# Eriocaulon grooming philosophy



## Coralite (Nov 29, 2008)

Hi All, 
I have a 180 tank with lots of flow and light and having some difficulties with one of the Erio plants. The species in question is _Eriocaulon cinereum_ which first grew to about a solid 5" in diameter with 100 or so leaves. Over the past 6 weeks the plant has been putting out buds and they just keep getting taller, now they're about 8-9". I was stoked at first but it seems that the plant is only growing the buds, its not putting out too many new leaves and some of the older leaves are falling off around the periphery. I have since added added iron and multi bottom long directly to the enormous rootball. Here is a picture of the plant.










I have another huge plant of the same species which is approaching 6" in diameter and probably around 200 leaves. It is just beginning to throw out buds and I am thinking about cutting these buds to prevent the energetic toll it might take on the plant. Is there any kind of grooming philosophy you guys follow on your Erios to optimize the size and health of a display colony?

Also, what can I expect from the buds of the Eriocaulons? is there a way to encourage seeding or other propagules from these buds?

Here is a photo of the other huge Erio.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Take at look at this thread that Dennis posted back in 2006. He had a similar experience and stated that the plant would go through a melt after doing the "bud" thing. He states that he thought it would eventually come back, with lots of daughter plants.

I've never kept it before so I'm not much help other than that.


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## mrkookm (Oct 25, 2006)

Take a look at the thread to get some tips on splitting which you should do now before the plant dies. The aim of the cut is to force the plant to regrow new plants (see pics 3 & 4) which will be easy to separate. Dont expect a cute plant when it is cut especially in its current state, just give it time and it will give new offspring.

See below (pics 1 & 2) below of an Erio that was cut in a friends tank which is now giving off new growth after 2 weeks. He was waiting for the Erio plant to grow a new plant from it's flower, but I suggested for him to cut the plant as the plant was begining to die off. His was in a more advanced stage than yours, but I do recommend you do the same. The second Erio in your picture is alreading splitting and to get any plant from the flowering Erio it's best you make the cut now.


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## Coralite (Nov 29, 2008)

So it there nothing to be expected from the flower stalks if left submerged? I can see cutting the Erio with the really long buds which is beginning to decline in rigor but do I _have to_ cut the bigger one to keep it from doing the same thing?


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## Avalon (Mar 7, 2005)

More than likely. I would cut it to have more! It's very easy to do. You could probably slice yours into multiple pieces. I use a brand-new razor blade to propagate mine. It's pretty simple; just make a single, clean slice (no sawing or hacking) and try not to damage the foliage while doing so. Trim the roots well so they don't ball up and die, then replant.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

What would happen if you just snipped off the inflorescences? I never tried that.


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## mrkookm (Oct 25, 2006)

> So it there nothing to be expected from the flower stalks if left submerged?


The few times I got an Erio to grow a new plant from it's flower it has happened during the 2 ~2½ week mark after it starts to send up flowers, so what I do these days is to slice the plant up at the 3 week mark regardless. The longer you wait in hopes for the a flower to give new growth is the greater the possibility of loosing the plant if you split it.



> I can see cutting the Erio with the really long buds which is beginning to decline in rigor but do I have to cut the bigger one to keep it from doing the same thing?


I have a few species that do not flower submersed they only split themselves luckily, but the Erios you have will definitely send up flowers, so yes you will have to cut. For example the Erio in your second pic is already splitting and is ready for cutting, but if you were to leave it as is it will send up flowers eventually.



> What would happen if you just snipped off the inflorescences? I never tried that.


It will grow new ones IME Cavan.


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Because of this thread I sliced and diced some of my large Erio cirenums. Lookin great. Each Erio was growing roots from the mid-section with the older leaves yellowing and rotting. Now I have several cleaned up smaller Erio's-Thanks guys! :wof:


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## mrkookm (Oct 25, 2006)

> Each Erio was growing roots from the mid-section


Visible indication a plant is splitting and ready for cutting.



> Because of this thread I sliced and diced some of my large Erio cirenums


Awesome!


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Yup that's what I read from the other thread you guys had going...


