[robxc80]

Hello Everyone,

I seem to have an issue with my stem plants. They are growing well and fast but they are growing roots at the nodes and they look unsightly. My rotala indica and my bacopa show this along with a ludwiga that i had earlier.

Also, my rotala wallachi is growing and showing a nice pink at the tops but they hairs are not as long and bushy as they were before.

My LFS told me that my light is too strong and they are growing fast to get to the light and thus are not as bushy.

I have a 60 gallon with 260 watts of 10000K and 6700K bulbs.

Please advise regarding roots and bushyness. Thanks

 

[fibertech]

I just trim the roots off

 

[Kisho3]

I'm a bit confused. Are your plant's roots "underdevloped"? If that's the case, then I'd advise you to cut back some of your lighting time, maybe 2-3hrs short. The light cutback gives your plants more time to stabilize and structure their roots.

Hope it helped.

 

[robxc80]

what i mean is that i have roots coming from the top of the stems... the stems grow FAST, at the top few inches, long white roots come out from the nodes and looks like noodles.

Also, on some of my plants, the space between the nodes increases with height and i have a plant that looks like its been stretched out.

Please advise on what i am doing wrong.

 

[Hoppy]

Independent of the roots, you do have more light than necessary. Possibly twice as much as is desirable.

All stem plants produce "aerial" roots at the nodes. That is normal and to be expected. Some plants produce more and more obvious ones than others do, but they all do it.

When you use high light you also need to provide non-limiting concentrations of all of the nutrients the plants need, so they aren't limited in their growth by a shortage of nitrate, for example. The Estimative Index method is a good way to do that - see the fertilizing forum to read about that. And, of course, you need pressurized CO2 running near the optimum concentration when you have high light, with the CO2 being shut off at night.