Red stem plant

[koon]

Pls help to recommend some red stem plant but the height should be < 1 feet. Some red stemplants look ugly once it grow very tall.

rgds
Koon

[DEA]

i hate to be the one to break it to you
but red plants in general grow VERY TALL
in fact, they usually grow to the water line and even out
i've tried ludwidgia arcuata, rotala indica, altheranthera reineckii, c. piauhyensis, and none of them are under 1 ft in height

doing a quick search under disky's plant search engine for plants shorter than 30cm turn up no red stem plants
maybe others will have recommendations though

[bclee]

I keep A. reinkii. My water depth is about 1.5ft. Just trim about once a month should not be a problem. BTW, trimming your plants makes it look bushier.[]

[DEA]

one thing about a. reineckii
if you have strong light
you will need to trim
once it hits the water line it'll put out emersed leaves
and even though it looks nice, it'll ignore the leaves below the surface

[hwchoy]

DEA, what do u mean "ignore"? they fall off?

[ryan]

yeah they melt... then only the emersed leaves start to grow well/// thats if they don't get fried by your lights...

[DEA]

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On 3/17/2002 11:53:11 PM

yeah they melt...
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^ ^
that about covers it
the new leaves i find always get fried
but once the plant gets used to it, it can grow to 1 in of the light bulb and still be fine
mine put out minute dandelion like flowers
not worth it imo
not as nice as other flowers

[budak]

my observation is that red stem plants (Rotalas, Ludwigias, Neseas) will not really thrive unless you give them at least 3W per gallon of light plus high CO2. Intensive light is probably the only way to prevent legginess, as the light will prompt adventitious side shoots from the bottom and along the stem, esp if you crop the top bud.

The usual way to deal with leggy stem plants is have a piece of wood or medium size plants (Crypts, Echinodorus etc) in front of em.

Alternatheras I find are quite slow-growing for a stem plant. and the stronger the light you have, the stubbier it'll remain with lots of side sprouts.

Gratiola is another semi-red plant that doesn't get too leggy.

[Simon]

budak: the last time I had Gratiola, it grew very long... IMO, unless the plant is naturally short, all other will eventually grow on the surface.. maintaining is the best way