# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Ludwigia repens



## tsunami06 (Feb 6, 2003)

Ludwigia repens

Lighting: 2 w/g +

Growth: Very fast grower under good conditions

Demands: Easy

Water hardness, temperature, pH: not critical

Pruning/propagation: Simply cut off the top
and allow new sideshoots to regrow from the
base. To get a thicker bush faster, replant
the cut tops between the rooted stems.

Experiences: Easy to grow stem plant, probably
the most common in the hobby and easiest to grow of its genus. Richer conditions (high NO3, high PO4) and/or low light keeps it greener with reddish tones under the leaves. Under high light, low NO3, and high PO4, the plant becomes much redder. An old time favorite and classic
aquarium plant.Great for the beginner.

-------------------------
"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." -- Van Gogh


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Another photo to add,









*My Digital Gallery*


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

If you allow this plant to reach the water surface and float, its floating growth will branch extensivley and have very thick leaf growth. I used to prune off the floating growth and replant it. This plant also often loses leaves from the lower stems to be replaced by very thick hairy roots. It requires a lot of replanting of the tops to keep thick leaf growth underwater. Easy to grow if you have C02.

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## JLudwig (Feb 16, 2004)

I'm pretty sure the plant pictured here is not exactly L. repens... maybe L. palustris x repens or some other hybrid? All species photos of this plant I see are green, very very green, not showing any red (check out Kasselman pg 357)

Jeff Ludwig
AquaticPlantWiki: www.rockytop.net

[This message was edited by ekim on Sun September 14 2003 at 02:48 PM.]


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Jeff, 
are the photos you are see green in emersed growth?
I got this plant from Tropica, it was labeled "Ludwigia repens"!
I believe it was mostly green when I got it, (emersed growth).

PS, I hit the edit button by mistake, 
I meant to quote you, 
hence my name on the bottom of your post!
sorry!

*My Digital Gallery*


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

I wonder if L.repens could be maintained longer duration in the aquarium. Is there anybody who can retain this plant more than a year?

My experience with this plant is that, yes at the beginning it is fast and red under the bright light. But after a month or so I have two endings with it. First, while it is going well, it sudenly stops and gradually lay down. Upper leaves turn to green and later the plant rots.

The second ending is that while it is going well, the plant begins to rot. Rotting usually starts from the stem. Green stem turns into dark brown and this brown location goes up and down till the whole plant rots. The last portion that stays alive is usually the top shoot. But gradually this portion rots as well.


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

I'm pretty sure I had mine over a year. The bottoms would get ratty after several trimmings but it was a simple matter to replant the cuttings and replenish the stand.


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

I have a big stand in my 120 gallon that I ALWAYS let get too big; the result is that the bottoms are much too shaded, and they'll lose all their leaves and get stringy. I always wind up having to take out the whole bunch and replant the tops. This requires a certain amount of patience, because it knocks the plants for a loop when you do that, at least it does in my tank. Part of the reason is that the tank is 24" deep, and I'm taking rapidly growing tops that are close to the light and placing them several inches lower in the tank. It takes a good three weeks or so before they'll start growing again. Whenever I replant, I spend the first couple of weeks thinking "That's it, I've really killed them this time"-but they always come back, more beautiful than before. The ludwigia has been in that tank for about 1-1/2 years now, but it came from plants that I had in another tank for a couple of years before that.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

OK. With the motivation you gave me I started a new experimental aquarium especially for the repens. Today I bought 3 of them from the store and placed them into ~37 gallon (150 l) aquarium. The aquarium is in my office and all the tests are at home. I will be able to post the results tomorrow.

Aquarium: 75cmX50cmX40cm(hight)
Light: 3X20 watt fluorescent, one grolux, two daylight.
gH: 11
pressurized CO2


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

What is the theory you're testing? Is it one where we're going to have to wait a whole year for results?


