When is the to start pruning and how?????

**PeterGwee** · 8th Sep 2002, 13:38

Found my plants to be growing extremely fast and thick within a week or so, now it is reaching the water surface..should i start trimming and how? My overgrown plants are Ceratopteris thalictroides, Cabomba carolininana and hygrophila corymbosa (hope i got the plant names right though). How should i trim and how much to trim??? Did not find much info on the net on plants trimming..how do you'll guys trim your plants? Should i thin out the plants till the light can reach the bottom of the plants as the bottom always have little light. Thanks for any help given [

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**PeterGwee** · 8th Sep 2002, 13:38

Found my plants to be growing extremely fast and thick within a week or so, now it is reaching the water surface..should i start trimming and how? My overgrown plants are Ceratopteris thalictroides, Cabomba carolininana and hygrophila corymbosa (hope i got the plant names right though). How should i trim and how much to trim??? Did not find much info on the net on plants trimming..how do you'll guys trim your plants? Should i thin out the plants till the light can reach the bottom of the plants as the bottom always have little light. Thanks for any help given [

]

**PeterGwee** · 8th Sep 2002, 13:38

Found my plants to be growing extremely fast and thick within a week or so, now it is reaching the water surface..should i start trimming and how? My overgrown plants are Ceratopteris thalictroides, Cabomba carolininana and hygrophila corymbosa (hope i got the plant names right though). How should i trim and how much to trim??? Did not find much info on the net on plants trimming..how do you'll guys trim your plants? Should i thin out the plants till the light can reach the bottom of the plants as the bottom always have little light. Thanks for any help given [

]

**PeterGwee** · 8th Sep 2002, 13:38

Found my plants to be growing extremely fast and thick within a week or so, now it is reaching the water surface..should i start trimming and how? My overgrown plants are Ceratopteris thalictroides, Cabomba carolininana and hygrophila corymbosa (hope i got the plant names right though). How should i trim and how much to trim??? Did not find much info on the net on plants trimming..how do you'll guys trim your plants? Should i thin out the plants till the light can reach the bottom of the plants as the bottom always have little light. Thanks for any help given [

]

**Simon** · 8th Sep 2002, 17:15

2 ways, either deroot them, cut off the top and replant, throw away the bottom portion.

the other way is cut off the top and replant them, leaving the bottom portion to grow in yr tank as well

**sherchoo** · 8th Sep 2002, 17:19

Normally I juz snip away till it looks nice and neat.

**ngwilliam** · 8th Sep 2002, 19:08

Guys

Once you cut and you let the bottom stem continue to grow, 2 - 3 stems will continue to grow from the cutting and it looks messy. It you intend to throw away the bottom and replant the top, you will end up pulling out the base fert. Either way, it will be messy.. Personally, I find stem plant troublesome.

**benetay** · 8th Sep 2002, 21:16

It's up to personal preference when it comes to choosing plants.

There is no hard and fast rule on which plants u can or cannot plant if your tank conditions and hieght of it are right, i don't see any problem having stem plants.

**vinz** · 8th Sep 2002, 21:49

List of excellent articles by Karen Randall here. The articles on pruning is somewhere in the middle of the list.

**PeterGwee** · 9th Sep 2002, 18:31

What are the techniques practice by the forumers here on pruning? Do you guys pull out the plants and then cut the top part to replant or just cut the top and leave the bottom to re-grow? My plants are kinda of thick and so bushy that i find it ugly [

] ...How do you guys do thining? Cut anywhere huh? Any advice will be appreciated. [

]

**Simon** · 9th Sep 2002, 18:54

peter, actually both techniques.. depending on the look u want

**vinz** · 10th Sep 2002, 00:41

Depends... its troublesome to keep replanting, and pulling the plants up brings the base fert up. Pruning stemmed plants also make them grow bushier, which can be quite nice depending on the plant. After several successive prunings, most plants become quite scraggly, so thats when you pull them up and replant the tops.

Cut at a level that will be hidden by the plant or decor in front of it. Do a search on 'pruning', 'trimmming' and 'cutting' individually. This topic came up a few times in AQ before.

**vinz** · 10th Sep 2002, 00:42

I think after a while, like some of us here, you'll avoid too many stemmed plants and use more rosette plants... [

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**ngwilliam** · 10th Sep 2002, 07:57

I agree with vinz. Stem plant grow a lot faster thus more diff to maintain.

**sherchoo** · 10th Sep 2002, 09:48

Vinz,
Is 100% right on the stem/rossete plants. That's exactly the reason why my tank is stem plants free.

**PeterGwee** · 10th Sep 2002, 09:57

LOL [

] ...Okie now I understand liao!!!! Will go into rosette plants instead...
By the way, how do you'll prune rosette plants if they get too big or too tall????

**Simon** · 10th Sep 2002, 10:06

for rosette tank, make sure u dun overstock yr tank and overfeeding yr fishes... IMO, rosette plant tank very easier get algae if not properly control...

to trim rosette plants, break/cut off the leaves

**vinz** · 10th Sep 2002, 10:21

Part of the beauty of rosette plants, is that most of them have fixed height, give or take a few inches, depending on conditions... so layout is easier. So seldom will they get too tall, usually too wide.

I still keep a few easy stemmed plants to control nutrients in the water.

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On 9/10/2002 9:57:50 AM

LOL [

] ...Okie now I understand liao!!!! Will go into rosette plants instead...
By the way, how do you'll prune rosette plants if they get too big or too tall????
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**bclee** · 10th Sep 2002, 10:47

You will have headaches with some rossette plants too, like valisneria and some echinodorus. To thin them, you probably have to uproot every single plants too. The runners are probably everywhere.

BC

**sherchoo** · 10th Sep 2002, 10:59

Rossete plants: I normally juz remove unhealthy leaves as part of my pruning regime. My rosette plants are mainly Echinodorus sp. and Cryptocoryne sp. Very easy to manage. Juz have to be careful during plant selection as some grows really really big and some grows out of the water surface.

If you want I have Echinodorus 'Oriental' plantlets and maybe some Cryptocoryne wendtii 'brown'. You can collect it at Serangoon area. Give me a call - 96230997.

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