Amazon sword

danelpalfrey

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Dec 1, 2014
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Daniel
Ok, a few months ago I rescued an Amazon sword from my lfs, it was so sickly that they gave me the plant free of charge as (in there words) it wont survive.
I got it home and it was going transparent and had loads of little brown spots on it, as the leaves cant repair them selves I plucked off the worst looking ones (right down to the roots, I then cleaned up the roots taking away everything but the white ones, also trimmed the roots back to encourage growth, I have now took it out of the tank for an inspection and have got two lovely looking little swords from it (three leaves on one and about 6 on the other) I have thrown out the mother plant as she is basically dead, I'm no expert but I'd say that if you want to rescue your Amazon sword from death you'll end up keeping it alive for as long as possible to allow new growth (root division) mine grew out from either side of the mother plant and had there own new root system.

Can anyone here explain what root division is?
Is it something the plant does?
Or do I need to physically split the roots?

Would anyone have done differently to rescue this plant?

I really liked the mother plant, she was so big, but I couldnt save here but was confident I could get new growth and so I took her on.

Thanks for any info

Dan
 
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Im curious about this too. I neglected my tank for years and now am trying to revive it. My amazon sword is so little now. I did the same with trimming the bad leaves and roots back. New growth has started. I haven't uprooted it to check for new crowns or whatever since then. I figured it was best to let it get established again. But I think you can see a natural division in the "root bulb" if you want to propagate you can split it there. Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in.
 
It's best not to buy yellow, damaged plants, as it's likely to die.
 
That's not really helpful lol. If you look at my original post I state that the plant was free and not likely to survive.
Yes, but even then it's a waste of time to even bother getting it. Root division is something you have to physically do. Split it with your hands.
 
You say it is a waste of time but I got a load of new growth from it, and now i have two beautiful Amazon swords from a plant that was doomed to die, that doesnt sound like a waste to me, 1 plant that was sure two die is now two plants healthy as anything
 
I made the mistake of buying a little pathetic looking amazon sword from Petco/smart some years ago. I planted it in my 'planted' 10g. It took a long time for it to take off, but once it did, it completely took over the 10g and I had to re-home it to my 55g. Swords form a bulb type mass at their base. I believe you can split it there to form more plants. I don't believe this sword grows shoots or runners. Here's a pic when it started to take over my 10g:
 
that's a very good looking sword, even the poorly plants can blossom into something beautiful. I hate seeing poorly plants at the aquarium so I ask if I can re-home them free of charge and try to get them healthy again, once I get them healthy I either keep them re-home them to tanks around my family circle or I sell them on

point is, I have a very high success rate.
 
Swords are root feeders and like Iron. Root tabs under mine and lots of new growth. I got one recently at half price so I picked it up.
 
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