question about runners..

[dertyharry420]

i have dwarf hair grass and im ordering some mirco sword and i was wondering what they mean by the runners and how to make the spread out like a grass carpet...? thanks i have a 28W 6,700K coralife on my 10g no co2 yet and i have kent pro plant and kent FW with seachem tabs.

 

[gheitman]

Runners are shoots coming out from the plant that will develop new plantlets every inch or so. Micro swords can develop into a carpet if you let it grow several months. I had similar results with Dwarf Sagittaria. I planted a couple of bunches in a 10 gallon aquarium and now they are completely covering the substrate. I have pulled up a few plants and transplanted them in to my 30 gallon tank.

 

[dertyharry420]

thanks for the info !

 

[malkore]

it's best to describe them as 'adventurous runners'....because they'll go everywhere.

One tip though...one a single plant has a runner with 3 smaller plants on it, cut the runner near the original plant. This does 2 things:
1. prevents the plantlets from pulling too many nutrients from the mother plant
2. forces the plantlets to put down roots of their own

 

[marcus russo]

Best way to get them to multiply quicker is snip the runner from the main plants once they are rooted