Oops!

[dmurray407]

I bought a nice clump of bare root bacopa plants, I was busy, so when I brought it home I tossed it into my unlighted fishless quarantine tank....and forgot about it for 2 weeks (I love it when I wake up in the middle of the night thinking "OMG, did I....."). That was 2 weeks ago and the plant looked pretty sad. I floated it in my main tank with better lights in it and it still looks sad, though it looks like some new growth is starting to come out at the roots. I'm thinking I should cut off all the dead looking stuff (8 inches or so) and plant the roots with the new sprouts-is there any reason to not trim it back (do you think it might regrow?) Anyway, I'm really sad I did this, but at least it wasn't a fish.......

[Guppysnail]

Your on the right track. Sick injured leaves do not heal only steal nutrients and resources from the healthy bits slowing or impeding new growth. Chop away my friend 😁

I’ve done similar things you are not alone and that middle of the night head smacking is common for me 

[Rita]

On 12/28/2021 at 7:40 AM, Guppysnail said:

Your on the right track. Sick injured leaves do not heal only steal nutrients and resources from the healthy bits slowing or impeding new growth. Chop away my friend 😁

I’ve done similar things you are not alone and that middle of the night head smacking is common for me 

Sorry to steal the topic, but would this same trimming technique help new plants try to come back to life from melting?

[Guppysnail]

In my experience it does. I trim all melt. Im not a plant expert but it works for me. 

[Patrick_G]

I find that it’s the top part that’s easiest to trim off and replant. The bottom part will work too, but it make sure it still has some healthy leaves. If all goes well you’ll get two new stems on each old one. 

[gardenman]

In the terrestrial world, plants can draw food from "dead" leaves and branches. Gardeners who cut their perennials to the ground at the end of the growing season tend to have less success than those who wait until new growth shows in the spring to cut down the old growth. Plants will store carbohydrates and other food in the seemingly "dead" leaves and branches and then draw on that over the winter while they're in a reduced state of activity. (Plants still need food and water in winter, just not as much. Think of them as a hibernating bear. Bears go into hibernation very fat and happy and emerge from hibernation very thin having used food resources even though they were hibernating. Plants store their winter food in their stems and in some cases their leaves. Cut them off and you're depriving the plant of their winter food.) In general, things that hold true for terrestrial plants hold true for aquatic plants, so I'd wait until you see new growth before removing too much plant melt.  There's a decent chance the plant is drawing food from those "melting" leaves to help it stay alive until new growth starts. Once you've got new growth, hack away at them, but until you do, you might want to leave the old stuff in place.

[dmurray407]

On 1/3/2022 at 8:17 AM, gardenman said:

Once you've got new growth, hack away at them, but until you do, you might want to leave the old stuff in place.

Since my Bacopa was spouting new growth, I did cut back the dead looking old stuff and planted the clump in the substrate. It looks great so far.