Wookii
Member
I have a couple of Echinodorus in my tank that both grow really well and continuously put out new leaves. Being a rosette plant, these of course appear to continuously grow from the centre pushing the old leaves further out and increasing the diameter of the rosette at the base.
Of course I remove the larger older leaves when they get too big for the tank, but it just had me wondering, assuming unlimited access to nutrients and no removal of the outer leaves, how much further would this kind of growth go if left unchecked? Will it literally keep going until the base of the rosette fills the base of the tank and you have a half a metre diameter plant, or does the plant reach a natural limit where the outer leaves get pushed too far from the main roots and die off naturally keeping the plant at a limited size?
Of course I remove the larger older leaves when they get too big for the tank, but it just had me wondering, assuming unlimited access to nutrients and no removal of the outer leaves, how much further would this kind of growth go if left unchecked? Will it literally keep going until the base of the rosette fills the base of the tank and you have a half a metre diameter plant, or does the plant reach a natural limit where the outer leaves get pushed too far from the main roots and die off naturally keeping the plant at a limited size?