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Re: Sword plant propogation



Scott wrote:

> Is the marble queen difficult, or is there a
> trick to how and when to remove these plants from the
> "mother"?

I haven't grown Marble Queen specifically, but your experience sounds
normal.  A number of factors might contribute to the plantlets thriving
or failing, and when they're taken off the "mother" is one of those
factors.

The plantlets don't all develop at the same time; the plantlets near the
base of the spike or runner develop first, and those farther out develop
later.  If you take all of the plantlets off at the same time then you
will probably
have some with a good chance of developing, some that are less mature
with an iffy chance and some that probably don't have much chance at
all.

There's probably also some variation with whether the plantlets
developed in the water or out of the water.  Some of the differences I
see between success in emersed culture and submersed culture may be a
species difference.  My experience is with two different species of
sword plants.

For plantlets that develop out of the water I transfer the detached
plantlets to a tray where they grow with their leaves above water and
the base of the plant in a substrate under water.  I transfer those to
aquariums after roots develop.  That process has a pretty good rate of
success.  Plantlets that detach easily have a better chance of success
than those that are still firmly attached.

I leave plantlets that develop under water on the runner until after
they have several roots at least 2-3 inches long.  I detach the mature
plantlets and plant them without any special consideration.  My success
rate for this method isn't as good as with emersed-grown plants.  Again,
plants that detach easily seem to have a better chance of success.

Of course, keep those plants healthy and it won't be long before you get
to work with another batch of plantlets.


Roger Miller