Pruning plants with runners

[yampeck]

* EDIT: This was split from another thread. ~ Vinz *

Hello,

May i know the name of the plant in the foreground? It propagates by runners right? How do u guys trim such plants?

I have the same plant in my tank and i tend to pull out the whole string of the plants when i wanted to trim them due to overcrowding and some plants ended up growing on top of each other... Need some advice to do a proper trimming w/o uprooting everything...

Thanks!

[vinz]

Hello,

May i know the name of the plant in the foreground? It propagates by runners right? How do u guys trim such plants?

I have the same plant in my tank and i tend to pull out the whole string of the plants when i wanted to trim them due to overcrowding and some plants ended up growing on top of each other... Need some advice to do a proper trimming w/o uprooting everything...

Thanks!

That's Echinodorus tenellus.

Pruning such plants depends on the plants. Sagittaria subulata have deep roots so the runner will break before the next plant in the chain gets uprooted (unless it's a really young plant that hasn't rooted deeply yet. For E. tenellus, each plant in the chain will be uprooted together if you keep pulling.

For me, I pull out the plants running along the glass... that's where they get crowded together. I will just pull out each chain until I can see where the runner is coming from a plant further from the glass... then I will cut the runner.

If you have a dense field where the runners are entangled, you have no choice but to uproot one chain as far as it will go, and then cut. If it's something like S. subulata where the runner will break first, then it's not a problem.

I've comtemplated sticking the scissors between the plants and cutting the runners blindly before uprooting, but never got round to it.

[yampeck]

Hi Vinz,

Thanks for the advice, but i've got another qns...

The older Echinodorus tenellus in my tank tends to grow quite tall, resulting in those in the foreground (near the glass) covering the background plants... so how do i prune in such a situation? Should i uproot those tall ones and let the young ones take over? or can i trim them by cutting those taller leaves?

Thanks!!

[vinz]

Wow, how tall do they get?

You can do either. If you cut them, the cut leaves will eventually die and turn brown... and might attract algae. Personally, I'll remove them and replace them with smaller plants from other parts of the foreground. Or just remove them and wait for the foreground to spread over them again.

[hwchoy]

Should i uproot those tall ones and…

heh better think of the consequence before you do this

[yampeck]

hmm... i guess some of the taller ones reach abt 10-15cm? Reason might be that my lightings are not that strong, (2*36w FL) and also the some of the plants on the foreground have grown on top of each other...
Think i'll remove them and let young plants take over...

Thanks!!

[yampeck]

heh better think of the consequence before you do this

Ya, i have tried it before... its gonna be pretty messy esp when the runners have intertwined with each other... but it seems like there's no better alernatives as some of the plants that are being 'runover' by others have turned brown below.
I guess its gonna take 1 hand holding tweezers and the other hand scissors to pull and cut...

[|squee|]

It's going to be messy work. I'm sick of it.

First it was glosso. Pruning was... ok I guess. I cut randomly like I was cutting hair. The result wasn't too nice, there were a million leaves everywhere, but it grew back ok. Got sick of pruning.

Then it was E.Tennellus. They stayed pretty short under my high light, but didn't grow much. The leaves just got longer and longer instead. Pruning was a mess, since the runners were all over the place and ADA Aquasoil...

Hairgrass is a complete PITA. It actually looks ok when overgrown, since it's fine leaved to begin with. But when you try to pull runners up...

Going towards low-maintainence....

[yampeck]

Ya, tried to pull and cut the runners this afternoon but end up decided to pull everything out as it was really messy since everything got uprooted in the end.

So, is there anything to recommend for foreground plants that can survive and grow well without strong lighting? and of course easier to maintain as well?

[|squee|]

There's only moss.

The normal common foreground plants are usually high maintainence and fast growing, as well as needing a lot of light.

Another one is Cryptocoryne Parva, it grows really really slowly, but needs strong light.

[yampeck]

oh i see.. but i see most moss are tied on driftwood. is it okie to just 'plant' them on the gravel??
Anyway, my tank temperature can get abit hot (28-30C) Can the moss survive and grow?

[|squee|]

People tie them on meshes and bury them in the gravel so it looks like the moss is growing on the substrate. Another way is to use rocks of different shapes and sizes all over your tank.

The temperature is a tad high, but some people have succeeded.

[_Uncle Party_]

hhhmm this is rather interesting. how about hairgrass? i can't trim it like im cutting hair rite or it'd rot quite disgustingly. pull also cannot...

[|squee|]

With hairgrass, you can trim them off like cutting hair. This plant continues to grow. Don't try this with other plants though

[_Uncle Party_]

oohh..icic thanks

too scary so i never got down to trying it...imagining a decaying brown spot of hairgrass alone is very depressing.