My best experience with stem plants, especially hygrophelia and the type, is
to lob the tops off and try replant them. When I leave the rest of the plant
it gets more bushy by sprouting off shoots. I think ripping the plant out
and only planting the top part is a lot more disruptive to the environment.
For one, the stem will be hard to stay anchored in the gravel (especially if
you have cories and other little critters). Another issue is that you will
never have solid growing plants with well established root bases. If you
constantly are tearing up plants you don't give them a good chance to grow
good...thus enabling other factors like algae to get a slight upper hand at
the competition for nutrients.

---IMHO & experience
--
Dave Picklyk
www.picklyk.com/aquascape

"James Ervin" wrote in message
...
In an article on the Krib, Dan Resler suggests that stem plants should
be pruned from the bottom. I quote:

"One solution is diligent pruning. Many of the so-called `bunch'
plants will do better, however, if they're trimmed from the bottom.
Pull the plant out of the substrate, lop off the bottom portion, and
then replant. Roots seem to be easier to grow than new stems and
leaves."

Can anyone comment on this and their experiences? Or, perhaps just
elaborate on this. I think this may be tied in with the absorbtion of
nutrients from the upper portion of the plant (through the water) vs
the root system........so perhaps it is intuitive after all.

James Ervin
Remove SPAM to email me.