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Tips on the perfect Staurogyne repens carpet

greenink

greenink

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2 May 2011
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London
Am looking for help on growing staurogyne repens (20 plantlets of which have just arrived in the post) as a foreground carpet plant. Am aiming to replicate Tom Barr's look:

resized180july101.jpg

Would be very grateful if someone could fill me in on:

- What's the best way to prepare it for planting? Each plantlet stem I have is about 10 cm long, and has 6-9 pairs of leaves, right down the bottom. Should I strip most of the leaves? How many should I leave on each stem?

- How deep should I plant each stem?

- How far apart should I plant each stem?

- Can I chop the stems into two portions? Would both the 'top' and 'bottom' portions grow?

- I'm pretty sure it's been grown emersed. Will the existing leaves die off? If so, should I trim them and how do I know when to?

- What trimming technique is best? Is it right that the plant should be 'topped' to encourage lateral growth? It looks that way from Tom Barr's pictures...

resizedtrimcards1.jpg

- How does it propagate? Is it via runners, like hairgrass?

Am dosing EI, have CO2 injection, etc, and most other plants are pretty healthy (apart from HC which I just cannot get to stay in the substrate despite having no corys etc - it just clogs up my filter intake).

Any advice / pointers greatly appreciated!
 
Staurogyne spreads by lower side shoots going horizontal, just above and below the substrate, a little like Pogostomen Helferi. Planting your stems and cutting back to 1 or 2 pairs of leaves should get things going. Halfing your stems should also work. Basically, let them settle in then hack them right back approach.

That pre trim shot of Tom's looks very nice and lush. I'm sure someone with more experience and success with this plant will chime in soon and elaborate.
 
Before I plant Staurogyne I strip the stems from the leaves by 2/3 leaving 2 - 4 pairs of leaves at the most. The longer the bare stems the better. I also remove all roots before planting.
The picture bellow is from my current aquascape started two months ago.

Update3.jpg
 
Attempting to carpet with this too - harsh cutting back seems to be working well but the runners are growing higher than I'd like.
 
Hi,

do you guys note that the new leaves are a bit pale and then get a more intense green as the time goes by or is just me?
I'm dosing EI heavily and all my other plants (including hc) are fine. So I wonder if it could be some sort of deficiency?

sorry to hijack the post.

GM
 
gmartins said:
Hi,

do you guys note that the new leaves are a bit pale and then get a more intense green as the time goes by or is just me?
I'm dosing EI heavily and all my other plants (including hc) are fine. So I wonder if it could be some sort of deficiency?

sorry to hijack the post.

GM
Click to expand...

Mine are more pale/translucent, only when they are very new though. Maybe take some pics for comparison?
 
Trying to carpet mine in a Fluval Edge, with ferts/Easycarbo - since the lighting in this tank is pretty much spot lighting I get some quite varying versions of it.

I.e. near the back of the tank/most intense light, very large leaves/taller plants. Near the front/corners, smaller leaves, less height and more horizontal growth.

Taking time but I think it'll get there!
 
Those poor plants🙂

That's likely CO2 issue there.

The plant does little for 1-2 weeks(well, it's more like a Crypt in many ways, big root systems) then goes mad.
 
Update post Tom's advice!

Have had a bit of time over Christmas, so have now sorted CO2 at a stable lime green level, dosed EasyCarbo which has started to do in the black beard algae, and done a proper trim of any outstanding stems:

IMG_1130.jpg

IMG_1138.jpg

Looks much better I think - on the way. Each stem is properly rooted now as well. In future, would only plant the very top four leaves of any cutting (got these as cuttings with no roots).
 
Glad to see your staurogyne recovering well! I will definately give it a go.

well done, :clap:
 
Looking a lot fresher Mike. :thumbup:

I've been letting mine get to 2-3 inches then haking back to 1 pair of leaves above the substrate. Strip 2-3 pairs of leaves off the cuttings and replant them upto the lowest pair. You will have side shoots on some of them, try not to damage them too much on replanting and they will surface at the side of your cuttings after a couple of weeks.

At the moment I'm finding it's about 3-4 weeks between trimmings. 😉
 
root systems

plant brain said:
(well, it's more like a Crypt in many ways, big root systems) then goes mad.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong. Had to move some plants around to put in Tony S's nano plants that just arrived in the post. Here are the roots on the top 4 leaves. Started off with none.

29%20December%20004.jpg
 
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