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Spread rate of epiphytes

castle

castle

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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:

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

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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.
 
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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
 
prdad said:
Is that high tech MrClock Off?
Click to expand...
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
 

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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.
 

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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.
 

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Hi all,
MrClockOff said:
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.
Click to expand...
I think that is true of all <"slow growing plants">.
tiger15 said:
There is reason why small leaf Anubias varieties cost a lot more than large leaf varieties due to extremely slow growth rate
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure you are right.

cheers Darrel
 
tiger15 said:
Anubias varieties cost a lot more than large leaf varieties due to extremely slow growth rate
Click to expand...
I have Anubias Petite attached to driftwood - a notorious slow grower. I think I added them 3 years ago or so.... They are healthy, but I hardly notice any growth at all - they do put out a new leaf now and then. I think a lot of these slow growers are exclusively cultivated fully or partially emerged.

Cheers,
Michael
 
Anubias petite not just have tiny leaves, but also delicate thin stems and roots that break off easily. From time to time, I have to pick up and re glue floating pieces. The large leaf varieties, on the other hand, have thick tough stems that I can only cut off with a scissors, and thick root system anchored strongly to rock. All Anubias are grown commercially emerged for faster growth and algae free. Even the fastest growing Anubias is slow relative to stem plants and unlike stems, epiphytes do not shed old leaves and transform morphologically from emerged to submerged environment.
 
Am I being stupid, I don’t know … what I wanted to understand is how much root structure these plants put out over time, do their rhizomes look like that of old ivy on a wall? Or is it just a lot of leaves from the original rhizome?

My feeling on this is that the greater the root stock the more resilient that plant may be, and if these epiphytes do mirror ivy like behaviour I’d love to see how 😊

Maybe I didn’t word the question right, or maybe I’m not seeing the answers I want 😬 it’s probably me haha
 
Anubias rhizome grows along and new roots intermittently form to dangle down. My understanding from what I see in my tank is that the rhizome grows longer when it no longer can fit more leaves on it.
 
Well l will check when l take out a piece of bogwood its about12" to trim. This was planted just on one end with java fern and moss a few year ago ,now it's covering the whole length so assume the rhizome spread with plants as have the roots, leaves grow large
 
Both German Iris and Anubias are rhizome plants that expand horizontally by extending the tips of the rhizome with new leaves. Old Iris rhizome gets dense, continues to leave, but thin out in roots and stops flowering. No such decline is observed in old Anubias rhizome that continues to send out long roots, leaves and flowering stalks.
 
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