bacopa

[RockabillyChick]

is there any way to make it grow more compact and shorter? i just got some and the stems were a good 16" long o.O i cut them all down to about 4-5" and had to rubberband the dang things to rocks to keep them in the substrait........

[reiverix]

Bacopa is going to get tall regardless but I've found it gets a thicker stem and broader leaves under higher light. When it starts putting out sideshoots you can keep trimming it back and end up with lots of heads on one stem.

[djlen]

How large (in diameter) are the pebbles of your substrate? The finer the substrate the easier it is to keep Bacopa and other stems down so they can 'root' into it. Of course this is assuming you don't have a pair of breeding Kribensis ripping it up because they are ticked off at the location you've had the nerve to plant it in. :)

If I had a 16" long length of Bacopa and wanted to propagate more of it, I would cut it into 3 - 5" lengths, and bury them all together with the lower 1" fully into the substrate. In my tanks this would turn into 3 seven - nine inch lengths in one week, and almost doubling that size in 2 weeks. Then I'd pull it up, cut it into 3 - 5" lengths again and start over. Bacopa increases rapidly using this type of propagation.
You can even float it and it will then branch and propagation is even faster using that technique.

Len

[RockabillyChick]

i have sand. i decided to put it in back and bring my ludwigia more forward, that way the bacopa can get to the top of the tank before i have to trim it.