Amazon Sword Mother Plant (Echinodorus grisebachii) - Potted

This is a mother plant Amazon Sword (Echinodorus grisebachii 'Bleherae'), not a young potted start. A mother is a mature specimen already throwing runners, which means you get a finished centrepiece on day one instead of waiting a year for one to grow, and you get daughter plants off it for free. Care level is beginner. Browse the rest of our live freshwater plants to build the scape around it.

Care Guide

• Placement: background or as a single midground centrepiece. A mother plant gets big, so give it its own footprint rather than crowding it.
• Tank size: 20 gallons is a realistic minimum, 29 gallons or more is better. This plant will fill a corner.
• Root feeder, heavily. Most of its uptake is through the roots, so root tabs pushed in near the base every few months matter far more than liquid dosing.
• Light: moderate. It tolerates low light but grows slowly and stays smaller.
• CO2: not required. It grows fine without.
• Temperature: 72 to 82°F.
• pH: 6.5 to 7.5.
• Planting: remove the pot and peel the rock wool off the roots. Bury the roots only, and leave the crown, where the leaves meet the roots, sitting above the substrate. A buried crown rots.
• Runners: a mother plant throws runners with daughter plants along them. Leave them attached until each daughter has four or five leaves and its own roots, then cut and replant.

Specifications

Compatibility

Tough enough for most community tanks, and the broad leaves are a favourite spawning surface for angelfish and a shade canopy for anything shy. It sits naturally behind a standard potted Amazon Sword or a foreground carpet, since all of them want the same substrate feeding.

Not for goldfish, and watch large cichlids. Goldfish eat swords. Big digging cichlids will uproot one before it anchors, though an established mother plant with a full root mass usually holds its ground.

Recommended Supplies

• Seachem Flourish Tabs, the single most useful thing you can add for this plant
• Liquid plant fertilisers as a supplement, not a substitute for root feeding
• More live plants to fill in around it

FAQ

What is a mother plant, exactly?
A mature specimen that is already big enough to send out runners. It is the same species as our standard potted sword, just years further along. You are paying for size and for the daughter plants it will produce.

All the leaves are melting. Did I kill it?
Almost certainly not. Potted swords are grown out of water and the emersed leaves are not built to work submersed, so they die back while the plant grows new ones from the crown. Trim the dead leaves at the base, leave the roots undisturbed, and give it three to four weeks.

Why is the name different from what I have seen elsewhere?
The plant the hobby called Echinodorus bleheri, bleherae and amazonicus turned out to be one species. They were all folded into Echinodorus grisebachii in 2008. Same plant, corrected name.

How many daughter plants will I get?
A healthy mother in a fed substrate typically throws several runners a year, each carrying multiple plantlets. Leave each daughter attached until it has its own roots and four or five leaves before separating it.