Here you can see a plantlet with stems that can become flowers. I have seen them flower under water close to the surface but they don't last long. If aloud to grow out of the surface the flower last longer if its not right under the lights. When out of water under light they burn and can die.
These are 4 Kleiner bar babies that are ready to be cut and replanted. See how the roots are long and their leaves have grown. These plantlet could have been cut sooner. I haven't because I am running out of room for babies right now.
This is the mother Kleiner bar. You can see there is a new flower stem starting. Looks like 4 more plantlet on the way. You can tell by the knobs, their close together now but as the stem grows, they will get further apart. This plant gives me 4 plantlets every month.
Here is last months plantlets. As you can see I just cut the stem on each side of the plantlet and just plant them.
Not all swords reproduce this way. Some of the hybrids will just spread by growing new plants right next to the mother plant. Echinodorus 'Oriental' is one that does this. Just separate them like you would Crypts and replant. Others my have runners like Dwarf sag. I think the compact sword ( sorry not sure of the name but it commonly sold at LFS) I am not sure about the Rubin or Rose I have grown these but I don't remember if I had any flower stems or not. The Red Mellon has the stem flower but in the plants I have grow they didn't sprout stem very often.
I hope this helps
Hawk |
