Trimming Water Sprite

Boredomb

How exactly do you do this?? I have some floating in my 10 gallon that's kinda taken over! I have pulled put daughter plants and put them in my other tanks but I can really do that anymore. The plant in question is pretty big by itself. So can you cut the leaves off at the base of the plant or cut them period? In this 10 I am about to show you there is just 2 plants in there.







Posted via Mobile Device

Byron

I have sometimes cut off leaves [or more correctly, fronds, as this is a true fern], say alternate fronds. If you notice, the daughter plants only produce on alternating fronds, and these will be shorter than the others; removing just these is one way to open up some more surface, but of course the fronds that remain will continue to grow in length. Some new frond growth will also be aerial, sort of "fiddle-head" shape. They can get quite high if allowed to, and will be much thicker and sturdier, with very finely pinnate fronds.

But the best way with this plant is to remove some of the daughter plants and discard the parent (to another tank, or to the garden compost). I have WS floating in all my tanks, and each week during the water change I do this as needed.

Byron.

Boredomb

Thanks Byron! I have noticed that there are length difference in the fronds. I didn't realize that the daughter plants only grew on alternate fronds though. So how do you remove the daughter plants from the parent plant?

This plant has exploded in growth for me once it settled in. I have 2-3 plants of it in my other 2 tanks from the original two plants I had.
Posted via Mobile Device

Boredomb

After thinking about that's kind of a dumb question. I can wait till the daughter plants let go/break off of the parent plant like I did with the others.
Posted via Mobile Device

Byron

By then the plants will be enormous. The daughter plants never break away from the parent plant unless you do it.

Take hold of the plantlets and gently pull outward frop the main plant. They separate very easily. I usually wait until the plants are about 2-3 inches in frond length. Sometimes I break off the entire leaf from the parent plant and let the leaf float. You want to remove the larger plants soon, or they get tangled together.

Boredomb

Yeah they are already getting to that point of getting tangled. I will see if I can separate them. The problem is the current from my filter pushes them all together on one side of the tank. I need to get a control valve to adjust the air pressure from the pump soo it won't be soo strong.
Posted via Mobile Device

Ogre44

You could always plant a few of them.
One of my LFS's has watersprite planted in all of their tanks, it looks quite nice.