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Re: How to prun Hygrophila corymbosa?



>Despite my algae problem, some of the plants in my 6-week old tank are 
>doing quite well, the six stems of H. corymbosa I bought in the first 
>week of the tank has grown out of the water and are in danger of being 
>burned by the lights. They were only 10 inches tall when I got them and in 
>six weeks they outgrew my 24" tall tank!
>
>Anyway, I read the article by Erik about pruning various plants from the 
>Krib WWW site, and he said that cutting the stems of H. corymbosa always 
>caused significant trauma to both parent and "offspring" plants. Has 
>anyone else had similar problem? What's the best way to take cuttings 
>from corymbosa without interrupting its growth too much? What's the 
>best length of the cutting, and where should I make the cut: at a leaf 
>node, just below or above a node, etc? Thanks. 
>

When I was producing this plant in huge quantities, it was simplest to
completely uproot it, break up the stems at where the leaves meet it
and plant the broken up stems. That is, plant a small piece of stem that
has a couple leaves at the top and may or may not have roots at the bottom -
no matter. In harder water this is probably the most vigorous plant there is,
certainly in my experience and others I've given the plant to. One friend
does real well with soft water that he adds salt to, I've had it do just
fine in african cichlid tanks that have a lot of salt and high pH.

If you let some of it grow emersed up to your lights, it'll drop the
submerged leaves and put out little purple flowers that have a faint, sort
of 'jungle/greenhouse' type smell. However, it gets real messy when the
flowers die. It'll also fill the tank with roots if you let it grow emersed
and develop a 'woodier' thicker 'trunk' as well.

Matt