# How to thicken up stems?



## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

I was wondering what if anything can be done to make the stems of stem plants thicker.

I am growing L. 'Pantanal' and it's coming along nicely but of course it looks nothing like this.

I am interested in knowing what the people who grew the plant in the link above did to get the stem that fat. It appears to be nearly the thickness of my pinky finger.

I know for land plants, constant wind will result in thickening of the stems. When I used to grow plants indoors I would train a fan on them from the time they were very small, and by the time they were grown the stems were very fat.

I wonder if putting current directly on submersed plants would have the same impact. I sort of doubt it because I have had L. repens near the outflow of my filter and part of it just stays blown sideways. Never attempts to right itself by beefing up its stem and growing towards the light.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

If you grow stems emersed they should fatten their stems considerably, but in that photo it looks like the leaves aren't nearly large enough to be emersed growth...

Letting the plant grow tall helps get thick stems. If you top it often, the stems tend to stay thin.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Stems grow so fast so it's sometimes hard to get them to thicken up because we are always topping and trimming them down to stay in the water. I've always seen thicker stems of plants in tall tanks (greater than 22"). I think the time to grow upwards is longer and therefore allows development for those thick stems. 

For me, I notice when topping, and leaving the bottoms planted, the bottom gets thicker, with growing sideshoots. So may be the key is to let them grow tall as Zapins suggests, and keep the plant inside the tank as long as possible. Floating it might actually do the trick too.

I still think your new avatar is funny! Higglytown Hero 

-John N.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Oooh thats what his avatar is... I was wondering about that the other day. It looks really funny


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

I think the stem thickness is part of the growing form of the plant, which is related to its environment. In other words, certain tank conditions might make some plants have thicker stems, while other conditions might cause the stems to be thinner. It probably various from plant to plant.

For example, I used to keep a 1000 ppm NaCl level in my tank (.10%). _Egeria densa_ grew with thick stems. When I stopped the salt and reduced its level to 0, the stems grew much thinner... much closer to how you normally see it in the wild.

Just my speculations.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

My experience with Ludwigia Cuba and Pogostemon stellata has been that fat stems are a result of topping and replanting the tops while maintianing high CO2 levels. New side shoots and branching from toped, rooted portions started out the diameter of a thin yarn, maybe 3/32"-1/8", and by toping and replanting the tops each week eventually the stems would end up 1/4"-3/8", after several weeks. I did notice that whenever I had a CO2 issue the tops would stunt and branch profusely, often 6 or 8 stems from a single node! I have noticed this also on Rotala macranda Green and Rotala sp Pink and Colorata, just on a smaller scale.


Salt, thats interesting about the salt Wonder why? I do know that Na, like K+ is extreemly important in osmotic transfer and stoma control. If memory serves, growth like that is what one would find naturally in the African Rift lakes. Wonder what mechanism is causing the different growth?


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