Trimming Rotala Macrandra in flower

[zanguli-ya-zamba]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to know if it is a bad idea to trim that plant when it's flowering ? In fact I really need trim it for my new scape. I need to put them in a bucket for one or two week to give it an help for transition from emerge to submerge form.

Here is the plant with the flower, sorry for the quality pic.

Thanks
Zanguli

 

[Mick.Dk]

You can trim it ........actually that would be good for the plant. Keeps it vegetative.
Rot. macr. has a tendency to go generative (producing flowers) quite quickly, when kept emerse. This is why you don't see this sp. sold as potted plants.
Mick.

 

[zanguli-ya-zamba]

You can trim it ........actually that would be good for the plant. Keeps it vegetative.
Rot. macr. has a tendency to go generative (producing flowers) quite quickly, when kept emerse. This is why you don't see this sp. sold as potted plants.
Mick.

Hi Mick,

Thanks for your answer.
Unfortunately I didn't cut it, because I don't already know if I will use it in the scape.
I don't have good result with Rotala Mac growing emerge ! Even if I live in tropical environment it is not spreading like other Rotala I have in the pond (rotundifolia sp red , green and Rotala indica). Do you think that it could be because vegetative period is shorter than the other ones ? It is the first time in 6 month or more that I have flowers. here is shot the same day of the others rotala you can see that they are growing like maaaaad.


On this pic the three rotalas and a part of the pogostermon stelata. We did a huge trim in the pond and after only a month you can see that it is growing back with vengeance hahaha.

Regards

 

[Mick.Dk]

To be honest, I haven't done research on Rot. macr. in the wild, so I can't tell its "natural cycle". I just know, that in production, it's much quicker to generate flowers, than most of the other "common sold" Rotalas. This ofcourse giving less time to generate growth. And to make even more confusion, there are several varieties of Rot. macr. too.
If you have the time and energy, you could xperiment on seed. In that case, you need to be absolutely sure,though, not to cross-polinate. I would suspect some different species of Rotala can pollinate eachother. On the other hand that could also give you some interesting, new hybrid(s).......uuuh, the exciting world of genetics ......😉.
Mick.