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Not long ago I bought my first cabomba. It looks very nice and is growing well....quite well actually and I'm at the point where I need to do some trimming. Do I basically pick a point to cut at? And can I replant the trimmings?

Thanks.


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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I have a lot of purple cabomba in my tank, and I spend way too much time figuring out what it's doing.

If you just want to trim it, then you can cut off six or eight inches from the top and replant that as if it were fresh from the store. Alternately, you can cut off that piece, throw it away, and the plant will send up a new shoot from a bud somewhere down the stem. (I guess if you kept on doing that you'd get a very bushy plant, but it'd take a while.) I haven't had any luck in figuring out exactly what that bud looks like before it starts growing.

If you like it and want to propagate it into a big forest like I did then take the 6-inch piece and plant it nearby.

I'm under the impression that if the plant reaches the surface then it will sometimes flower. At the rate that my tallest cabomba is going - some of mine grow 3/4 inch a day in good conditions - it'll take maybe another day or two to test the theory and see what it does when it surfaces.

EDIT: Another point to throw in.

I once had a small piece, only three inches, that I foolishly cut off the top, trying to get right to the point where I thought a bud was. Well, not so foolish. I took off the bottom-most set of leaf stems - I've heard that it'll put out roots at that point, and I needed the stem space to plant it.

It came out of my gravel a few times, but eventually this little piece of cabomba, with only an inch above the gravel, started growing. Now it's five inches high and seems very happy.

Last edited by Silverlight at 16-Nov-2004 09:24

Also, if you want to assure continious growth on the trimmings you would like to look in the stem of the original plant, for floating roots and trim bellow those and replant the trimed stem along with this root, it will grow at a faster rate.

Last edited by Falstaf at 17-Nov-2004 09:27

An alternative would be to trim from the bottom. Cut the length from the base of the plant and replant the stem. The plant will continue to show its mature terminal end without the crewcut...

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Hi,
Generally speaking all of the stem plants can simply
be snipped at whatever point you like. Most let the
stem reach the surface, and then cut at the half way
point. The upper portions are then planted in groups
of three, and the lower portions grow a new top and
contine on the way to the surface.

Eventually, the lower portions "age" and turn darker
green in color, while the newer upper sections maintain
a brighter, richer, green. That is the time to pull
up and discard the origional plants and replace them
with newer ones. Obviously, this is a continuous
snip, plant, replace procedure.

In my tank, these plants were all grown by the above
procedure, from ONE 6 inch sprig.

Frank


FRANK attached this image:


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Frank, if I were a fish, I'd wanna get lost in that jungle of yours . Nice .

So, when I threw my new cabomba out because the lower leaves were darkening and falling off, the plant wasn't dying

Oh my. Maybe I should have left it. It was growing and actually sprouted some roots mid way up. So maybe if I had cut away a snippet just below that root, it may have grown?

I think I'll try it again, if I threw it out too soon.

Hi Cory,
Yes, actually all of the stem plants will act that way.
If the lower parts are deprived of light say because of the
thickness of the planting, or shaded by larger plants, they
will become stalks, and only the tops will be "bushy."

Because stem plants are fast growing (compaired with say
swords, crypts, ferns, etc.) a tank with them in it will
require constant pruning and replanting, in the cycle I
described. If you wait until the roots from a node
reach all the way to the substrate, and then snip/plant
it may not grow. I've had the best success by snip/plant
when the roots are between a 1/4 and one inch. Another
trick you might try is to lay the stem plant with the
roots at several nodes parallel to the substrate and
gently press the stalk to the substrate. New stalks and
plants will start at each node and grow to the surface.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Another
trick you might try is to lay the stem plant with the
roots at several nodes parallel to the substrate and
gently press the stalk to the substrate. New stalks and
plants will start at each node and grow to the surface.

Always good words of wisdom, Frank

I can't believe I threw out a perfectly good piece of cabomba ]:| . I'll have to try again. In fact, I thought of what you suggested above. When I transplant tomato plants outdoors, I take off the lower leaves and lay the long, bare stem sideways in the hole so that more roots can form. When I saw the root coming out, I figured if I had a better tank for plants, I could probably do the same.

Since the cabomba grew that root while in my tank, does that mean it was reasonably "happy"?

Hi Cory,
Somewhere I think I remember reading that if a stem became
"rooty" that it indicated a problem. However, IME, I have
found that the roots are e to grow from the point at
which I'd snipped the stalk in half, and new growth had
began. I think, that it could indicate a problem with
the plant drawing nutrients through an old stalk that is
turning "woody."

Is that contradictive enough?

We'd have to ask some of the more scientific "plant folks"
than I for the real answer.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--