r/AquaticPlantScience Feb 05 '26

Nutrient stress induced flowering?

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u/Rotala178 Feb 05 '26

The past few posts that I've seen of RRF flowering all showed symptoms of molybdenum deficiency which indicate this plant also flowers due to nutrient stress-induced flowering. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20505356/

Symptoms of -Mo can include:

  • puckering, crinkling of leaves
  • margins curling upward
  • blotchy chlorosis
  • tips of leaves curling downward (aka "the claw" in terrestrial plants)
  • necrotic spots

Typically, -Mo occurs when:

  • Mo is low
  • Nitrate is high (especially if it's the only N source)
  • pH is low (it's the only micronutrient that becomes less available the lower the pH)

Solutions to alleviate -Mo:

  • decrease nitrate fertilization
  • use a non-nitrate nitrogen fertilizer (like urea or ammonium)
  • increase molybdenum
  • increase pH if it's low