Wisteria Hysteria

R

reiverix

Aye
Sep 4, 2004
1,470
0
0
56
Columbus, OH
I'm having some trouble mith my wisteria. It's not that I'm finding it hard to grow, it grows thick and fast. I know this might sound strange but the problem is I find it difficult to grow straight. Originally I started with a stray leaf that was mixed in with some other plants. Out of curiosity I half planted it, and it rooted and grew. I've since taken a lot of cuttings and now have a healthy crop at the back of my tank. The things is, new shoots seem to grow curvy, spirally, or angled towards the substrate. It creeps along the bottom of my tank and invades other plants territory.

Is there some technique to prune this plant so it grows upwards towards the light?
 
Sounds like it has plenty of light. With lower light, it will grow towards the surface. More light, it tends to spread out. Do you have any floating plants that can shade it?
 
Yes it's quite bright in there at almost 3.5wpg. I don't have any floating plants but it would make no difference as the wisteria is in an area with some current. I could position the aponogeton boivinianus leaves to give some shade though. The leaves on that thing grow to the length of my tank in no time.
 
Your problem seems to be the amount of light you have. I've seen wisteria grow really stringy in a low light tank, but grow out like a huge bush in a high-light tank.
 
reiverix said:
hmmm maybe I should have used it as a midground plant.
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Aaaah! The joy of planted aquaria. You plant something where it is recommended and turns out it is too tall, short, wide, stringy in your tank. By the time you realize this, it is a not-so-easy task of re-arranging things to get it where you want it, where it should have been in the first place given your tank conditions. Oh the joy! Don't worry, the algae bloom several days down the road isn't from ripping up half your substrate! :thud:
:D :D :D

I know you're experienced enough not to have the algae bloom John ;)
 
beviking said:
I know you're experienced enough not to have the algae bloom John
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Well that's debatable :) . I've had my fair share of trials and errors.

I'll scope out the wisteria and see if it's possible to move it somewhere else. Otherwise I'll wait it out and see what happens. Who knows, in ten years it might make a nice background.
 
I've got the same thing going on I used wisteria before in low lite tanks makes for a great back ground plant. Trying in the high light it looks amasing if you craw on top of the tank and peer behind every thing else. Time to find some thing else I looking for some Eichornia diversfolia to try instead.
 
you can try training the plants. the same prinipal of trimming a tree applies to wisteria. trim off everything but 3 or 4 offshoots that are growing the direction you want. cut off all leaves from the substrate to the y at which the offshoots start, unless of course you feel the plant will starve. destroy all budding nodes other than the area of growth you want.

if they are small plants cut off the 2 bottom most leaves on the stem, w/ every new leaf growth knock off another bottom leaf

a picture would help.
 
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