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Planting preferences between Pogostemon Erectus & Limnophila Aromatica

sonicninja

sonicninja

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Joined
15 Dec 2013
Messages
307
Hi everyone,
Im giving these two plants another go after failing to keep them alive in a previous scape. Without going into too much detail about my tank I have a fairly general question concerning these two plants.
Which is considered the less demanding plant?

I have two areas in my tank to plant and one naturally get marginally more light than the other due to equipment and decor obstructions and Im wondering which one should have preferences in the nicer spot!

Cheers!

Keith
 
Have tried Limnophila Aromatica, its a more light demanding plant to keep it red, put it in more light place..
 
sonicninja said:
I have two areas in my tank to plant and one naturally get marginally more light than the other
Click to expand...

The best thing you can do is to plant both plants in both sides of the tank (one feet of each). In a matter of days you´ll see wich combine or do best in wich side. 😉
That´s my trick.

The rest of them just put it in a cup or maternity inside the tank until you figure out the best deal 😉

This is what i do when i don´t know the real needs of a plant. Quite complex plants subsject. Each tank has it´s own life.
 
They are both reasonable easy plants to keep. Both can adapt to "less than perfect" conditions - but will not tolerate really poor ones !!
If difference in light is, quote: "marginal" - I would suggest to consider growth-habits, when planting them. Pog. erectus is quite easy to maintain as a low plant (by trimming techniqe), whereas Lim. aromatica present itself much better if the group is allowed to grow taller.
 
In my experience, Pog. erectus is extreemely willing to regrow from even very hard trimming of a stem. Usually even from under the soil/gravel, several new shoots will appear.
My trimming technique is - lika allmost all groups of stem-plants - the "Black Current Method", that you allready know. This will keep any group of stems looking good at any time, while at the same time re-juvenile the single plants. In stems, more reluctant to re-grow from cut stems - e.g. Rotala macrandra and Pogostemon stellata - it is advantageous to re-plant most of the tops back in the group. Most other stems just need a few or none of the tops re-planted.
Plants growing in conditions close to the limit of their tolerance, will ofcourse have less energy to invest in new growth after a trim - and this has to be taken into consideration, when trimming and re-planting.
 
I ask you cause i tried in diferent ways. Actualliy, I simply cut it lower and replant directly. Then from the cut allready happens to me born two new ones.
Others simply grow again at the top. Some replants took more time to grow than others. But it is a simple plant.
A thing i noticed: With lower light she grows faster to the top. Really fast . With high light as i have now in this tank the leaves are biggger. Not so fast to top.
In my tank of course..
 
Thanks everyone. My tank has come on leaps and bounds since I last tried to grow this plant so fingers crossed. Any ideas how patient I need to be in allowing it to adapt to my tank?
 
Hi Sonicninja

As Mick mentioned Limnophila aromatica looks much better when allowed to grow tall, at least this is also my experience. I really love this plant, really beautiful... I just trim the long stems and replant some of them. I have them in the back of a tank which has moderate light and do very well. The colour has improved quite a lot over the last months. I allow some stems to reach the surface so they become redder/brownish. I use them again and again... And their colour improves once they grow again to the surface. Nevertheless take into account that there are lots of varieties of L. aromatica, from slightly red/purplish under the leaves to very red ones. Mine is the one sold by Tropica. I guess it should be redder under more watts.

Another plant for which I use exactly this technique is Ludwigia repens... IMO it looks better when you replant long stems that are overgrown (in that case I try to have at least two branches per stem so they have more volume), and again colours are much better when you've done this 3 or 4 times. I use to have a plain green L. repens and now I have a beautiful red/orange colour.

I'm am not that lucky with Pogostemon (in my case P. stellatus). Not sure if it is more demanding in terms of light or co2, or if this plant doesn't like my very hard water (GH 26). I have to replant long stems as it doesn't branch very well once trimmed. Also the old leaves are little by little covered with tiny staghorn/BBA, something which is not especially conspicuous until the tank begins to pearl and co2 micro bubbles get attached to the leaves' edges where this micro bearded algae are. I use it like P. erectus as it's only algae free on the first 10 cm top.

Jordi
 
Thanks Jordi great advice!
I've spread it out a little to see if it does better in any one location.


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Allways a good idea/trick, to let coloured stemplants grow as tall as possible - prefeably to surface - before trimming. Like Jordi say, this seriously improve colouration.
Green stemplants ofcourse benefit from this technique, too - becoming more dense and usually better branching.
- in a "serious" scape, this is often not possible - at least not all the time. Allowing for tall growth now and then, will often give the plant that "extra energy", that makes the whole difference in appearance, though (just another little trick 😉 )
 
Thanks mick. At the moment I'm simply getting to grips with plants growing and not aquascaping. Leaving them to grow to the surface is no problem provided they aren't shading plants below too much. I'll leave them and be as patient as possible. I have plenty of flow and the CO2 is stable now I've found a sweet spot so hopefully I can start growing things other than hygrophilia!


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