# Roots growing straight up out of substrate



## Supa Mint (Jul 5, 2016)

'There is unrest in my aquarium; there is trouble with the plants; for the roots want more sunlight...'

Or do the roots just hate my substrate?

It's inert substrate, although I use Flourish root tabs. My liquid fertilizer is Flourish Comprehensive. And I'm using pressurized CO2.

The roots are heading for the sky with the Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan', and with the Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Bronze'. This phenomenon is not occurring with any of my other plants.

Can anyone explain what is causing this; and how to get the roots to be happy in their substrate?

Thank you in advance for any advice!


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

Those roots are the equivalent to air roots with terrestrial plants. 

It's very normal with crypts. But I have seen it when many plant species. 

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## K1963158 (Aug 15, 2016)

I get that with my well established crypts also. Don't know what to do about it...I just leave them be.


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## John Wong (Dec 2, 2015)

I'm using Ada substrate. All crypt roots grew downwards accept new shoots. Maybe they just try to get nutrient from water column?? They are heavy root feeders. My plant only grow roots upward in sand substrate. 

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## Supa Mint (Jul 5, 2016)

John Wong said:


> I'm using Ada substrate. All crypt roots grew downwards accept new shoots. Maybe they just try to get nutrient from water column?? They are heavy root feeders. My plant only grow roots upward in sand substrate.


Ok, this is what has me concerned about the substrate. Besides providing an anchor in the substrate, are the roots not mostly responsible for nutrient uptake? While leaves are responsible for photosynthesis, I would imagine that they don't have much to do with the uptake of micro and macro nutrients - although I may be wrong about that.

I am also experiencing heavy root growth descending from all lengths of the stems (top to bottom) with my Ludwigia repens and Persicaria sp. 'Kawagoeanum' (see picture). This is unsightly - the heavy forest of roots, distracts from the beautiful stems and leaves.

This combination makes me think that the substrate isn't providing suffienct plant nutrients - the water is.

Is this sound logic?


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

Supa Mint said:


> Ok, this is what has me concerned about the substrate. Besides providing an anchor in the substrate, are the roots not mostly responsible for nutrient uptake? While leaves are responsible for photosynthesis, I would imagine that they don't have much to do with the uptake of micro and macro nutrients - although I may be wrong about that.
> 
> I am also experiencing heavy root growth descending from all lengths of the stems (top to bottom) with my Ludwigia repens and Persicaria sp. 'Kawagoeanum' (see picture). This is unsightly - the heavy forest of roots, distracts from the beautiful stems and leaves.
> 
> ...


i get roots shoting out of stems reaching for the ground too sometimes. not as much as yours though. i don't understand why but that seems like a likely theory.


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