Excess plant trimmings

[thomasina]

When you trim a plant, like wisteria or water sprite, can you just stick it in the substrate and it will grow? or do you pull the old and replace it?

 

[EndlersEatGuppies]

I cut them let them float for a week and once they have a nice root system I plant them.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'm not sure if wisteria or water sprite is like any other stem plant, but stems like my rotala, ludwigia, and limnophila i just trim and plant right away if I'm trying to fill a certain area. The roots develop regardless. But after a while the bottom of a stem plant can start to look bad, that's the time i clip the tops off, uproot the bottoms, and replant the tops.

 

[thomasina]

I'm not sure if wisteria or water sprite is like any other stem plant, but stems like my rotala, ludwigia, and limnophila i just trim and plant right away if I'm trying to fill a certain area. The roots develop regardless. But after a while the bottom of a stem plant can start to look bad, that's the time i clip the tops off, uproot the bottoms, and replant the tops.

But if you replace the old with the clippings, then how do you ever get enough to cover the spaces you want covered? Yes, my wisteria is looking rather haggard near the bottom...as is the water sprite.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You don't replace the old right away. You do so after several trimmings. If you don't trim as often as you should, the bottoms don't get light because the tops block light, so the leaves fall off and deteriorate at the bottom.. The key is to trim and plant before that happens. The remaining old stem should then grow two new shoots, while the new clipping you just planted is rooting itself.. Repeat the process several times and you'll soon have a lot of stems.

 

[mohican]

If I have a plant that I can just trim and replant, I just do it and they turn out just fine. I'm too impatient to wait for roots and what not.