cut anacharis stops growing?

has anyone trimmed their anacharis and found that the bottom half of the trimming stops growing or splits off and only the split/shoot grows on the bottom half, but the top half grows just fine? it's weird.

 

I couldn't say for certain that this is the case with your anacharis (Egeria densa, I'm guessing?), but it sounds like this is a simple case of apical dominance to me. Many types of plants have buds at the apex or tip of their stem that do the growing. Basically, they are only growing from this point up. If you cut off that top bit where the apical (top) bud is, lateral (side) buds will grow instead, but the plant can't grow from that cut stem anymore. The lateral buds will take over and start growing and will become dominant instead. If you then cut the top off one of these new branches, the same kind of thing would happen. This is why a lot of people find that pruning or trimming their plants makes them bushier. (Oh, and I should mention that the grass in your lawn is a bit of an exception. When you mow your lawn, you're just lopping off the tips of the leaves, and the leaves grow from an intercalary meristem further down. That's why your grass doesn't get bushy and branch or die when you cut it.)

Anyway, your plants are fine and normal. The tops will root with any luck, giving you more plants, and the bottom parts should just get bushier as long as you don't cut them too far back. Try cutting just above a bud if one is obvious.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your Egeria.

 

that does help. Thanks!

 

No problem! I love talking about plants about as much as I like talking about fish.

 

I also have an anacharis.
Rookie question, how do I identify a bud to cut just above it?

I bought the anacharis 5 days ago. It seems to be growing well, but the bottom parts look a little brown.

 

I also have an anacharis.
Rookie question, how do I identify a bud to cut just above it?

I bought the anacharis 5 days ago. It seems to be growing well, but the bottom parts look a little brown.

Cut off where it starts branching off, but not the maint plant. Don't buy a lot of anarchis, it's easy to grow some of your own, and you don't want to bleach it, you'll kill it.

 

My anacharis are doing great!
The cut ones are growing from new buds and the newly planted ones are growing fast.