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

My theory is about the critical requirement of repens in terms of Fe level. I think that repens’ growth is dramatically dependent on the Fe level. This expectation is of course relevant for all the plants. To discriminate the critical requirements of repens from other plants I will compare repens’ growth against some other plants in different Fe levels. Since I don’t have enough test space there will be no control conditions. Instead I will use ABA design, in which A is the phase characterized by 0.5mg of chelated Fe and B is the phase characterized by lower levels of Fe. During the first month I will maintain .5 level. In the second month I will discontinue to add Fe but continue to test the level to find the critical lowest level for the plant to be able to grow. In the third month I will raise the level again up to .5. I am not sure which measure to use to compute the plant’s growth objectively.

During these manipulations I would expect that the plant may start rotting during the B phase.

My initial tests results:

Ms: 696
PO4: 0
NO2: below 0.1
gH: 11

chelated Fe: 0.5
kH: 12
pH: 7.2
CO2: 24
NO3: 10

Would you think, in that kind of quality of water, repens grow at least moderately? The water is at least two months old and there is no fish in it.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Mine's been growing well for more than a year, I have had no problems at all with this plant in both low and high light tanks. I also have several friends who I gave cuttings to and it's doing very well for them.

In the high light: (55g 3WPG)









In the low light: (90g 1.2WPG)








(Repens and Mullertii in the center)

Substrate is Flourite in both tanks, the low light tank gets no fertilizers other than Flourish Tabs. It used to have better color in the low light tank until I boosted up the phosphates in the high light tank, still you can see some of the others behind the red one are still greenish. In the low light tank I was expecting the lower parts of the stem to rot but they don't, I did however bring a 16" "shrub" to my lfs who placed it in one of their tanks with VHO lighting but useless substrate and no other ferts and it rotted just like it was described above. I don't see mine dying of "old age" any time soon, I think there is something else causing them to rot in some tanks. I often just cut the tips off to let it branch out but the nice big red leaves are usually tips that I have replanted.

Giancarlo Podio
http://www.gpodio.com


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Jeff, all the repens I have ever seen has red growth. Florida Aquatic nurseries grows it emmersed and its that way when you buy it...combination of red and green. the emmersed leaves fall off very easily. Emmersed leaves are shorter, rounder in shape. Submersed the leaf becomes somewhat more elongated, with wider spaces between the leaves. Thicker leaf growth is always at the top of the stem closest to the light. It also will do well in cooler temps as it is native to the USA.

I grew it under intensive light, 4 watts per gallon in a 100 gallon tank. The lower half of the stems were always barren.

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

Giancarlo,

Your first picture is the best plant pic I have ever seen in the web. I don't know where I came across with it first but when I saw it, I downloaded it immediatelly as my wall paper. Every morning I wake up with this picture. Thank you for that. 

I don't know exactly what Flourite and Flourish Tabs contain. Could you write about their contents?


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I'm glad you like it, it's one of my favorites, I call it the rose bud









Rather than change topic in the plant database I have sent you a private message regarding the rest.

Giancarlo


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

Giancarlo, thank you for the info. I understood that the fertilizers you used were rich in iron and when such fertilizers were not provided to repens, the plant rotted in another tank. This observation partially supports my hypothesis that repens’ good growth is dependent on a critical level of iron. All my experience with repens ended up with rotting and I did not use any fertilizer/fertilizing substrate for them. 

Moderator/s,
Would it be OK to continue this kind of discussion specific to L. repens under this database?


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## Guest (Oct 10, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Moderator/s,
> Would it be OK to continue this kind of discussion specific to L. repens under this database?


Sure, you can talk anything you want as long as its L. repens related.


