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to cut or not to cut runners in valisneria



In another thread others discussed the cutting of runners between nodes of plants that 
propogate that way. Dwarf chain sword and others were mentioned. Well, I've got some corkscrew valisneria that has "exploded" with runners going across the back of my 30 gal. 
tank and forward through it as well. This is great since for a while the val. didn't do 
much. 

What are your opinions on cutting the runners between the offshoots? How long of a wait makes sense--for the root systems to get established, etc? If the daughter plants are 
pulling nutrients from the runners, I don't want to stunt them or stress them. 
Conversely, I don't want to put too much of a burden on the parent plants. It doesn't 
seem to be much of a burden so far--this is the best performance I've ever seen in my 
tanks for val. What's the consensus on additional substrate fert. for the new nodes? 

What happens in nature? Do the runners die off and separate, or does a "colony" just 
subsist with a network of runners?

On a related note, will cutting the runners encourage the well-established daughter plants to create more runners and spread more densely? It doesn't seem to be a problem so far, as the same chain of plants has 6 or 8 nodes that appear "daisy chained" off the parent. 

Curious and too busy to look it up myself... 

Thanks, 

Lee