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## Coralite (Nov 29, 2008)

I appreciate all of your input and I have taken it into consideration regarding my several _E. cinereum_ plants. For the first plant with the extra large buds, I am going to ride it out and see what it does. For the second massive E. cinereum I am going to snip the buds and see if that doesnt prevent the plants demise. I know it appears that it has multiple whorls in the image but this is more an artifact of the flash. However, another large E. cinereum I have had multiple obvious whorls of new plantlets. This plant was uprooted and divided into several daughter plants.

Here is the plant before removal showing many different whorls of leaves









Here is the mother plants out of the water, man this thing is wayyy bigger than when I got it. 









Here is half of the same plant as above after being divided once, showing the many daughter plants waiting to be divided.


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## Coralite (Nov 29, 2008)

AFter about 5 minutes of teasing I had 8 new plants with a good root ball and some of the Eriocaulon "heart" and 4 plantlets with neaither root nor "heart"









This is 4 little plantlets which came off with neither much root or any of the pinkish tissue people call the heart. Will these still grow given proper conditions?









Here is a closeup of the larger rooted plants each with a little piece of the "heart"









Here is the closeup of the mysterious pink tissue deep within the Eriocaulon plant called the heart. Can anyone explain to me what this is exactly?


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## Rick778 (Dec 14, 2005)

Any update on your replanting and the trimming of the flowers you did on the others?


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

I have never had alot of luck cutting the plants, but rather splitting them with my hands whenever I see another crown/center/more white section of the plant growing off to the side.


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## Rick778 (Dec 14, 2005)

mrkookm said:


> I have a few species that do not flower submersed they only split themselves luckily, but the Erios you have will definitely send up flowers, so yes you will have to cut.


How do you now which ones flower? Is there any good source of information on Eriocaulon Sp (other than searching the threads)?


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## Coralite (Nov 29, 2008)

So I had very good success with all of my splits. Even the plantlets with very little of the core survived. As far as the mother plats which had already fully bloomed, I let one keep blooming and it eventually dropped all of its leaves and kept blooming, eventually burning out. I have had success splitting a couple large plants which began to bloom, removing all of the buds and replanting. I think my blooming event was sparked by warm water, conversely, I placed one large blooming plant in cool water, ~70F and it stopped growing the buds and reverted to growing leaves.


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## Minsc (May 7, 2006)

Good to hear, I just split my Thailand for the first time, and found it much more challenging than splitting my minis. Very few of the new plants have a significant amount of "core".

In general, I have found erios to be very hardy when they have access to decent flow and light.
Placed in the shade, or in a stagnant area however, they can die incredibly fast!
My LFS gets erios in from time to time, and they put them in a non-CO2 tank. If you don't get there within 24-48 hours of their arrival, there is nothing left to purchase, they have completely melted:doh:


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

interesting about the flowering erio stopping flowering at lower temps. just moved my thailand into my crs tank that i keep around 71F so well see if that keeps it from flowering fully. 

getting plantlets off a bud is very hit and miss with cineriums IME. though goias on the other hand seem to produce from buds all the time. those i just let flower and when the mother eventually dies off, i am left with a bunch of daughters off the main heart and a bunch of mini-me's floating off the buds.


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## Rick778 (Dec 14, 2005)

My Erio Mini was flowering so I split it, but both halves continued to send up flowers. Should I let them go or continue to snip off the flowers?


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## mrkookm (Oct 25, 2006)

> Should I let them go or continue to snip off the flowers?


Cutting flowers is not going to help because it will send up new ones. I would slice them in 2 again to force new growth.


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## Rick778 (Dec 14, 2005)

mrkookm said:


> I would slice them in 2 again to force new growth.


Took the advice. One of the 4 pieces is sending out new growth, but continued to flower. To date it has 6 new flowers.


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## mrkookm (Oct 25, 2006)

The important thing is that it gave you the new growth  It can send 50 stalks from here on out, you have nothing to worry about...beautiful!


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## slicebo123 (Nov 12, 2009)

i'm currently trying to grow a eriocaulon cinereum plantlet emersed. several of the leaves have melted away and today i saw a flower coming out of it. i proceeded to snip off the flower (hoping to preserve the plants energy). will this save the plant or will it continue to send out flowers? i'm trying to keep this little thing alive.


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## ianmax (Nov 8, 2007)

hi,
exscuse me for bad english 
snip off inflorescences do not preserve the plants, this species will stop grow, dead or produces new flowers, but if you don't split fastly its will dead in the end.


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