# What's the trick to sagittaria subulata?



## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Pardon me, but i don't know what i'm talking about..... It seems that the plant pictured in the link is a dwarf (like i have), and what you have is not dwarf. i've had mine for about a year now and it seems to be real finicky, if something is missing nutrient wise or a drastic change is made, most of the old growth dies off, and then it has to start all over again. only recently did i start to see a resonable amount of runners, that's since i've added pressurized co2, but growth is not too quick. 

What is pictured in that link is a very healty and well established plant, i think you just need to wait it out.


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## SueNH (Feb 25, 2004)

This stuff is a rampant grower for me. I rip runners out constantly. I do nothing special to it at all. It would easily take over my tank.


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

Hi Pia,

It looks like S.subulata to me. The plant that can vary a lot form tank to tank. When I bought it, it was 12 inches long. I was hoping it would grow in this fashion, but all the new growth has been low. So, I had to add vals to the tank to get the height that I wanted. 

Your tank specs are almost identical to mine, so it must be a nutrient issue. Possibly iron???

Ted

January









April


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Try adding something nutritious to the substrate. Sags are root feeders, and don't need much light, but if there is a lot of light they will need some food too. Flourish root tabs are good and expensive, someone sells homemade pellets, and I use Palm and Ferns Jobe sticks because they are cheap and work for me.


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## Pete City (Apr 2, 2005)

Try adding some substrate fertilizer, thats the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.
How are your NO3 readings?
Mine grow like weeds as well, and they have a decent root structure once established so I'm thinking the root tabs may help.


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

Sag does too well for me with water colunm dosing alone. I have to put it into a cut soda bottle to prevent it from taking over the whole tank. My "dwarf" sag gets to >24 inches tall, leaves float on the surface in 100gallon. I am not too sure of its ID anymore.


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## Pia (Dec 20, 2004)

:eek5: unirdna... That's a whole HECK of a lot of angelfish in your tank. Wow! They are so cute!

As for root ferts, I have some "Jobe's fertilizer spikes for Beautiful Houseplants" (13-4-5) that I use on my houseplants occasionally. These are okay? 

I wanted to stuff it under my Red Rubin because it's all sad and dead looking after the BBA attack. I had to prune off lots of leaves, poor thing. It used to be so pretty. 

How much should I put in? 1/2 stick?


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## Pete City (Apr 2, 2005)

I don't have any experience with Jobe's, I use flourish plant tabs,I am almost positive that there are many posts on using Jobe's, you will have to do some searching I think.
Good luck


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

Pia,

Jobe's Plant Sticks for ferns and palms have a rating of 16-2-6. I know this because I have a one-year old, unopened package of them in front of me . Plants grew, so I never used em.


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## Pia (Dec 20, 2004)

unirdna said:


> Pia,
> 
> Jobe's Plant Sticks for ferns and palms have a rating of 16-2-6. I know this because I have a one-year old, unopened package of them in front of me . Plants grew, so I never used em.


That's pretty much the reason I have this package, too. Hehe~


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## endparenthesis (Jul 13, 2004)

timr said:


> if something is missing nutrient wise or a drastic change is made, most of the old growth dies off, and then it has to start all over again.


That would explain why the batch I just ordered (in beautiful shape when it got here) has half-melted. Good to know it comes back.


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## SueNH (Feb 25, 2004)

I had typed a kind of lengthy reply early this morning before I headed out to work and promptly zapped it into nowhere. That's what I get for typing before the coffee hits bottom. AAaargh!!!!!

Tried to think what if anything in my tank might be different to make this stuff almost an obnoxious weed. Parameters aren't anything special. I do have high light, 130 watts over a 29g. The one thing I can think of that might be different is my substrate. It's pretty icky. It's Eco complete mixed with black gravel but it's very mulmy. Every time I pull a few of the extra Sags I tell myself that I really need to rip more up and do a good work over. Brown gunk will float off everywhere but then it settles and I forget. Probably pretty nutrious down there. I only fertilize the water column. Doesn't seem like anybody needs any extras.

I do have a couple of plants that decided to suddenly grow tall. I've had this stuff a while and it never did much in the height dept before. No changes so I have no idea why it wanted to suddenly shoot up. Don't mind because I was thinking I'd like to try some vals again. This is easier because the stuff just grows and grows for me.

Kind of cold and rainy out so I think I putter in the tank a bit. Pia if you want some Sag I'll save you some. Got to thin it out again so it doesn't choke my glosso and hairgrass.


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## Pia (Dec 20, 2004)

Just an update. I ordered some Sag. Subulata from a member here since his looked like what I wanted. It arrived a couple days ago and it looks like those in the pictures I posted. :icon_bigg 

I was interested to see if I ended up with both long, thin ones and the short, thick ones or if the new subulata I ordered would turn long and thin, too.

To my complete surprise and happiness, mine has started shedding its long, thin leaves and grow closer to the substate with thick leaves. 

A lot has changed, so I'm not sure exactly what prompted it to change, but:
- Changed 2yr old 55w CF to 55w 9325K bulbs
- Upped CO2 to 30ppm from 19-20ppm
- Started regularly dosing NPK and micros via EI

I'm really happy since, in my opinion, the plants look a lot better now.


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