Pruning Water Wisteria

I usually just pick a spot, clip the stem and replant the top.

-
S

 

I left the bottom planted. It will often branch from that point.

-
S

 

Hi,

I would simply snip the tops off the larger plants about 1-2" below the leaves where the roots are extending into the water.

I would replant these tops and discard the current 'bottoms'.

The new growth will spread quickly if things are doing well overall and will quickly need trimming.

Or, as stated, leaving the bottoms as they are will cause branching at the cut point. However, IMO the nice tops you have will look nicer closer to the ground with less bare stem showing. They will also need less regeneration time as they are 'ready' themselves to be planted...

They WANT to leave the nest lol

 

Hygrophila difformis is pretty hardy. If it does lose the lower leaves, you can just cut the tops again and replant. More likely, you will get a more healthy plant from it though. This plant can grow very fast when it wants to reach the light at the surface, but it will be very stemmy due to this fast growth. Replanting the tops encourages it to grow slower in height, maybe because it gathers more light with the bushier leaf?, I'm not sure. But the side shoots will be fuller and the plant will look much much better overall.

The bottom stems, once the tops are cut, probably won't ever look very good. New stems will branch off from it, but you'll always have that somewhat barren stem at the bottom. You can always let the bottom stems float on the surface though and eventually you will get some bushy growth from that to replant.

In this picture, my single wisteria plant is on the right behind the lotus. This plant started as a top I removed from an old tank. Even with the top completely shading the bottom of the plant it is growing side shoots at the base of the stem.

 

My Wisteria reached the top. Should I cut it in half and replant?

 

You want to have the stem at least an inch into the substrate, so cut accordingly. Remove any leaves on the stem that will be below the substrate once planted obviously. You can plant the side shoots if you want more wisteria plants overall. It all depends on your goal for the tank. If the side shoot has a good, thick stem, I'd replant to increase your overall plant volume. Will help with the algae. If the stem is narrow, I'd leave it on the main stem.

Nice looking pearl gourami. I'm planning on getting a few soon for my 29 gallon tank.

 

Seems I Have Exceeded My Image Quota

Hi,

Had a couple of ideas, they are visual and I am apparently no longer allowed to post images.

Oh well.

Biollante

 

Nice looking male. I picked up 1 male and 2 female yesterday afternoon. Pretty funny orientation with them. They immediately went down to the krib's cave and started touching him. The krib didn't know what to do with 3 fish his size petting him.

I plan to have the 3 pearls, 1 bristle nose pleco (added him recently), male and female krib and that's probably it. I have three tuxedo platy in it now, but they are probably going to someone in local fish club or to the LFS.