Skinny plants question?

[lmhicks101]

So serveral if my plants like my scarlet temples, hornwart, and mayaca Vandelli are a bit bare at the bottom and kinda okay at the top. My lobelia cardinal is starting to sprout roots from the top and is also a little stretched out. I know this is due to lighting issues and I’ve gotten the fluval 3.0 and replaced my fluorescent hood light. So the question is should I trim the top and just replant that and get rid of the bottom or keep both? 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by lmhicks101

[Guppysnail]

For trimming and replanting yes trim off the bottom bare stalk. A trick if you keep 2-3 leaves on the bare bottom of stem plants and float or suction cup near the light at the surface they will sprout side shoots.  They will produce side shoots that end up being 2-3 new plants. Cheap way to make more plants if you want them. 

[lmhicks101]

@Guppysnail So just making sure I got that right, So cut my Scarlets so the base still has about 3 leaves and then take the clippings and suction cup them to the tank side to grow some roots and them replant them? 

[Guppysnail]

That is what I do. I find a section that’s sending roots from the nodes so both pieces have roots when I cut it. 

[tolstoy21]

@Guppysnail has some pretty solid advice.

If you snip your stems above a leaf union, new shoots will grow out from those. As you repeat doing this, the plants will thicken (in the bonsai world, this is known as ramification). 

This technique applies to a lot of terrestrial plants as well, roses, hedges, etc. This is why trimming a boxwood with hedge clippers produces such a thick hedge. It encourages denser branching at the place you prefer it to happen. In the rose world, this encourages a nice dense bush, full of flowers.  Failing to do this encourages the plant to grow slender and tall and to concentrate all its energy towards the top of the plant. Snipping a stem diverts that energy into creating new branches from the leaf unions. Of course, this is also somewhat dependent of the variety of plant and its behavior, so being familiar with a variety helps as well. 

Personally, I would snip my plants about 2/3 of the way down, to encourage branching closer to the base, instead of higher up. If the plants are not well established, make sure to leave some existing healthy leaves on them so they have a way to continue root development and continue to have energy to branch.

And yes, at the same time, replant the cuttings.  Planned, directed pruning and replanting cuttings together will produce a nice, thick patch of plants. These beautiful gardens and aqauscapes we see are typically not the result of letting plants do their thang.  They involve a lot of direction  and intervention from the humans tending them.

Edited October 30, 2021 by tolstoy21

[lmhicks101]

@Guppysnail & @tolstoy21I appreciate the advise. Thank you