# Managing Water Wisteria, or the Plant that Ate Everything



## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

I have a 220G that has wisteria in the middle. It's under medium light (kind of an accident of placement -- 4 overlapping Satellite LED+), but it is a low tech and generally low light tank.

The wisteria grows like mad, and I love it as I think it's sucking up a lot of nitrates (comparing to a similarly planted tank without wisteria).

It used to be uniformly thick, like a cylinder, but over time it has developed into something of a canopy at the top (it extends into the tank about 18" as well as the 2' wide you see here). The bottom however, say the bottom 16" or so, have lost most of their leaves and side stems -- they are just long thin stems leading to the canopy at the top.

The majority of the wisteria is within a couple inches of the light, and I suspect this will just continue to get worse over time; it is shading the bottom with its own canopy which is I think what is causing the leaf loss down low.

So some questions -- if I cut the canopy off, say the top 6-8 inches which is the majority of the foliage, will it start to fill in at the bottom? 

An alternative I've read about is to cut the canopy off, pull up the stems entirely, and then plant the canopy in pieces, effectively removing the bottom/middle. My concern with that is that it has a terrific root system going, and I hate to cause that much disturbance in the substrate (and wouldn't want to leave it to rot). But I guess I could. It would be a lot of replanting.

I probably should have more aggressively pruned it as it got taller. I'm preventing it from spreading as I do not want it taking up more square footage really (I uproot the horizontal runners as they appear, leaving them to grow up). But it has gotten away from me a bit, and would appreciate some advice before I start whacking away at it.

I should mention -- I'm not exactly unhappy with what I have here, I just suspect it will not maintain in this state. But if it can -- can I just trim around the edges and maybe a couple inches of height, and leave it as something of a canopy? Will it stabilize and grow in that shape? 

My goal with the wisteria is to provide some mid-high cover foliage for small fish, and some rapid growth to remove nitrates. The rest of the tank has slower growing stuff in in (lots of crypts on the other side of the rocks and to the left for low density for fish at the surface).


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## Ben125 (Dec 16, 2014)

I trimmed the tops off mine, pulled up the ratty looking rooted stuff, and replanted the nice looking tops. It looked sad while it reestablished its roots but then after a week or 2 it was growing full speed again. It definitely looks more bushy now.


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## Positron (Jul 22, 2013)

For most stem plants, and wisteria included cut the bottoms off that has no leaves. Replant the tops. The new tops will quickly establish a new root system keeping the entire plant much healthier, and better looking.


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## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

Scary to pull up all those roots but I may have to. 

So the stems won't put out new growth if I trim the tops away?


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## Ben125 (Dec 16, 2014)

My tank is dirt so I feel your hesitation about pulling stuff up. So yes I think you can just trim the tops. Im pretty sure it will grow back. Wisteria never seems to die no matter what you do to it. 

That thing is huge btw lol. I like it.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Linwood said:


> Scary to pull up all those roots but I may have to.
> 
> So the stems won't put out new growth if I trim the tops away?


New growth...yes, in the form of side shoots that will basically be new plants. The bare stems will not sprout new leaves and fill in that way, if that's what you mean. Be best to replant the top portions and just ditch the ratty lower parts. Unless like Ben125 you have a dirt capped substrate and cant afford to disturb it much.


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## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

burr740 said:


> New growth...yes, in the form of side shoots that will basically be new plants. The bare stems will not sprout new leaves and fill in that way, if that's what you mean. Be best to replant the top portions and just ditch the ratty lower parts. Unless like Ben125 you have a dirt capped substrate and cant afford to disturb it much.



Sorry, confused -- the side shoots will come from the ground up as new plants, or will shoot off the side of the old stems? 

I don't have dirt, but do have blasting sand with a lot of old poop and crap in it, so pulling up big roots does make something of a mess. I can, just hesitant.

I'm wondering about a split approach - drastically trim the canopy, and take some of that and plant (albeit in the shade a bit) back at the substrate near the older stems. 

I did trim it a bit this morning; we had house guests going home, and he wanted some wisteria for his stank. So I cut off the highest pieces and shaped it a bit as well (and threw away a fair amount). I guess I'll just experiment. 

I'm surprised I'm not getting algae growth on the highest leaves, right under those 4-wide LED fixtures, but as i fluffed it up this morning to trim I saw nothing. Or it could be the SAE's, they have been doing a good job trimming.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Linwood said:


> Sorry, confused -- the side shoots will come from the ground up as new plants, or will shoot off the side of the old stems?


Both most likely, since wisteria spreads in both those ways. Hard to say which one would happen the most. The point was those bare stems are not going to sprout new leaves themselves and turn back lush and healthy. I thought that's what you were asking.

If you're worried about disturbing the substrate just do a good water change afterwards. That's always a good idea after a big trim or change anyway. You could also hold the vacuum tube over the spot and let it suck up the immediate discharge as you pull them up.


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## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

burr740 said:


> ...The point was those bare stems are not going to sprout new leaves themselves and turn back lush and healthy. I thought that's what you were asking.


It was, and thanks. Just trying to get as much of a view of how it regrows as I could.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Better to pull and replant the tops. Most of the rooted stubs will resprout but it takes longer to look good and do you need all those stems? Dutch scapers pull and replant. ADA trim stems 4 times then pulls and replants. Stem roots aren't permanent.


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

Just cut the stems at the substrate, then remove rest of bare stem. Plant healthy looking plant. Leave the roots in there to rot for nutrients for your plants.


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## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

How about a compromise... you cut 1/3 a couple of leaf nodes from the floor and see how they do? If it works well you can cut the next 1/3 and so on. If not you'll still have plenty of tops left to replant and doing it in stages means your fish will still have cover


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## anastasisariel (Oct 4, 2009)

Ben125 said:


> I trimmed the tops off mine, pulled up the ratty looking rooted stuff, and replanted the nice looking tops. It looked sad while it reestablished its roots but then after a week or 2 it was growing full speed again. It definitely looks more bushy now.


^That's all I do with a lot of obnoxiously fast growing plants^


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