Spread rate of epiphytes

[castle]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give estimates on the spread rate of a plant you’ve attached to a rock, or wood etc

The reason why I asked this is because I have anubias that are years old, but while they have created plenty of new leaves and roots their rhizome is almost as it was when I bought it.

Which reminds me…

Ray had this scape in Scaped Nature:



How long does something like this take to grow? How much buce should I start with? 😅

 

[MrClockOff]

I’d say this probably will take a year with single buce and anubias plant in optimal conditions? I’m just comparing with my tank where I used two pots of each.
I found that if you are on the budget then if you cut off a plantlet once in a month or two and replant the cuttings.

This is after a year

 

[prdad]

Is that high tech MrClock Off?

 

[Miniandy]

From my own tank, Ray's scape looks to be around 2 years growth. Though thats probably highly influenced by lighting levels and Co2.

My own tank has around 25 to 30 lumens/l and I can split that scape into 5 pots that would turn into that in a couple of years. Thats running with 30ppm of co2.

 

[PARAGUAY]

If l plant Java Fern on wood it spreads fairly evenly in a month or so , it's one plant that does well for me ,soon impossible to see the rhyzone. Maybe it's the soft water. I do have to take off leaves every so often

 

[louis_last]

You can also use leaf cuttings to propagate java fern varieties very quickly and produce huge numbers of plantlets to fill out a space.

 

[MrClockOff]

Is that high tech MrClock Off?

Yes it is. I’m using Anubias bonsai which is branching a lot. The bigger it gets the quicker it will spread. It did spread over much bigger space in recent months than it did over first year.
I used to have Anubias barteri in my previous tank and it grew into quite long rhizome over 1 year and 10 months. Eventually it got too big for my tank. But it wasn’t branching at all

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Rays tank was probably a years growth, buce are pretty speedy compared to anubias even without co2 as long as you trim to get 'ramification?'. If you have a look at my shrimp tank journal you can see the change after a year or so and then up to 5 years, it's pretty dense now and cut out the below twice a year.

 

[tiger15]

How fast Anubias spread depends on the variety and whether you have CO2. In my CO2 tank, the large leaf varieties grow fastest requiring pruning 3 to 4 times yearly to control size. The median leaf “nana”varieties grow half as fast, requiring pruning no more than twice a year. The “nano petite” varieties grow so slowly that I hardly ever need to prune them except when some stems extend too long out of shape. There is reason why small leaf Anubias varieties cost a lot more than large leaf varieties due to extremely slow growth rate. There are other differences between small and large leaf varieties. Large leaf varieties grasp tightly on rock and flower regularly. “nano petite” varieties never flower for me and grasp loosely to rock requiring frequent glueing due to auto detachment.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The bigger it gets the quicker it will spread. It did spread over much bigger space in recent months than it did over first year.

I think that is true of all <"slow growing plants">.

There is reason why small leaf Anubias varieties cost a lot more than large leaf varieties due to extremely slow growth rate

I'm pretty sure you are right.

cheers Darrel