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Replanting crypts with long roots

peaches

Member
Joined
29 Dec 2008
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257
Location
Yorkshire - Gods own county
I have stripped down my tank, put new substrate in and replanted the various types and sizes of crypts. They have very long roots and keep floating up. Should I be trimming the roots? Any other tips? I hate how it looks today but know when they've established it will be just right.
 
Crypts can be pretty sulky, they usually hate to be disturbed. Yes you can trim the roots but I always try to avoid it if possible. I've found they often stop growing for a good while, and the leaves melt if they aren't treated with respect. But maybe that's just peculiar to me...
 
I wouldn't be looking at cutting roots of any plant as it will set them back especially Cryptocoryne species

I'd look at making your substrate deeper, whats the depth at the present time ?
 
You can trim the roots back to make it easier to plant but it will cause the plant to reset itself dropping the larger leaves. Crypts are quite heavy root feeders. When i replanted mine i trimmed the roots back to make planting easier but a lot of the larger older leaves died off for a week then smaller new leaves came through two weeks later.
 
Juris has had great success trimming both roots and stems (this is typically when the plant is being submerged for the first time). I see no reason it can’t be done in this instance.

Disclaimer: I’m not sure if it’s suitable for every Cryptocoryne species.
 
I've lifted crypts, trimmed the roots & replanted without any serious problems.
However, it was to split a plant into smaller pieces & replant not putting a large clump back, also a low tech tank so everything grows more slowly. The plants were probably able to re-establish their root system before generating new leaves.
I've tried wrestling a load of spaghetti-like roots into the substrate & broken a lot of them, hence the decision to trim before planting.
 
RHS has best practice as trimming roots at the very base when replanting.
I’ve always followed that and never really had any issues.
Crypts are sulky plants but melting in my experience can happen at a whim and trying to figure out why is one of those causation/correlation things as I’ve never lost any by trimming the roots.
 
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