Beautify hairgrass & japanese grass

[plantz]

Hi guys, need help.

I have covered my foreground of my 4ft with mini hairgrass and middle ground with japanese grass. But a month, The mini grass grew longer, now longer than 3inch. And the japanese grass have its leaves spiraling, especially the new leaves at the middle/ core of the plant and a few of the outermost leaves have their tip melt away.

The problem is how to maintain the hairgrass at a short height like most fellow forumers who cover their foreground with short grass so thick that we cant see the sand.

Secondly, why is my japanese grass in the stated condition?

I fertilised my plants with balanced liquid fert and base fert. Have a lighting of 3w per gallon. CO2 bubbling at 2 per sec. And temp of below 28deg.(~27deg)

Thks.

[hwchoy]

two-inches +/- is about right for hairgrass, can try to introduce an army of yamato to eat some of the growth.

what is japanese grass?

[TanVincent]

I think he meant Blyxa Jarponica. They call it "Xiao Ri Pen" or directly translated to "Little Japan".

Cheers
Vincent

[wks]

Hi Vincent, the Chinese name for Blyxa japonica should be" Ri4 Ben3 Ze2 Zao3" or in Chinese characters "日本箦藻". This name is used in all Taiwanese aquatic literatures.

[hwchoy]

there is only one rule in plant maintenance, and because of this you need to be able to distinguish between leaves (and leaf stalk) and stem.

if you want to trim old and dying leaves, you should trim at the leaf stalk, there is no point in trimming by cutting off half the leaf.

if you want to trim down a plant i.e. stop it from growing too talk, you must cut somewhere along the stem. You can replant (usually) the upper portion and also quite often the lower portion will sprout several new shoots.

So for hairgrass, the green part you see is actually the leaves, and the leaf stalk is way at the bottom near the gravel. trimming halfway doesn't buy anything because you end up with a bush of half and damaged leaves.

For blyxa you should be able to see the stem at the bottom, sometimes quite short. that is where you trim. you can also trim at the stem where it branches, basically to reduce crowding. again if you trim the leaves halfway, it buys you nothing.

hope this is making sense…

[byronshoh]

Japanese hairgrass? its the one on the left....just bought it today from Teo's