# How often do you trim hairgrass?



## lowfi (Apr 18, 2007)

Hey everyone,

Ive had my hairgrass in my tank for a couple weeks now and it is growing...slowly but definitely growing. I trimmed the grass once already. The grass is sending out runners with new blades coming out of them but they are above the soil. Do I have to push them under or let them do their thing? My main question is this though, how often do I trim my grass and how short do I cut it? How close to the rosette where the grass comes out?? I am confused. I would love to have a really thick foreground of this stuff. I think it is an awesome plant. So do I cut it once a week, say at a water change, multiple times a week?? Or once a month? I have no idea. Thanks for the input!

FRONT LAWN HERE WE COME!!!!!!!:heh:

Sean


----------



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

you trim it often.
The more you trim it, the faster it will spread into a carpet.
When it is allowed to grow, it will grow up.
If you trim it, and keep it trimmed, then it is forced to spread out and grow into a thick carpet.


----------



## lowfi (Apr 18, 2007)

wow so that sounds like multiple times a week! thanks goalcreas (you are my biggest supporter LOL) yea I trimmed it a few days ago but the pressurized system reallly makes things take off. how about rotala? how do you trim that (well i know howwww)? Can you trim new buds that branched off of a trim section? will that bud then branch? I would like to form a dense group of the stuff (macrandra & rotundifolia) thanks everyone!...especially goalcreas

sean


----------



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Well, you don't HAVE to do it that often, but try to keep it short for a while, kind of like your front lawn. If you did it once a week with water changes you would be fine.
Just net off the clippings from the top of the water the best you can. You dont' have to get it all, they pretty much disolve away, or break up, they don't really just disappear, but not too much of a hassle. 

Most stem plants, when you trim them and they grow back at that split, they often will form one or more new shoots from that point, some just grow back from the one stem, and some grow back from that one stem and also form one or more new shoots.

It is best to let them grow a little bit before removing from the main stem, but it is not absolutly necessary. Just try to let them grow long enough that you can plant them aabout an inch deep and have at least an inch sticking out of the substrate.
There are no hard rules for the most part, but this will work well.

If I am creating a dense wall of stems on the rear wall of the tank, or a portion of it, I would first plant the stems about 1/2 to 1 inch off the rear wall, depending on the plant, smaller thin stems closer to the wall and larger thicker plants further away. Also, plant them 1/2 to 1" apart from each other, again depending on the stem size. 
Then when they grow close to the surface, I would cut them almost 1/2 off, but about 1" above being 1/2 off. Then I will plant those about 1/2 inch to 1 inch in front of those stems, and plant them kind of diaginol in front, like a checker board. Now wait for the rear ones to reach the surface and where ever the front ones are, trim them about 1" above 1/2 way.
Now plant the two rows (larger in the third row and shorter in the very front) and keep them 1/2 to 1" front and back - side to side, keeping the checker board going and viola, you have yourself a nice thick layerd wall.
It is a little bit of maintenance to keep the layerd look, but it is nice and if you let it grow all to one length, you can always go back and cut the layer back into it.

Another trick would be to start in a corner and work your way over towards the center of the tank.
Taller in the corner and shorter in layers towards the center and the front, creates a nice slope with the tops of your plants.

There are many ways to do this and many styles, this is just one way and an example of how I have done it a few times int the past in different tanks and the results were pleasing.
Unfortunatly, I don't have this going right now and don't have any photos of the tanks that had this going in the past.

If you try it and get a good result, please post some photo's of your tank.
Heck if you don't do this at all still post pics of your tank.


----------



## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

I only trimmed my dwarf hairgrass twice in 6 months. This was for a whole 60g of hairgrass. 

I am not saying trimming it frequently won't speed it up but it is by no means necessary and with proper lighting the hairgrass shouldn't grow very tall until its pretty dense. I only trimmed it to clean it up a bit and take a little height off it. Obviously in 6 months I had to replant a couple sections that grew dense and up. Maybe if I had constantly kept it low I wouldn't have had to do that.


----------



## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

i trim mine every couple of weeks, when trimmed it looks better than my front lawn. it really depends on the growth rate, i use pps-pro, so it doesnt grow as fast as when i was on ei, but thats good. it does make an unholy mess when i do trim, but at least the cuttings i dont net out rot away pretty quickly. unlike HC, where the tiniest piece will be tossed around the tank forever....


----------

