fleshgear Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 in my 46 gallon bowfront i have a large Echinodorus 'Rose' it is about 14" tall and 12" wide. i would like to encourage it to send out runners. i had a regular amazon sword plant right beside it about the same size and it had runners about three times. the lighting is a coral life 36" dual 96watt one 10000k and one fresh 6500k bulbs i have a diy Co2 system with 2 two liter bottles. i was fertilizing for a while but i have stopped and have not noticed a difference in plant growth. all plants in the tank are doing very well even the red plants are red. i just took out the regular amazon sword and cut it in half and replanted in a different tank. i have also thined out some of the other plants since this pic was taken. how can i encourage it to send runners? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkstar Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 (edited) If I'm not mistaken, some Echinodorus don't send runners to propagate... They produce flower stalks with advantageous growths on them to reproduce or for seeds. Also found this for you... Many species of swords produce plantlets when they send up a flower stalk.The plantlets can be removed and planted when they have several roots. If you can't get your sword to bloom, try changing the daylength. Try a short day, long night regimen, if you have been keeping it on a long day, short night. A short day would be about 8 hours, and a long day would be 14 to 16 hours. If you can't get it to bloom, or if the flower stalk never produces plantlets, then you can try digging it up, and cutting its rizome into segments. For this to work, you need an old, well-established plant that has had a year or two to develop a long rhizome. Float these segments until you see plantlets growing from them, then plant them. You can also try fertilizing flowers and collecting seeds. I've never tried growing seeds, but the books on aquatic plants say that the seeds of most swords germinate readily and are not too difficult to grow. Paul Krombholz Edited February 9, 2009 by thedarkstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 Ugh- be careful what you wish for. My stupid E. rose just started sending up its 4th flower spike. When I noticed it last night I chopped off the other 3. I got rid of a bunch of its previous babies at the fall CAS auction and now there's so many more that I don't have room to grow them out. Triggering factors for flowering are temperature and length of day/intensity of light. Dropping the water level to the top of the plant will also help. In nature, (although E. rose is a hybrid and not a naturally occurring species) flowers and seeds are produced during the dry season for growth during the following wet season. There's lots of good info and tips in Christel Kasslemann's book, Aquarium Plants. If you're a CAS member, PM me and I can bring it to the meeting for you tonight. In addition to the flower spikes, my monster plant has reached the surface in my tank (24") and has been growing emergent leaves. I ripped them all off last night in order to try to make it grow submerged again. If this sucker doesn't smarten up, it's going bye-bye. Yours looks really nice and healthy just the way it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 (edited) Ugh- be careful what you wish for. My stupid E. rose just started sending up its 4th flower spike. When I noticed it last night I chopped off the other 3. I got rid of a bunch of its previous babies at the fall CAS auction and now there's so many more that I don't have room to grow them out.Triggering factors for flowering are temperature and length of day/intensity of light. Dropping the water level to the top of the plant will also help. In nature, (although E. rose is a hybrid and not a naturally occurring species) flowers and seeds are produced during the dry season for growth during the following wet season. There's lots of good info and tips in Christel Kasslemann's book, Aquarium Plants. If you're a CAS member, PM me and I can bring it to the meeting for you tonight. In addition to the flower spikes, my monster plant has reached the surface in my tank (24") and has been growing emergent leaves. I ripped them all off last night in order to try to make it grow submerged again. If this sucker doesn't smarten up, it's going bye-bye. Yours looks really nice and healthy just the way it is. So in other words, be careful what you wish for :smokey: I really like your tank, it's really pretty. Amazing what no fertilizer can still do. Do you still dose with CO2 even though you're not fertilizing? If I tried that I would probably have all kinds of different types of algae growing in my tank, just always my luck lol. Edited February 10, 2009 by firestorm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 i have a diy c02 with 2, 2 liter pop bottles setup. maybe once every two months i does with excel if there is an algae break out. there is some long green algae on some drift wood but it looks cool right now. and i have been keeping an eye on it. it has not gotten any worse. plus i have giant vals, i heard excel is bad for that plant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 i bought that Echinodorus 'Rose' at the fall cas auction. it was about 8-10 inches tall. maybe yours? if you have extra even small ones i would love to get some more! the plant has probably doubled or tripled in size since the auction. i love that plant. i was reading about it and they said the maximum size was 16" tall, but mine is pretty much there now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Yeah, that was one of mine. :smokey: There should be more at the next auction... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted April 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 update. i just noticed my Echinodorus 'Rose' has a runner spike. it has one spot where it should flower or make a baby plant. the spike is only about 8" long right now but i did not see anything there yesterday. the plant is probably double in size now. it is amazing how fast and how much it grew in a month and a half since i took the picture. the leaves are at the top of the tank now. i also just took off the galss top i had on the tank, so it is just open now. i am not sure if it was that or that the leaves are touching the top of the water. i was going to move the plant to a different tank but i think i will wait now and see what happens. hopefully it produces some little ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 If you leave the spike out in the air, it will flower and also produce a few babies. If you pull it down onto the surface of the water, you will get more babies. They seem to do better with their feet wet since our air isn't very humid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted May 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2009 Another update. the runner spike was about 5 feet long i tried to keep it mostly under water, it did not flower. At the end of the spike it had two plants that were joined together. i cut them off the spike and seperated the two plants with a knife and replanted in a different tank. the main plant has a new runner that i am letting it do what it wants. it is about two feet long and has lots of flower buds that are rising, it looks like they will flower. the spike has grown out past the light. i will wait and see what happens with this one. also, since i took the first picture in this tread the plant has probably doubled in size . it takes up more than half of the tank. And i thought the plant was big when i took the first picture. i will try and take another picture soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceturf Posted May 25, 2009 Report Share Posted May 25, 2009 (edited) Another update. the runner spike was about 5 feet long i tried to keep it mostly under water, it did not flower. At the end of the spike it had two plants that were joined together. i cut them off the spike and seperated the two plants with a knife and replanted in a different tank. the main plant has a new runner that i am letting it do what it wants. it is about two feet long and has lots of flower buds that are rising, it looks like they will flower. the spike has grown out past the light. i will wait and see what happens with this one. also, since i took the first picture in this tread the plant has probably doubled in size . it takes up more than half of the tank. And i thought the plant was big when i took the first picture. i will try and take another picture soon. Thats so neat -ham- Edited May 25, 2009 by Iceturf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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