Never Trimming??

808 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by 691175002, Jan 2, 2017

jte.

Discussion Starter · Jan 2, 2017

I've looked around for an answer to this question, and I couldn't come up with much. What would happen if you let a grass or rosette-type plant like dwarf sag, vals, or hairgrass grow indefinitely without trimming? I know that when it comes to stem plants, if you don't trim them, the bottoms of the plants rot away and they can become detached from the substrate. Would the same happen with grass/rosette plants, or would they simply grow to fill the available space and slow down, only putting out new growth when old growth dies? I'm not asking because I have some aversion to trimming plants, its just that I'm setting up a new five gallon tank with an unconventional shape that will make trimming very difficult, and I think it would be cool to have a tank that sort of self-regulates it's growth.

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JJ09

· #2 · Jan 2, 2017

Rosette plants don't really need trimming. The roots just keep growing, and eventually they send out runners or offsets (baby plants) at least, the crypts I have some experience with do. The only maintenance my crypts need is removal of occasional dying leaves. I suppose when they fill their space I will have to remove any new, young plants that appear off to the side of the 'mother plant' but that's not a problem for me yet.

I think it is about the same for grass- you don't need to trim the height, but when it gets too crowded remove new plants that come up on the sides. However I don't have any grassy stuff so someone else will have to answer here.

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Doogy262

· #3 · Jan 2, 2017

jj is right no trimming for grass plants but they need to be thinned out occasionally so they don't take over.i have vals,dwarf sag and sag subulata that need regular thinning about every month or so...

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jte.

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 2, 2017

Doogy262 said:
jj is right no trimming for grass plants but they need to be thinned out occasionally so they don't take over.i have vals,dwarf sag and sag subulata that need regular thinning about every month or so...

If you weren't to thin them out regularly though, do you think that they would eventually choke themselves out by growing too dense and blocking too much light or would they reach a balance at some point?

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Doogy262

· #5 · Jan 2, 2017

Well depending on the size of your tank they could go quite awhile without thinning but then depending on the plant they would eventually grow over each or invade spots you don't want them.The sag subulata overtook a section of my 90 gallon tank and even after the removal of at least 20 of them they occupy an area of about 7x7 inch's The dwarf sag is the same in another tank.Shading is not a problem because they are low and not super dense shading becomes a problem with stem plants that block the lower leaves.

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691175002

· #6 · Jan 2, 2017

In my experience with DHG and Crypts, they will aggressively try to spread sideways first. If that option is blocked (by hardscape or plastic barriers) some plants will aggressively flower or just put out the occasional leaf to replace the older ones. After an extremely long time the root system might get so developed that the base of the plant will rise out of the substrate, but it won't be visible unless the plant is against the glass.
I've had some crypts locked into a corner of my tank for two years now and they're virtually unchanged.

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