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Well, I'll be interested to see how it turns out, Faruk, but I have to say my experience doesn't support your hypothesis. I've found that ludwigia repens will prosper in a wide variety of conditions, and it's not particularly demanding in any of them; all it really seems to need is enough of everything-i.e., ALL the micros and macros, not just iron-and not TOO much of anything. I haven't seen that extra iron fertilization (or any other kind) is of any particular benefit. It does the absolute best for me in a fairly lean environment-just under 3 wpg, nitrates <10, phosphate < .5, and only as much iron supplied as what's in my trace mix. My substrate in that tank is 70-30 fluorite-gravel, but I haven't found that substrate fertilization makes a big difference with ludwigia, I think it's much more dependent on the water column for nutrients. I added some of the ludwigia from that tank to my 30 gallon, the nuclear reactor tank, which has twice the light, added iron, an enriched substrate and heavier fertilization, and while it grows okay, it doesn't grow extremely fast, and it's not nearly as red as what's in my other tank. The ludwigia brevipes I have in the 30 gallon loves the environment and is gorgeous, but the repens doesn't seem impressed at all by the richness of its surroundings.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I agree, I don't add any additional iron other than what my flourite substrate and other trace mixes provide. I do however use flourish tabs religiously. I do not use any liquid fertilizers in my low light tank, just flourite and tabs so I'm assuming that all the plants in this tank are getting most of the nutrients from root uptake. BTW, I've had a bucket of cuttings of Repens next to a window for about a month now, it's even doing well in there with no care at all.

Giancarlo Podio


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

My guess is that when there is less nutrient in the water, sunlight or its approximations may help Fe levels raise up so that the plant can benefit from that. But if there is no stable fertilizer addition to the tank Fe sources in the water deplete and the repens may rot. This hypothesis can explain why repens are good at bright light and can prosper unfertilized tanks. If this is true, then, the repens near the window may rot in the absence of fertilization.

I also think that the roots that appear on the visible portion of the stem are specialized to use Fe in the water. 

The design I suggested may not help to answer all the hypotheses and I could not handle what Vicki says. Anyway, I'll try. Would you suggest a sensitive but practical index to measure the plant growth? Dry weight and hight of the plants are not so practical indexes. In these conditions I should take the plants off. Instead, I may use the camera placed at a standard angle and distance and taking a picture every three days. From the pictures I can measure each item's hight.


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Sorry about that, Faruk. If you'll tell me what part you didn't get, I'll be glad to try again.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

Vicki, what you said was your experience and I do understand what you mean. But it is my Fe theory that could not explain your experience. Let me work more on it.


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Oh, okay! I thought you meant you didn't understand the words I used, sorry.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

Just wanted to add one more picture


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Wow, great shot!


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## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

Great picture!!

Bob

High Pressure CO2 sources, needle valves, information:
http://members.cox.net/tulsaalstons/AquaticPlants.htm#High%20Pressure%20CO2


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

How nice to see a very fresh leaf that has no algae on it. Has anybody ever tasted a repens leaf? I know that the aquatic plants are difficult to digest but this one looks very fresh.


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Gomer, I cant see your pic. It says it is no longer on the server.

Picture of my Ludwigia mullerti:


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## Izac (Nov 16, 2003)

Here's a picture of my L. Repens.. The first picture is taken directly after I planted it. 









I'm sorry that the first picture isn't that good..
I was away for these days, and got quite thrilled when I came home and found it like that.

Astrid: Wow.. It looks like a flower! Really nice!


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

re-uploaded the old picture and took a new one:

new picture under GE9325:









my last L.Repens picture under 6500K


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## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

Only one word to describe these photos: 
Mesmerizing!

You made me a firmer believer that I really wanna get my hands on these plants someday.

Paul


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## Izac (Nov 16, 2003)

I need a new camera!









What digitalcamera are you guys using to get shots like that?


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## Turin Turambar (Mar 1, 2003)

Wow! How come that my ludwiga repens are nowhere that red!!??


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## Astrid (Sep 20, 2003)

Some other photo of my ludwigia:


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## rwong2k (Jan 13, 2005)

wow, i've got some hopefully mine will turn that red when it reaches near the surface =)


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