# Cabomba roots growing on stem



## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

I haven't had this happen w/ cabomba. Is it just on the bottom portion of the plant? Sometimes the bottom portions don't get as much light if they're bunched together. When I have too many roots on a stem plant, I pull them off and sometimes a leaf grows there in its place. Sometimes the roots just come back and I pull them off. I think that stem plants are more likely to send out roots if they are blocked from light (hence the lower parts rooting more).


----------



## mcd19 (Apr 30, 2007)

This is a normal occurrence with many stem plants. It is OK to just pinch off the roots that are growing off the stems, it will not harm the plant. Some people don't mind the look of aerial roots but I too remove them because I like the cleaner look.


----------



## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

I have this same problem and i dont like how it looks, if the roots touch the substrate will it anchor to it and possibly drag it down?


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

hvuong said:


> I have this same problem and i dont like how it looks, if the roots touch the substrate will it anchor to it and possibly drag it down?


Yes. You could trim the roots, or simply trim the top and replant... Cabomba in my tanks always does the same thing.


----------



## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

It's just a natural thing stem plants do. Sending down more roots from the nodes in the stem helps them gather more nutrients from the substrate and keep them more stable. Usually they only form towards the bottom of the plant.

If the plants begins to grow sideways, it will most likely send out a bunch of anchor roots from the stem to keep it more stable in its awkward position. I've noticed this in my Rotala rotundifolia in my tank.

You can pinch or trim the roots if you want, it won't harm the plant at all. When the roots hit the substrate, the roots will keep growing and won't drag the plant down with it, at least they shouldn't. I've never seen it happen but I can assume.


----------



## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

Well i haven't started dosing any fertilizer in my tank yet since im still working on planting it. Do you think this has to do with the extra roots, since the cabomba is growing extra stems to get more nutrients.


----------



## tallerin (Mar 20, 2008)

Not an expert on plants but I have some Ludwigia Peruensis and Ludwigia repens that never had roots while useing what I had for fertilizer. I stopped useing the fertilizer tablets I had and both have tons of roots on them now. There not towards the tops like on your cabomba but from the middle to the bottom I just removed the middle and leave the bottom as they are going into the substrate and seemto help out keeping them in place (haven't seen them knocked out yet from my fish).


----------



## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

hvuong, in the cabomba pic, it looks like it was growing sideways? Had it bent over when it reached the surface. If so this is the reason for the roots. They are just anchor roots to keep the plant stable in its awkward position. This (I don't think) has anything to do with not enough nutrients, it's just keeping itself stable.


----------



## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

Even with full EI dosing, these roots will still appear along the entire length of most stem plants.


----------



## 9am53 (Jan 23, 2008)

i used to have a big bunch of cabomba with like 8 stems coming from it, I was dosing EI and having major problems with algae AND these roots, I got rid of the cabomba, or so I thought, only to find that it came back, I must have missed a little bit, and it grew back. I since then have modified my dosing regimen, and magically my algae AND my cabomba roots have disappeared. Assuming that this is not magic, the things that have changed and led to my cabomba roots disappearing are:

1) I have proper nutrient levels now
2) i have fewer stems now, only 3
3) this one I think is most important, before I was letting the plant grow tall, now I dont let it get past maybe 10-12 inches tall, this seems to keep the plant growing up. Once it gets near the top they always seemed to bend over and drop roots...keeping them short really seems to help

I feel your pain, the roots were why I tried to get rid of it in the first place, but now that its growing nicely, and without roots, I am happy to have it again.


----------

