantial amount of small plantlets with tiny rhizome have grown attached to the parent rhizome.

I recently witnessed some of the seeds geminating into tiny plantlets after nearly 4 months since their formation.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/phpBB...ic.php?t=15846