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LA
Green side up.  Some plants look good floating.  Amazon swords are not one of them.

LA
Impressive Amazon sword.  Use the three adult neons and banana plant for size comparison.

Origins:  Oddly enough, Amazon sword plants originally came from the Amazon River.  These days they come mostly from Florida and Fareast plant farms.  Florida farms produce bare root as well as potted swords.  The Fareast farms send us only bare root specimens because of U.S. import regulations.  High air freight rates also make bare root stock more practical.

LA
Here's a pack of 50 bare-root very small Amazon swords.

LA
Amazon swords grow leafier with age.

Many Varieties:  You’ll find several types of sword plants under the “Amazon” label.  You’ll even find different species called Amazon swords.  Certain farms produce their own particular strains.  Others cross different species to come up with hybrids under the same rubric.

LA
Get rid of those yellow and/or torn leaves.

LA
Amazon sword leaves cannot repair themselves.  Snip them and toss the damaged leaves.

LA
Keep tossing those bad leaves.

Starting Suggestion:  Strip any damaged leaves off your new swords.  Snip off any non-white roots.  And snip the tips off any healthy roots.  All these nips and snips encourage new growth.

LA
Amazon sword babies on mother plant.

LA
Sometimes they produce one baby sword.

LA
Some times several.

LA
Here's several harvested bloomstalks.

LA
We trimmed out the unneeded parts.

LA
Here they're planted in a 10 with b-b size gravel.

LA
Here's two Amazon swords with two crowns ready to be split.  Crummy roots.

Reproduction:  Amazon swords usually reproduce by root division and by seed.  Root division keeps the strain pure.  Seeds produce the hybrids and the largest “litters.”  Root division works best in your aquarium.  Most sword keepers never see an adult sword plant bloom and produce seeds.  Many Fareast plant farms use microbiology to turn out acres of identical sword plants.  Do not attempt this at home.

LA
You can't do this in real life.  This Amazon sword was entered in a contest.

Substrate:  Swords grow best in smaller grained substrates about the size of a b-b.  Adding clay to the substrate helps a lot.  Mixing in large quantities of vermiculite helps even more.  Some growers add soil.  We think soil’s way too messy to use.

Fertilizers:  The laterite products on the market were developed specifically to help you grow sword plants.  Swords also respond very well to leaf fertilizers and even better to root fertilizers.  Avoid over fertilizing them.

Lighting:  If you’re serious about your swords, put a timer on your tank and give them exactly 12 hours of good light.  Deep tanks require more bulbs than shallow tanks.  Swords respond well to nearly any good light source.

LA
Amazon sword plant as focal point.

Algae Problems:  Too much light will cause algae to grow on your Amazon sword leaves.  YOU cannot remove it.  The Siamese algae eating sharks and the algae-eating shrimps can do the job.  Otocinclus help a great deal also.  Never add a plecostomus.

LA
Rasping lips of a hungry plecostomus will skin your Amazon swords fast.

Other Threats:  Plecos skin their leaves and make them look like lace plants.  Silver dollars eat them down to their roots.  So will Colombian ramshorn snails and apple snails.  Big cichlids like to uproot them.  Keep turtles and crayfish out of any plant tank.

Water:  Amazon swords grow just fine in Des Moines water.  Don’t get excited about pH values.  And our water contains extra lime.  Ignore it.  Don’t add salt or use softened water (which adds salt).

LA
Impressive Amazon sword in a 70-gallon tank.  They will grow larger.

Size:  Most tank-raised Amazon swords grow 12 to18-inches tall.  Oddly enough, too much light keeps them from growing tall.  They flatten out.  On the other hand, we’ve seen these plant grow up and out of a 70-gallon tank under hanging lights.  These big momma plants grow flowers and make lots and lots of little baby swordlets.

LA
Amazon sword starter as sold in retail stores.

LA
Retail tank full of young Amazon sword plants.  Give them more room to grow.

Great Egg Site:  If you keep breeder size angels, you’ll notice your angels prefer to spawn on Amazon sword plant leaves.  They’re both from the same river.  Angels can wreck their leaves when spawning.

LA
Hybrid Amazon sword starter plant.

LA
We've observed this Amazon sword plant for six weeks now.  Still looking good.

LA
If you start with potted Amazons swords, you're already one leg up in the growing process.

Last Word:  Amazon swords will survive and grow even under less than perfect conditions.  That’s what makes them one of the most popular decorative plants.  LA.

More at More Sword Plants

© 2002, © 2003, © 2004, © 2005, © 2013  LA Productions

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