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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

Propagating parrot feather

16 years ago

My parrot feather is extremely leggy. I've been trying to find info online about propagating but the info is sketchy....What would happen if I cut off the leggy part, cut that into sections, and allow those short leggy sections to float, or planted them in my floating island? Would they root and grow more "feathers"? Will the remaining tops that look nice (with shorter stems)be okay just floating or must I plant them to get more roots? Your advice and experience is appreciated!

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Comments (6)

obsessed-nj
16 years ago
Hey, gpacker, here's a link that might help.

Here is a link that might be useful: plant profiles
nancyd
16 years ago
I cut off about 4-5" from the tops of the stems then simply pot them in pea gravel, no dirt needed, and submerge the pots in the pond. It's amazing how quickly it re-establishes itself. Or you can stick a few stems directly in the pond held down by a rock or two. Parrot's Feather isn't a floater, it needs an anchor. If your fish are constantly defoliating the plant you should remove it from the pond and let it re-establish itself in a bucket of water before putting it back in. I let it go too far last year after my fish ate it and it did not come back. So I can't say if the "leggy" parts will produce new plants, but since that's all you have to work with, try it. I now take healthier cuttings after the plant has time to fill out, but before the fish abuse it. This plant is considered invasive, but in my smaller pond it's easy to control. And the fish like to eat it, so I'm always rooting more.
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Joraines, Sorry about the fish that are making their way into your pond, mabey some kind of a net to stop them? Where the creek runs through your pond? There must be some kind of a net, or even weed cloth or something even a leaf net to stop the fish from entering. How to anchor it is another thing. Nice to hear from you, I've been keeping up with your pond stories, it's nice to hear someone from our state speak about their pond. There is a fine to own water hyacinth in South Carolina, but not water lettuce as far as I know. I don't know what Parrot feather is, it sounds nice, hope you can grow it out a bit in another baby pool so you still have it for the rest of the year, it'll probably last here til at least the beginning of November. I think all the rain lately is the culprit of the algae, although thankfully my pond is finally starting to clear a bit now since the rain has stopped, (now I jinxed myself), I have never seen this much rain. Good luck with your pond and hope you figure something out as to keeping the fish out.
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I've pulled some of the parrots feather out of the pond and put it in a kiddy pool out back where it is growing quite quickly. It was also pretty quick to fill back in in the pond too! After taking several batches of plants back to the pool it is now full. I'm getting ready to list the extra plants on craigslist along with a bunch of other plants that I thinned out of the garden this year. We had a really mild winter here in florida which gave the plants extra time to spread! Ernie, I would happily share some of the plants with you! Just send me an e-mail.
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Comments (13)
Thanks for the response guys..I see it's been awhile since I posted the question.I have a large farm pond,but we don't farm it's just used to fish and the doggies like to swim in it.It's too big to just go in and rip out the plants and I have made all sorts of contraptions to rake out the stuff,but it's just too big of a job. I decided to get some aquacide pellets and it sorta worked but it looks like we are going to need to put in multiple treatments.The pond is just too taken over by this stuff and it's so thick.I guess I'll just have to keep trying these pellets and hopefully one of these years it goes away.Never again will I put ANY kind of plant in my pond without reading all I can about it.It makes me so sad to look out and see how consumed the water is by this stuff.Thanks for all the responses!
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WANTED: lizard tail, have parrot feather, frog fruit, hornwort,
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Comments (0)
a few others--mints, pennywort. Lots of other regular plants--check my trade list.
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missa7
16 years ago
If you cut the tips off where all the "feathers" are do the stems in the pot regrow, will they fill back out or do you need to take those & throw them away?
nancyd
16 years ago
The stems in my pots did not regrow. But I left them in the pond, so I'm not sure if they would have recovered had I taken them out. The fish were pretty brutal with them and I waited too long.
newyorkrita
16 years ago
Bumping this as I am currently researching what water plants to add and parrot feather is on my list.
thebugman
15 years ago
hey gpacker. I am also currently having the same problem with my parrot's feather. It seems to be really leggy, long stems with dead submerged leaves. The feather or top leaves look good but the underwater stem look uly.
I think the problem is that it is not getting enough sunlight. My pond only gets about 3 hours sunlight so I am going to move the pond soon.

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