Anacharis won't grow roots!?

JosephMCorbett

JosephMCorbett

AC Members
Feb 7, 2005
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Northern California
I'm an aquatic plant newbie so bear with me. I bought an Anacharis "clipping" from my LFS about 2 months ago. It's about 6 "stems" banded with a rubber band. I was told by my LFS that I could float it or plant it, if it was going to grow roots it would grow them from one of the "joints" near the tops of the stems, and if it doesn't grow roots it will probably just die. At first I put it in the substrate, and a week later when I was doing my tank maintenance, I pulled it out to take a look and it was just rotting on the bottom. So, I unbanded it, cleaned and trimmed the bottom, and secured it above the substrate. So far, every week, it has new growth at the top, appears healthy, and so I just unband it, clean it up, "butt" it, and put it back. Since it keeps growing but still does not show any signs of roots, I didn't butt it this week...thinking maybe it roots from the bottom? Anyway, just thought I'd post to see if someone can tell me what is going on.
 
The banding is a store packaging that can be discarded. Take the plants, one or two at a time and plant them down in your gravel. I usually cover a set of leaves or two to help hold them down untill the roots take over. Occasionally the leaves will decay befor the roots take hold and I have to plant them again.

spaceing them out will allow them to get better light and let more water flow around them which brings nutrients to them.
 
I am curious what is the light in the tank? I seem to find that plants will die at the bottom if the light is too bright at the top of the tank but doesn't have a high wpg ratio. Will sometimes grow better in less light, though they might not develop some attributes that they would if there were more light. (less color smaller leaves for instance.) In the same vain I have often found that plants will die off at the bottom as they approach the light.
 
yes they will grow roots- no they won't do it quickly and if you have a large bottom feeder (or even a cory) they will become unrooted

If you look at the picture of my 30 gal, you'll see some of my anacharis growing at the bottom- this picture was taken befor I got flourite substrate, and the plants would periodically die, but before they die, they branch off, I would just cut off and plant these branches and the cycle would be repeated- I'm at my 4th or 5th generation now
 
Yeah, I wonder about the lighting too...
Anacharis is described as being a low light plant, but mines went crazy when I went with 26 watts in my 10G.
 
Anacharis is not a good rooter. It grows taking most of its nutrients from the water column. It branches and roots not from every node, but only specific ones. Those nodes where you see branches are the same as those where roots will appear given time. If you let the branched part grow, you'll eventually see a single white root growing out of the same joint.

Don't stress the dieing parts. Plant it 1-2 plants together as deep as you can. It should grow fast enough to more than make up for the fading bits. When I had it in my high light tank (~4wpg, 33g) it was an awesome plant and grew beautifully planted in groups of 6-8 stems together. But it grew way too fast (inches per day) and there were only a couple of days where I could enjoy its look before it hit the surface and flopped over. But even at that growth rate when I left it for 2 weeks over christmas it still didn't produce many roots.

Just cut it off about 1/16" below a node and plant 1-2 stems together and it will be just fine.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I do have one "stalk" that has branched near the top. The new branch is about 3 inches long. So, if I understand this right, this is what I should do:
Unbunch it.
Clip off the new branch just below the node.
Plant 1-2 stalks as deep as I can.
Don't worry about die-off in the substrate.
I may or may not get roots, but it doesn't matter.
Just keep clipping and replanting.

I know I should have 2 wpg or so, but I don't. Wanted to try real plants first, see how it goes. Anyway, I do enjoy them. More live organizism in the tank and much prettier. Right now I just have a 40w 6500k flourescent that is on 12hours a day. The 4 plants I have are still alive, but they don't grow much. Soon I will be upgrading the lighting to this:

Current USA Satellite Dual 48" 4 x 65 Watt Power Compact Light Strip W/2 Lunar Lights.

This should give me 260w and around 2wpg. After this light goes in, I will plant a little heavier.
 
Don't trim off the branch just yet. Just shorten the stem by trimming off the excess from the bottom. If that means that the branched part is close to the bottom, then its time to go on its own. Just let the plant remain as is untill you've trimmed off enough bottom pieces (week by week or so) so that the new branch is near the substrate or where you want to cut. Basically this just allows the new branch to be a little more full grown then just a little baby, this will allow it to compete for light better than if it was just a stub in the substrate.
 
Great. Thanks Happychem for tip. I'll just continue as I have been, and I'll split the branch when it's near the bottom of the stalk and plant it.
 
Most submergents like Anacharis do not have strong roots.

Anacharis can grow just fine floating too.
 
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