Vallisneria advice?

[dublicious]

I got some jungle val in May. When it arrived the leaves looked a little sad, mostly pale w/ some browning. With no growth in the 29 after a few weeks I figured maybe pruning some of the sad leaves would stimulate newer, healthy growth, but left many of the leaves on as there were none that looked great and I didn't want to just cut it all off and kill the plant.

Here we are nearly mid August with still no new growth. They're under a fluval 3.0 in a 29 gal. I dose easy green per the bottle, put root tabs under them, and until last weekend the tank was heavily stocked w/ guppies. I feel like lighting and nutrients should be sufficient to see at least some new growth, but there's been virtually none for almost 4 months. I was under the impression that these were plants that will grow under most conditions.

Any advice is appreciated!

Edited August 11, 2020 by dublicious
I have the best words.

[KBOzzie59]

I had a similar situation.  Put some in a 54 corner tank, waited, and waited, and waited...   About six months later they were off and running.  Now that tank is my supply for my other tanks.  What's weird is how fast is establishes in other tanks, seems like it only took a couple weeks to get going in a 55.  I've even trimmed some back to just nubs and they got going pretty quickly.  Don't let it beat you, wait it out!

[MickS77]

Are you dosing anything like Easy Carbon? Vallisneria can be sensitive to that stuff. Is the light turned up all the way? There are a lot of types of Vallisneria so it could be a type that doesn't grow that tall. A picture would help too. 

[KBOzzie59]

Just now, MickS77 said:

Are you dosing anything like Easy Carbon? Vallisneria can be sensitive to that stuff. Is the light turned up all the way? There are a lot of types of Vallisneria so it could be a type that doesn't grow that tall. A picture would help too. 

Yeah forgot about this.  Lower light for the jungle val will make it reach for the top.  Good call @MickS77

[Daniel]

45 minutes ago, dublicious said:

I got some jungle val ...

Jungle Val is Vallisneria americana and it is the big mamma jama.

It grows around here and gets to be more than 6 feet long. It likes good root nutrients and lots of light. But once it gets going it’s not picky. 

And don’t listen to me I’ve had some for three weeks and it’s just sitting there doing nada, zip, nothing. I’m listening to @KBOzzie59 and I am just going to wait it out.

[Daniel]

And I am not so sure on the give it low light to make it reach for the light. It needs the light to make the resources to grow more roots and make more/longer leaves. Reminds me of this:

Don't touch him! He wants to do it by himself!

GETYARN.IO

---

Young Frankenstein (1974) - Find video clips by quote. GetYarn.io now.

 

[dublicious]

1 hour ago, MickS77 said:

Are you dosing anything like Easy Carbon? Vallisneria can be sensitive to that stuff. Is the light turned up all the way? There are a lot of types of Vallisneria so it could be a type that doesn't grow that tall. A picture would help too. 

Na, no easy green. Various colors are 50-70%, except  blue which is 0, for about 10 hrs/day.

 It's Jungle Val. If there are varieties of that species, I have no idea which it is. I also previously bought "italian val" which didn't grow very tall, and according to some folks I've shown pictures it actually looks more like some sagittaria variety. So far batting 0/2 on val 😄 .

Picture attached. The green is not as vibrant as the camera seems to be making it.

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

Jungle Val is Vallisneria americana and it is the big mamma jama.

Yea, that's why I was hoping this would make me feel better about my previous "val" not getting very tall. Also hoping I'm just delayed.

[Brandy]

I got some recently locally from a hobbyist. I told him I wanted it to fill in across a large tank and he deliberately chose plants with runners on them. I was told the original plants would do very little, but the runners would be aggressive. This has been my experience, the runners are growing, slowly at first, the "mother plant" is basically plastic with some browning. 

Edited to add: I think it establishes roots first, and so it is growing, just not where you can see it. Like we used to say with garden vines, first year sleep, second creep, third leap! hopefully it isn't years tho, lol.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Brandy

[Solidus1833]

5 hours ago, dublicious said:

Na, no easy green. Various colors are 50-70%, except  blue which is 0, for about 10 hrs/day.

 It's Jungle Val. If there are varieties of that species, I have no idea which it is. I also previously bought "italian val" which didn't grow very tall, and according to some folks I've shown pictures it actually looks more like some sagittaria variety. So far batting 0/2 on val 😄 .

Picture attached. The green is not as vibrant as the camera seems to be making it.

Yea, that's why I was hoping this would make me feel better about my previous "val" not getting very tall. Also hoping I'm just delayed.

That val looks healthy to me, may be a little yellow but nothing to be scared about. I do know val will grow taller with lower light. So maybe lower the maximum lighting by 50% for a few weeks to get the val to chase it. Then when its at a height you like go back to your normal lighting? 

[Blown68]

I thought my jungle Val and Val were not going to grow after 3-4 months and boom it took off. As you can see in the picture my jungle is taller than my tank now doing awesome. Runners are spreading like crazy now. Give it time and it will grow. 

[Daniel]

That Jungle Val of mine that wasn't going anywhere 2 weeks ago has begun to make a move. It is subtle though, just the tip of a new leaf beginning to poke its head out.

[Mychala]

I bought the Italian val from the coop and mine stays shorter. It was long when it came in but I ended up trimming the old leaves because they didn't do anything and didn't look great. I've tried everything but lowering the light , mine doesn't adjust. I think I have heard Cory say before it will stay short if it's in bright light. I just decided to get some bacopa instead to get the height in the back. I didn't want to risk messing with my balance by getting a new light after getting most of my algae troubles under control.  

[genuine_red]

The first tank I put my new val in, it got thick and tall immediately. But I broke that tank down and moved the gorgeous val to a taller tank where it melted and has not come back particularly well. When the leaves get about 10 inches, they melt and float away. The plants always have new leaves coming in, but as soon as they get tall, they melt. It's been about eight months, but I'm waiting it out.