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Need to remove sword roots?

jameson_uk

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Joined
10 Jun 2016
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879
Location
Birmingham
I am thinking about removing a large sword in my tank. I have seen roots on the other side of the tank that I am sure belong to this plant.

If I remove the plants do I also need to try and pull out the roots?
 
Hi
If you remove the plant, the roots should come out with it easily enough, unless its under hardscape!
If you leave large fragments of root in the substrate....... it will die and foul the substrate!
hoggie
 
If it's a sand substrate, it will make a mess when removing the plant and its roots as it will lift everything up, even uproot other plants that have mixed up with the sword roots. ;) If it's gravel, its impossible to remove all roots...

I have a crypt tank in which the crypts have gone crazy. Basically the entire substrate is filled with crypt roots and the crypts grow as if they're on steroids. When I remove the smallest of crypts, as its roots are still connected to the mother plant, I basically lift that section of sand and all gunk ends up in the water column. But its easy enough to do if the roots are not obstructed by either decor, or other plants. If they're are, its impossible to remove all roots. I just pull up the plant as much as I can slowly, so the roots start coming out, then I cut off the rest and leave the remaining roots or I'll end up with the entire tank unplanted in one go :confused:
 
It is sand and I have come across sword roots when doing maintenance right across the tank. My concern is disturbing the entire substrate to get all the roots out (and probably dealing with having to replant a few other settled plants). The flip side is leaving dead roots to decompose in the substrate which doesn't seem ideal either....
 
It is sand and I have come across sword roots when doing maintenance right across the tank. My concern is disturbing the entire substrate to get all the roots out (and probably dealing with having to replant a few other settled plants). The flip side is leaving dead roots to decompose in the substrate which doesn't seem ideal either....

I had a real messy situation doing that once and decided back then not to do it again.
Personally I'd trim it back and leave it in until you want to do a complete rescape. If you try and pull it out chances are you might be in for an (unplanned) rescape anyway ;)
 
I have done the same as sciencefiction with crypts, seems to work well with aquasoil, not sure about heavy rooting plants in sand though.

When removing sagittaria runners i trim around the runner plant roots and remove, this works because the rest of the plant mass is usually interconnected to other roots, i doubt it would work with swords as you are taking out the only plant attached to the root system and it would result in all the roots dieing off.

Might have to bite the bullet and rescape it.

You could always cut the plant down to the rosette but that wont solve the root problem.

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk
 
I'd just leave the sword roots to rot in my tank. I've done it before with no issues.

This is with the proviso that you then don't disturb the substrate. If you do, then I'd try to keep as clean a substrate as possible.

Also, I'm low tech so have more leeway.

It's easier with crypts than swords, because even though they can have an extensive root system, they don't tend to die off when the rhizome is cut at surface level. It's actually a viable method of propagation.
 
not sure about heavy rooting plants in sand though.

Mine are in an sand only tank. The roots come out like spaghetti if I pull slowly but if pull too many roots at a time the plant lifts the entire layer of sand up,lol. I once took same tank apart and the length of the roots of the mother crypt were longer than the length of the tank, which is only a 60cm one. My entire sand is so populated with roots that I can uncover them with just brushing off some sand. It's basically a net of roots after about 6 years now..and most are alive. I am sure many roots have died over the years....
 
It's easier if you pull it up slightly and break off the plant, then peel up the main roots up one by one. Then you are only pulling in one direction at a time and can lift/peel them upwards instead of dragging the whole root system through the substrate from every direction and up through the original 'hole'.
 
It's easier if you pull it up slightly and break off the plant, then peel up the main roots up one by one. Then you are only pulling in one direction at a time and can lift/peel them upwards instead of dragging the whole root system through the substrate from every direction and up through the original 'hole'.
Easier said than done with mature plants, like others have said the root systems get so extensive it is impossible to seperate individual roots, easier to do this with a semi-mature tank.

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk
 
Works for me. Just focus on the thickest roots - lift the plant - trim through everything and remove. You'll have a batch of root ends stuck up. Peel them back on themselves until they start to tapper/feather out or reach something you don't want to disturb and chop/break off. You'll get a lot of the thicker stuff out without too much disturbance as long as you take your time and entire base isn't covered in hardscape.
 
i wish i had a picture of the root system from my 4 year old crypt and sagittaria tank when i ripped it out... that method would have never worked if i wanted to remove individual plants it was literally 2 inches deep and covering the whole base of a 120cm tank, i can see what you are getting at as far as tracking them back as this is what we do with tree and shrub roots at work, and i have done it on smaller more sparsely planted tanks, but when it is a solid mat under the substrate, no chance.
 
but when it is a solid mat under the substrate, no chance.

Mine is a solid mat as well, as thick as the substrate itself but since all root systems are interconnected, I only cut out the plantlets I remove. Obviously that won't work with a single sword plant but swords have very large and long root systems and it would be like removing the crypt mother plants. In my tank there are two mother plants from which everything else sprouted and no chance in the world I can pull those out without taking the tank apart. But if those crypts were not connected to all other younger crypts(if you can call them that as they're all years old), I would pull it out slowly as tam describes, pulling individual roots one by one out after lifting up the base of the plant as much as possible to reveal where the roots go.
 
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