# ludwigia repens MASSIVE roots



## newguy (Mar 18, 2006)

Man, ludwigia repens is one frustrating plant!! finally i got the plant to grow healthy even with some red color on the top leaves. Now all of the stem developed MASSIVE roots. Imagine a dozen stems of ludwigia repens with leaves by the water surface, then right below that all you can see are thousands of long roots hanging...

they look terrible and blocking all my other carpet plants. Is there anyway to prevent ludiwigia from growing their roots EVERYWHERE? i tried to trim, that only made them grow back faster and even more concentrated. 

I almost pulled the whole thing out in frustration, but remembering how much effort i put in just to make this plant grow properly i decided to wait...


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

I have a few stem plants that do this as well. For me, I let it grow out a bit and then trim the plant. That's about the only thing I can recommend. Especially if you have trimmed the roots and they only come back in greater numbers.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Ludwigias are horrid for this. I pull the aerial roots off. If the stem is really old and has too many I trim and replant the tops, throwing out the old part.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on what conditions might increase aerial roots? I have 2 different 50 gal tanks, with L. repens in both of them. On one of them, the repens gets lots of aerial roots, on the other, it's quite rare. Dosing is the same, and while lighting is very similar, there is a slight difference. So I guess your lighting definitely has an effect.


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

Bert H said:


> I wonder if anyone can shed any light on what conditions might increase aerial roots? I have 2 different 50 gal tanks, with L. repens in both of them. On one of them, the repens gets lots of aerial roots, on the other, it's quite rare. Dosing is the same, and while lighting is very similar, there is a slight difference. So I guess your lighting definitely has an effect.


The two that are bad for me are Bacopa monnieri and A. Reineckii. Pretty much same situation. Fert dosing is the same...photo period...etc.

No clue here. Maybe I'll do some further analysis to see if anything sticks out with these tanks.


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

It seems like the plant is looking for more nutrients maybe. If the substrate roots aren't getting enough it may be looking for other ways to acquire them.


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