# pruning amazon swords



## Bombay (Mar 3, 2006)

You can trim the leaves themselves if only a portion or margin has died. Occasionally, this does not work, but often it does. If you would rather get rid of the whole leaf...and assuming you do not want to remove the plant from the tank to trim...follow it down to where the stem meets the base and trim. A stem without a leaf doesn't do any good. You should end up with a nub of the original stem on the base. A new leaf and stem should start growing between the nub and the base.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Swords that I have had actually grew more vigorously when the old damaged leaves were cut off completely. I found that if I didn't cut the old one off way down at the base, but left a stub, that stub stayed there forever, making the plant look bad.


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

I noticed the same thing Hoppy did on mine. Just don't clip off too many at once, or the sword won't be able to get enought light.


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## dschmeh (Feb 5, 2006)

i cut mine where the stem meets the substrate and it usually grows a new leaf every week . I shuld of never put this in my 12g it grows to fast and big i constantly have to cut it back.


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## Bombay (Mar 3, 2006)

Yes, the nub will eventually decay. The point is that if you prune while the plant is still in the substrate, you could prune too close to the base and damage it. If you remove the plant from the substrate then you should be able to remove everything with no worries.


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