Olivia

Hello all,

We've finally gotten our planted tank up and running.

Stats:
46 gallon bowfront
3.5 bags of Flourite substrate
30 ppm pressurized CO2
Fertilizing using EI macros and micros from Rex Grigg
T-4 lighting with 2 39 watt 6700 K bulbs running 8 hours and 2 39 watt 10000 K bulbs running 3 hours in the middle of the day.

Fauna:
2 Pineapple Swords
10 neon tetras

Flora:
Anachris
Cabomba
Narrow Leaf Temple
Rotala Magenta
A tall Anubis with large, long leaves
Dwarf Hairgrass
and a bunch plant that has green on top and red underneath leaves, leaves about .5 inches long and wide
Couple of onion plants

So far everything is happy, green (or red) and growing! First time we've ever had to consider pruning!! Happy happy. I was told that the bunch plants should be trimmed from the bottom? Do I need to dig up all my bunch plants to cut the bottoms off, wouldn't that damage root development? So far the Cabomba is the only one that is getting ready to reach the top of the water so I know we need to do something soon. Can I trim the tops?

Thanks,
Olivia

Robert Hudson

When the stem plants get to tall, you re- plant the top portion and throw out the rooted portion, basically starting over. The reason for doing this is you retain the thick growth of the top portion. If you allow a stem to continue to grow after you cut it, two new stems will grow from the point the orignal stem was cut. The new stems will be much thinner and not as strong. Often the new stems will have wider gaps between leaves. In many cases the original stem will be barren of leaves, so what you would have is a naked thick stem with two thin gangly stems growing from it. Not real attractive looking!

The extent of this varies from plant to plant. Some stem plants, particularly those with very thin stems to begin with, (like H. micranthemoides) makes no difference. Just experiment for yourself.

hoppycalif

One way to experiment is to trim the tops, replant them, but leave the bottoms where they are. Then watch the plants for a few weeks to see which technique pleases you the most. I think most of us soon decide to toss out the bottoms, which soon become a mass of aerial roots and not very attractive for that reason alone. Don't worry about losing the roots - stem plants use roots primarily to hold themselves in position, not for feeding. Water column dosing is a much better way to feed stem plants.