# Ludwigia Repens



## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

So...these things I've heard:
Ludwigia is funny, it can turn green on you for no reason.
If you have it in high light it will grow across. But in med or higher level low light it will grow up towards the top.
I bought some a few weeks ago. It had red and green on the same leaves. All the new leaves are coming in green. It is growing sort of diagonal...across but with an upward turn to the end.
Light amount of EI but once a week. Still high level for amount of plants.
2 x T5 bulbs @11-12". But about 15% coverage of Giant Duckweed after
WC but about 40% at weeks end. Daily doses of Excel @ 2x recomended.
Plant growing at about one leaf set per week roughly.
Any reason for no red ? Plant too young ? Just planted one stem. It's
about 6" long. Has two new sprouts at bottom but they are hardly growing. Had fair amount of roots. No tabs/(old dried out)new gravel
as of Feb. so not much of any mulm/detrius in gravel but was in established tank before it dried plus added Flourite cap.


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## dustin (Feb 28, 2014)

Yea i was doing diy co2 but i stopped it because i just didnt feel like doing it no more and my ludwigia repens is growing hirzontally and with tons of new shoots and they also turned green but growing at the same rate and i dose aquavitro nutients and fluval micro nutrients every thing is growing fine in my tank but the ludwigia like you said is green i dont mind mine to be green tho.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Here's some I planted about a month ago. It was totally green from LFS. They a few roots on the bottom that didnt look so hot, so I cllipped the bottom inch or so off, leaving no roots at all, and stuck them in the sand about 2" deep.

Med light, daily excel, weekly flourish comp, no co2. New growth is coming in fairly red. Hoping it gets redder. :red_mouth


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Not enough replies yet but so far it seems to be just finiky but perhaps those which
burr has is older than mine judging from the size of them and maybe mine will turn
as it gets older also. Mine appear to have been clippings instead of full sized plants,
but did have some roots.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

They were probably 10" when I bought them, 9 after I clipped the bottoms off, about 12" now (the longest ones).


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Give it some time to reach the top of your tank. I've gotten mine to turn orange red once it reached the top of the tank right under the lights. The leaves closer to the bottom of the tank will stay green though.


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## fish jihad (Mar 1, 2014)

What is the wattage on those t5 lights? Also ive read any red plants need extra iron. If your dosing micro nutrients it should have iron but may want to check. My repens gets reds on all but the very bottom leaf. Well new sister shoots are green too but thats expected. I have 2.6 watts per gallon. 78 watts over a 30 gallon. Dose EI plus CSM+B dry ferts. 
They tend to grow in many directions. The longer ones bending over. Some going sideways a little. Personally i just let nature take its course.


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## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

My Ludwigia repens does the exact same as the OP described. Grows in all directions and fast too, was originally red under its leaves when I got it and is since completely green EXCEPT the slightest hint of pink/red under the top leaves which are 4" from the surface...I'll see what happens when they reach the top. I dose a lot of extra iron, and have 3x23watt spiral CFL bulbs over a 20 long. I'd like to figure out how to bring out the extra red too.


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## jrman83 (Nov 22, 2010)

If you are talking red on top of the leaves, it's really just a green leaf. You can get the reds to come out with higher light levels, but it doesn't have to be that high. I don't think there is any magical equation. The plant grows in any light level.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

The equation is simple: more light = more color. Personally, I can not find much relationship between Fe and color.

v3


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

fish jihad said:


> What is the wattage on those t5 lights? Also ive read any red plants need extra iron. If your dosing micro nutrients it should have iron but may want to check. My repens gets reds on all but the very bottom leaf. Well new sister shoots are green too but thats expected. I have 2.6 watts per gallon. 78 watts over a 30 gallon. Dose EI plus CSM+B dry ferts.
> They tend to grow in many directions. The longer ones bending over. Some going sideways a little. Personally i just let nature take its course.


If you are talking WPG, that would be 3.6 or 18W for each bulb x 2. The plant is growing fairly well. I just sometimes lack patience.
I am not used to this plant and thought it to be lacking in something because of the sideways growth as opposed to the other stemmed plants which I have had plus the lack of red combined to make me think it was lacking like I said.


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## jrman83 (Nov 22, 2010)

I have never seen any growth other than straight up. That includes my low light tank where the stems have only grown about 4 inches in a year. My high light tanks they go straight up and then lean due to the length of the stem and flow in the tank. Other than that nothing different than straight.


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## dmike1975 (Apr 22, 2013)

*Is light spectrum an issue?*

Mine did the same, as did my Lobelia Cardinalis (which was kinda purple at first, really wish I could get that back), all while the Alternanthera Reineckii held its red pretty well (except for the lower leaves), and the Red Tiger Lotus bulb finally sprouted. I tried cutting the brightness down, almost in half, thinking perhaps they came from lower lighting, but it didn't help. Dosing a little potassium and iron also hasn't helped. I wonder if it has to do with the light spectrum, like mine are high-output BMLED, between 10k and 13k, but usually set between 25-50% these days, not much co2. Do you all think that they might grow new leaves with less green in 6.5k, or do i not really understand lighting and chloroplasts? If this isn't the meat of the matter, all I can think is that the brightness and co2 should've gone up, but then, I would've likely ended up with even more algae problems. lol


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