How I trim plants before planting. Makes a big difference!

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Great post and will help when I get new plants!

Have you had success with trimming plants with crowns, like this Amazon sword?

Yes! Crypts, blyxa, echinodorus (swords), cyperus helferi, all grow their newest leaves from the inner most part to the stem. It's totally fine (and recommended IMO) to trim off the outer leaves when plants first arrive.

It's taking over my 20gal and I'd like to trim it. I read that you can divide the crown

For swords, it's not necessarily dividing the crown. In my experience, much like crypts, you need to wait until another runner/plantlet grows separately from the main rosette. THOSE you can separate from each other, and grow like that.

but that means I have to pull the plant out and I'm worried that the roots are massive under the substrate. I think I can see some near the front of the tank.

In this case, the best course in my experience would be to just aggressively trim off all of the outermost leaves. EDIT: As Neal stated below, don't trim all of the leaves, I just mean cut/pull the oldest/outermost leaves off of the rosette.

If you want to thin it up, leaving only 3-4 leaves will be totally fine, and the plant's new growth will appreciate the extra space/flow/light.

I think it is also finally sending out runners which I know I can propagate once they become healthy.

Spot on!

Should I just trim the outside leaves to eliminate the bulk?

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I think that would be the best case for a plant of that size. Otherwise, uprooting would probably involve a major tank reset, or even complete overhaul

 

[FreshTides_Neal]

Great post and will help when I get new plants!

Have you had success with trimming plants with crowns, like this Amazon sword? It's taking over my 20gal and I'd like to trim it. I read that you can divide the crown but that means I have to pull the plant out and I'm worried that the roots are massive under the substrate. I think I can see some near the front of the tank. I think it is also finally sending out runners which I know I can propagate once they become healthy. Should I just trim the outside leaves to eliminate the bulk?

View attachment 20791

You can pull leaves off of the sword from the base to get rid of some of the bulk, but no you can't trim leaves as it will cause the whole leaf to die.

 

[Danbest82]

@Naturescapes_Rocco and @FreshTides_Neal thank you for the replies! I definitely don't want to reset my tank so I'll trim the outside leaves at the base/rosette to eliminate the bulk.