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When to prune lilaeopsis brasiliensis?

ghostsword

Member
Joined
19 Nov 2009
Messages
3,423
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Hi,

I got a pot of lilaeopsis brasiliensis at ADC in London about two months ago. As their local "plant expert" couldn't get it to grow, it was melting on his tank, I decided to have a go.

Now, the plant has taken over my 70cm by 20cm substrate, it over run the Staurogyne, hairgrass and Marsilea H.

I have been cutting it short, so it is under 2cm tall. The issue is that now there isn't more space for it to grow, so it is going under the rocks and where it is not supposed to, into mosses and over pieces of wood.

Do you have experience with this plant?

My question is if I take large clumps out, should it recover? Is there any special way to trim it?

It is a lovely looking plant, but it grows all over the place.
 
I have it, its growing incredibly slowly, but still healthy, i just prune it when i see fit really, take it right back down to the substrate as cut leaves wont continue to grow.

The tank i have it in is: 35l, 3x8w t5, 2ml tpn+, 2ml easycarbo(both daily). and waterchanges weekly.

I have recently turned "low tech" on the same tank, and again it is doing fine in: 35l, 2x8w t5, no ferts, no waterchanges.

One thing i might add is that my water is fairly hard and ph7.6, not sure if this has an effect on the plant.


I know SamC grew it very effectively in his 60cm, may be worth pm'ing him, he had a very lush carpet :thumbup:

Adam
 
cheers ad :thumbup:

i never trimmed mine once. should have really, as it got too tall. if you didnt want it to grow in certian areas then i would just cut them off at there runners and pull them out. my runners were all on top of the substrate.

i do know what you mean about it going everywhere though. mine went to the back of the tank :D
 
Thanks for the replies..

I got hard water in London, but it is between 6.5 and 7 ph, as I have CO2. Got 150W of lights for 6 hours on the 120 L tank, so the plants grow nicely.

Currently I have a carpet of LB, Marsilea and Staurogyne, with some moss in between, a real mess. :) . Didn't expect the plants to grow so quickly.

Will clear some space of the substrate, allowing for more room to see who takes over quicker. With the scissors I will cut a 10cm square and see what happens.
 
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