How to make plants grow bushier

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Khuligirl93

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Apr 13, 2013
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Title says it all, I have a 10g, moderately planted tank with flora max substrate, a 15w full spectrum florescent light, pressurized CO2, and weekly seachem comprehensive dosing. The plants I have that I would like to be more bushy are water wisteria, moneywort, and ludwigia repens. Do I just chop off the tops and hope they sprout side shoots? I tried that with the ludwigia and it's just made it look ugly and new shoots are not growing very fast. Thinking about ditching this plant all together because I think my light is too low.
Here's a pic of my tank minus the moneywort I just added today:
image-3332910320.jpg
 
High light creates bushy compact growth.. The lower the light within the threshold to grow plants will create elongated growth as the plant is trying to reach for the light.
 
So one way to make the stem plants look bushier in lower light is to trim off the tops and replant them to make the overall group thicker. More stems makes for a fuller look.
 
Ok thanks everyone! Yes I have tried the replanting tops technique with the ludwigia to make it look thicker, but it grows so fast I find myself cutting and replanting every couple days- and it's very frustrating because the stems do not like to stay planted. Also this has caused the lower half of the plant to turn brown and gross.

I would love to get a better light but that would involve a whole new fixture and I don't have the money right now, so I will just have to figure out what plants work with what I have. Might mean getting rid of the ludwigia.

Will the moneywort become bushy? I was thinking that I could use it to replace the ludwigia if it does, because I'd really like something thick and bushy in that corner to hide my heater.
 
Push the stems in deeper to get them to stay. And the fact the lower stems regularly turn brown and mushy leans towards too low lighting. What fertilizers are you dosing?
 
The thing is that the stems aren't rigid enough to push very deep because they bend. And my fingers make the hole too big so they float out.
Pretty much no fertilizers. Just seachem comprehensive after water changes, and fish waste :)
 
Do you use planting tweezers? I have plants, one is Rotala Mini Butterfly that has a stem with the thickness of carpet thread. It's not rigid (and most stem plant stems aren't). If you learn to hold the tweezers at an angle close to the bottom of the stem they make the hole taking the pressure off the stem and the stem just follows it in. It just takes a lot of practice. I have a 220g 100% planted and due to the depth of the tank I have to use oversize 24" long tweezers. They took some time learning to use them since I was used to 12" ones but now I can plant the tiniest stems like the Mini Butterfly deeply and without stem damage.
 
I would love to do that some day, but my stage of life right now really doesn't really allow any time for it. It's hard enough to get my dad to do monthly water changes when I'm away at school.
 
When it comes to moneywort, you can cut it under leaves, rip the bottom of the leaves off and replant. What you replant will grow roots. You can also plant them bunched up closer as the roots for these plants don't get to wide (for me they go straight down). I was doing that until I had to move my tank at work for the 3rd time where it is closer to a window and get indirect sunlight now. I have the moneywort growing about the water line now and seeing if I can get it to flower.
 
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