A friend of mine recently set up a five gallon tank for his betta, he
also has what we believe to be some kind of apple snail, and a single amano
shimp.
He purchased a group of plants from a LFS, they were basically a
grouping of small/random cuttings, ect bundled together and sold as a
package for a low price.
In the grouping he got (what we believe to be): four or so wisteria
stalks, a melon sword, an anubias, a very small plant that is some kind of
crypt, and a couple plants that look like random sword plants.
He gave the wisteria to me and I ended up disposing of it, it simply
made too mutch of a mess in my tank, always falling apart, ect.

Anyways.... He's had the plants for about a week now and has experenced
rapid growth, especially in what we think is an amazon compacta (that's the
one it looks most like at azgardens.com). The AC has sent out a stalk
towards the surface, at first it looks like some kind of flower stalk, but
every 2-3 inches there is a group of leaves forming, after a couple days the
leaf bundles send down a root. The stalk is growing rapidly... He dosen't
have room for the three plants that have formed on the stalk so far, and it
dosen't show any sign of slowing down.

Is it possible to simply cut off the stalk and plant it?

Do the small plants need to be seperated, or can the whole chain simply be
placed in the gravel?

At what stage of maturity is it safe to do so?

Thanks for any input.

--donovan

snip prelude

Anyways.... He's had the plants for about a week now and has
experenced
rapid growth, especially in what we think is an amazon compacta (that's
the
one it looks most like at azgardens.com). The AC has sent out a stalk
towards the surface, at first it looks like some kind of flower stalk, but
every 2-3 inches there is a group of leaves forming, after a couple days
the
leaf bundles send down a root. The stalk is growing rapidly... He dosen't
have room for the three plants that have formed on the stalk so far, and
it
dosen't show any sign of slowing down.

Is it possible to simply cut off the stalk and plant it?

Mine did the same a month ago, and a second is now. I waited until the
child plants had leaves about an inch long or more and had some root sprouts
(short is fine, just so there are roots). I then clipped them all off of
the stalk (very close to the child plant itself) and planted them. I
haven't lost any (about 10 replants) and am more worried about what I'll do
with them when they mature a bit. They'll over run the tank if I keep them
all!

Is it possible to simply cut off the stalk and plant it?

My hunch is that replanting the stalk would not be very effective. As it
died it may kill the child plants with it? Not sure. Separating and
replanting was easier and clearly worked (for me anyway) so I'd go that
route if I were you.

Hope that helps!

Rod Runnheim