Pruning Aponogeton Crispus.

[superpuma]

Hi

Quite a new boy at this, guess l'm paying for a little success.

My A.Crispus have gone banana's, lots of long leaves on the surface and lots of flowering going on. It's now starting to look a little untidy at the surface and all the leaves are starting to create a lot of shade. What's the best way to prune this plant? Just take the scissors to the surface leaves or go very low down on the stem? ls a particular method more beneficial to the plant.

Thanks for any help.

Mike

 

[stu_]

Personally i take em off, right down at the crown.Just removing the leaves looks untidy IMO, plus i guess the remaining stem will just rot away.
Problem is, pruning can encourage new growth

 

[superpuma]

Thanks. After clearing the surface just before before lights out tonight l'll go down to the stem tomorrow, now l can see what's going on....

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Personally i take em off, right down at the crown.Just removing the leaves looks untidy IMO, plus i guess the remaining stem will just rot away.

I agree you need to take the whole blade and petiole off, just above the rhizome, or the cut leaf will rot. New leaves will grow fairly rapidly, but removing the leaves will reduce vigour.

An easy option is to grow some more from seed, you just need to pollinate the flowers with a paint brush. This way you can replace the old large plant with a smaller seed grown one. I really like it as a plant, it was an impulse purchase for me but they have done really well with no added CO2 and low nutrients.

cheers Darrel

 

[sciencefiction]

I have the ulvaceus one and I just cut the leaves at the bulb. My clown loaches used to destroy it in the beginning so I had to cut a lot of leaves and it kept growing like mad.

 

[Brian Murphy]

Its a crazy grower in the right conditions