Red Melon Sword Stunted

[RyanR]

I have a red melon sword that I bought from the Co-Op.  It s a little over a year old.  From the day I bought it, I put it in an easy planter.  I fertilize with easy green and easy iron and use root tabs in the planter about every month.  It has never gotten tall and has always been like it is in the picture.  The roots are growing decent, but not spectacular.   The 2 anubias on the wood is about the same age and they are both doing well.  Is it possible that the plant is stunted from being in the planter?  If I take it out and put it in the substrate, do you think it will recover and grow tall again?  For reference it is in a 29 gal.

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by RyanR

[Mmiller2001]

I would try removing it and see how it does when allowed to spread its roots.

[Jennifer V]

On 2/2/2022 at 8:19 PM, RyanR said:

I have a red melon sword that I bought from the Co-Op.  It s a little over a year old.  From the day I bought it, I put it in an easy planter.  I fertilize with easy green and easy iron and use root tabs in the planter about every month.  It has never gotten tall and has always been like it is in the picture.  The roots are growing decent, but not spectacular.   The 2 anubias on the wood is about the same age and they are both doing well.  Is it possible that the plant is stunted from being in the planter?  If I take it out and put it in the substrate, do you think it will recover and grow tall again?  For reference it is in a 29 gal.

 

I'm having the same issue! I have a red melon sword I got from ACO over a year ago and it's producing leaves like crazy. It actually looks really beautiful and healthy but it hasn't grown much height at all. I was just wondering about it when I did my weekly water change today so thank you for posting! 

@Mmiller2001 mine is planted in the substrate -- eco complete with a gravel top. Could there be other reasons why it isn't getting any height? I just have the led lights that came from the kit. Could that be the reason? My Amazon sword doesn't seem affected at all. I do use Easy Green root tabs for fertilizer. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Jennifer V

[Mmiller2001]

It could be that particular plants' genetics. But these are pretty undemanding plants and should do well in most tanks. If it's growing, looks nice and not struggling, my guess is that particular plant wants to stay low. Some plants that get enough light tend to grow out versus up. This could be the case?

Maybe exploit this plants feature and move it more forward? Could be pretty cool!

Edited February 4, 2022 by Mmiller2001

[JoeQ]

Same problem with Aquarium Coop mellon sword that I bought in about September? I recently moved it to the brightest spot in my tank, and stuck 2 seachem root tabs directly under it (one deep and 1 shallow by the roots). Im also upping my liquid fertz and have seen improvement but its still small. Maybe it's just the bonsai mellon sword variety! 🤣

[Odd Duck]

Swords can sometimes be more particular than you might expect.  Usually they are great growers, but they can be variable in size, color, form, etc, depending on conditions.

 @RyanRLeaving a primarily root feeding plant in a planter is one way known to keep them small.  If you want it bigger, for sure remove from the planter, spread out the roots, and give it 2-3 root tabs, but not directly in contact with the roots, at least one inch or more away from the base is best.  If your roots are longer than that, just put the root tabs between a couple roots but within about an inch or two from the tips (I usually go closer to the plant so new roots have something to reach for).  The roots tend to spread out sideways and the root tips are where most of the nutrient absorption occurs, but they don’t like direct contact with the root tab.

@Jennifer Vand @JoeQ If any plant has a set back, it can make them drop leaves and melt back badly.  It can take quite a while for them to fully recover.  If roots got damaged, it takes even longer.  I bought some radicans swords that got heat damaged in shipping.  They arrived at ~12” tall but melted back to 4” tall and are just finally starting to produce leaves that are getting to 5-6” tall after almost 5 months.  I expect it to take at least another 6-12 months before they get back to their former height (if they ever do since they were emerse grown before).  Providing regular ferts (I’m overdue for supplementing mine 😝) will help.  If the plant had roots circling around the base of the pot and you didn’t make sure to unwind/unwrap their roots at planting, it can cause issues with the plant almost strangling itself.  This can happen if the grower had them inside plastic cup style growing flats for too long after they were potted.  Typically, the less you fiddle with the plant’s roots, the better, but removing old, rotting roots, or unwinding circling roots is a must.

[anewbie]

On 2/2/2022 at 9:19 PM, RyanR said:

I have a red melon sword that I bought from the Co-Op.  It s a little over a year old.  From the day I bought it, I put it in an easy planter.  I fertilize with easy green and easy iron and use root tabs in the planter about every month.  It has never gotten tall and has always been like it is in the picture.  The roots are growing decent, but not spectacular.   The 2 anubias on the wood is about the same age and they are both doing well.  Is it possible that the plant is stunted from being in the planter?  If I take it out and put it in the substrate, do you think it will recover and grow tall again?  For reference it is in a 29 gal.

 

I'm not familiar with the exact species coop is selling as red melon but a lot of sword plants will not grow tall even with high light and co2 injection. It depends a bit on the species. Light does make a difference. I know my red flame and prinz kleiner will never get more than 8 and 12 inches (respectively); on the other hand some swords will easily reach 20+ inches such as ruffle and Uruguayensis. I did have some sort of melon variety that reached 24 inches but i don't know the exact species since it was sold incorrectly as another type of sword. Also be aware there are a lot of hybrid plants out there and these generally do not grow as large.

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Constraining the roots or rhizome can severely stunt the plant. I had some large swords that were over grown by some jungle val (the jungle val clamped their roots around  the rhizome and after a while that severely stunted the plants. I've since removed those vals and the sword plants are slowly recovering. My ruffle sword (3 years old) now has an 8 inch rhizome with 3ish growing areas (where new leaves sprout). It has actually crept a bit too far and i need to cut it before it suffocates my red flame.

Edited February 4, 2022 by anewbie

[JoeQ]

@odd duck

 

Thanks for the info, it's probably one of the reasons im not successful with swords or any plant other than stems. Where the only thing you have to be aware of is the proper end ti stick in the substrate! 🤣

Edited February 4, 2022 by JoeQ
Added tag

[Odd Duck]

On 2/4/2022 at 2:25 PM, JoeQ said:

Where the only thing you have to be aware of is the proper end ti stick in the substrate!

Some stem plants don’t even care about that!  The only stem plants I seem to do well with are those that you can lay them down and they willingly sprout along the length.  Me and stems are not typically buddies, but I’ve got some that grow well enough to earn me pretty good store credit.