Ludwigia repens growth / advice

[Mordecai13]

Hello all,

 

I bought 2 ludwigia repens just about 2 months ago, and I’ve come down to the last couple flowers of them. The first turned brown and died kinda quick but this one in the image has stayed alive. I recently took them out of the weight to replant them individually, is this the correct way to plant them? How soon should I expect growth? I have an aquarium co op root tab in there also and have been dosing easy green. Thanks!

 

 

Edited Thursday at 09:36 PM by Mordecai13

[Guppysnail]

I had luck reviving my faltering ludwigia by allowing it to float at the surface for a few weeks. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 6/27/2024 at 4:47 PM, Mordecai13 said:

I recently took them out of the weight to replant them individually, is this the correct way to plant them?

Quite unscientific, but I think they'll do better with a little space between them for root growth. That said, I sometimes get lazy with stems and stick 3 or 5 in a bunch together. But I think your way is better.

[Pepere]

In my co2 injected tank with 30 ppm nitrate dosing, and high light I shorten my Ludwigia Repens about 4 inches every week.  It gets pulled, I cut off the bottom 4 inches and it gets reinserted in the gravel.  Just water column dosing, no root tabs or nutritional substrate.

 

In my 17 gallon fish bowl I do not inject co2, I dose Easy green to get nitrates around 15 ppm, I have aquasoil under the inert substrate in this tank, and the lighting is much less.  It takes about 6 weeks for the L. Repens to grow 4 inches…

 

I do insert  each stem a half inch or so away from each other and do not use weights.

All of my tanks run at about 3-4 degrees of GH and 1-2 degrees KH. I have very soft tap water that I supplement with Seachem Equilibrium to raise GH and also provide potassium and iron…

 

L Repens has proven to be a very easy plant for me that seldom ever had algae grow on it before I got the Algae monster under control….

 

On the right hand side of the bowl is L Repens.  In addition to growing much slower without supplemented co2 you can see that the tops have less reddish blush to them and the leaves are smaller.

Here in a co2 injected tank you can see the L repens center stage in the background behind the pink flamingo crypt reaching for the surface.  This photo is about midweek after trimming shortening.  Within about 10-12 days the L repens would reach the surface. 

Edited Saturday at 08:42 AM by Pepere

[Pepere]

@Mordecai13, I thought you might like this photo I took today showing the morphological differences between the L. Repens grown in a high light, high fert co2 injected tank vs the one grown in moderate light, moderate ferts non injected tank.

The specimen on the left comes from a non injected tank that takes 6 weeks to gain 4 inches of height,  the one on the right is in an injected tank that grows about 4 inches a week.

the plant in the injected tank has fewer but bigger leaves and a bit more reddish coloration.

 

the non injected tank has its own appeal with more leaves that are more compact…

Had I discovered how to keep a non injected tank free from visible algae I probably would not have invested in co2 injection.  Injection however does allow you to keep plants that would really struggle in a non injected tank…

L. Repens responds nicely to co2 but grows quite well without it as well.