Water Wisteria stems breaking
- Thread starter kimbog
- Start date
I have tons water wisteria (hygrophilia difformis, I think) and that seems to be normal for it. When its small, it has little serrated leaves, but as it matures, it explodes into big lacy "fronds" at the top. After a while pieces of the fronds fall off and float around, growing roots on them, and the stem of the main plant dies from the bottom up. That is the strange lifecycle of water wisteria.
You can throw out the little rooted floaters, or plant them. You can also pick the live tops of the plants off of their rotten stems (just discard the stems), and replant the tops in the substrate, and they will continue to grow. Once I got used to this odd process, I learned to really like water wisteria. It is a beautiful background plant, and because it grows insanely fast, it's great for your water quality.
You can throw out the little rooted floaters, or plant them. You can also pick the live tops of the plants off of their rotten stems (just discard the stems), and replant the tops in the substrate, and they will continue to grow. Once I got used to this odd process, I learned to really like water wisteria. It is a beautiful background plant, and because it grows insanely fast, it's great for your water quality.
The only problem I've had with wisteria is that it grows so thick that it quickly cuts off the light to the base of the plant where new stems are growing in. Otherwise the only time I see a stem rot is when it has baby fronds *sucking the life out of it*. I let the fronds grow out a bit then pull the 1" - 2" fronds off of the rotting stem. Then I just simply allow them to float until they grow up a bit and then plant them.
That sounds more like the fern Ceratopteris, which is superficially similar but a different plant.
Here's the best picture I could find online. The first is how the plant looks when it is young. Water wisteria looks this way when you buy it from the store, or grow it from a bit of rooted floating leaf planted in the substrate.
The second pic is what it looks like once the tops develop their lacy fronds. I think it looks lovely. The contrast between the two leaf types is why it is named difformis. To me it's worth the bit of extra pruning, because other than that it is an easy keeper.
The second pic is what it looks like once the tops develop their lacy fronds. I think it looks lovely. The contrast between the two leaf types is why it is named difformis. To me it's worth the bit of extra pruning, because other than that it is an easy keeper.
Wisteria will look different depending on how it is grown, hence the name H. difformis.
Anyways, I've never had a problem with weak stems...can you describe your tank conditions?
Anyways, I've never had a problem with weak stems...can you describe your tank conditions?