Does anyone know if plants like Blyxa that send out runners continue to exchange nutrients and energy via the runners between the parent plant and the child once the child is established, and if so, is it in both directions?
About Blyxa japonica and runners...
- Thread starter bitbot
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from what i understand blyxa japonica is actually a stem plant. The way people propogate this plants is to just remove the stems from the mother plant replant them. In other words you can pretty much cut the plant (vertically) in half then you have two plants. this is what i have done with mine and it works great.
I don't know if I have the plant IDed wrong, but mine don't grow like that.
Mine put out runners readily, so I don't have a problem with propagating them.
I just want to understand how their nutrition works.
Mine put out runners readily, so I don't have a problem with propagating them.
I just want to understand how their nutrition works.
you could have dwarf sag. This plant sends out runners that are attached to the mother plant. From what i understand i don't think they exchange nutrients because if you cut the runner the new plant will grow just as well as if you didn't cut the runner. but i'm no expert. However back to blyxa japonica since it is a stem plant it gets most of it's nutrition from the water column rather then the root system.
I have both, the dwarf sag is a weed, grows runners like crazy, especially if you grow it in mineralized soil. The lower the light, the taller it grows. The pic below is my 29 gallon I've been using as a holding tank for new fish and "where to put this plant". The sag was replanted about 2 weeks ago, so it's going thru it's settling in period, the old leaves will turn brown, mostly dying off, with new leaves developing the same time.
The blyxa is a harder to grow plant, not sure how it grows, thinking "on top of each other" is a good way to describe it. I have it growing in my 75 gallon, started with about 15 little portions. It was very hard to get it to stay down, once established, it still liked to "throw" itself around my tank. It's been in the tank about a year now, and I have 3 very nice clumps of it. This tank also has mineralized top soil, with T5HO lighting and pressurized Co2.
Below are pics of both plants, first one is dwarf sag, second one is Blyxa. Hope this helps.
The blyxa is a harder to grow plant, not sure how it grows, thinking "on top of each other" is a good way to describe it. I have it growing in my 75 gallon, started with about 15 little portions. It was very hard to get it to stay down, once established, it still liked to "throw" itself around my tank. It's been in the tank about a year now, and I have 3 very nice clumps of it. This tank also has mineralized top soil, with T5HO lighting and pressurized Co2.
Below are pics of both plants, first one is dwarf sag, second one is Blyxa. Hope this helps.
Not Blyxa!
Thanks so much for the replies, guys.
londonloco, seeing those photos has jogged my memory - I think I have had that plant before, and what I have now is not it.
Here are some photos - they are not very good, I know.
I've been experimenting in this tank with inserting small quantities of gardening manure into the substrate in a spot about 10 - 20cm from the plants in the first and third photos.
You can sort of see in the first picture there are some old (algae-covered) leaves, and some newer leaves which are much longer and bigger - almost twice as long.
But I'm interested to know if each plant has 'found' the nutrients with its own roots or through the runners.
(I do DIY CO2 and about 2.5W/G of fluoro lighting and these have been fairly stable over time, although I did replace a tube recently.)
Anyway, an accurate species idea would also be nice!
Thanks so much for the replies, guys.
londonloco, seeing those photos has jogged my memory - I think I have had that plant before, and what I have now is not it.
Here are some photos - they are not very good, I know.
I've been experimenting in this tank with inserting small quantities of gardening manure into the substrate in a spot about 10 - 20cm from the plants in the first and third photos.
You can sort of see in the first picture there are some old (algae-covered) leaves, and some newer leaves which are much longer and bigger - almost twice as long.
But I'm interested to know if each plant has 'found' the nutrients with its own roots or through the runners.
(I do DIY CO2 and about 2.5W/G of fluoro lighting and these have been fairly stable over time, although I did replace a tube recently.)
Anyway, an accurate species idea would also be nice!
Looks like dwarf sag, but I'm really no expert, I just know what works for me.
Interesting idea inserting garden manure. Have you ever thought about using mineralized soil? It's all I use now.
Interesting idea inserting garden manure. Have you ever thought about using mineralized soil? It's all I use now.