# trimming and planting anacharis



## panther685 (Jul 27, 2009)

I know anacharis is considered a weed among plant growers but i seem to like it because it's very easy. So, I have a 3 gallon with anacharis and i have a few questions.

1 when trimming anacharis is there any method to doing so? What i mean by that is wherever I cut the plant it stops growing from that spot and it gets brown colored. Is there any way i can trim it so that it continues to grow from that spot? 

2 When i take the trimmings to transplant do they have to be a certain length to plant them? I have a plant that is covered in algae and it has a few new branches that are growing that I would like to trim off and plant but they are only 2-3 inches long. Is this long enough to transplant?

3 a few of the stems have something odd happening to them. Roots have grown from higher up on the plant and have dug down into the soil. The base of the stem has rotted off the bottom but the plant is still growing. I put some jungle root tabs in the substrate could this be causing this to happen?

What my ultimate goal is to remove all the orrigional plants that have turned a dark green/brown color and replant the tank with the sprouts that have grown off of these plants.


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

Anacharis is a stem plant and trimming is just like any other stem plant. It is the same as many plants we trim or prune outside in the yard. A good example would be a rose bush. When you cut a limb off you are essentially stopping all growth from that point. There is nothing you can do about this. If you look at the plant there are buds all along the stem. Cutting will promote the buds closest to the cut to sprout new growth. Keeping this in mind you need to consider where you want the new growth to come when trimming. For this reason most people cut near the substrate so the plant will bush out close to the bottom. You can replant any cutting as long as it is enough to put in the substrate and have a minimul amount out of the substrate. Almost all stem plants send out roots along the stem. Nothing you can really do about this except occasionally pinch them off. The reason the bottom of the plant rotted off is probably because there was not enough light getting to the bottom of the plant due to shading by plants next to it.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Bugman has hit all the answers, but I'd like to add on to 3) 

When you start seeing roots growing from the middle of the plant, it means it's time to replant your Anacharis. This means cutting the top off, uprooting the bottom, and then replanting the top.


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