Wooo Hooo! Lotus Seeds Germinating!

I just love lotus but had never heard about the aquatic morning glories.Does anyone know if and where I would find seeds available ?

hi. you should start feeding the lotus after the 4th leaf has emerged. i highly recomend highland rim fertizilizer. it is espically made for lotus and water lillies. its ratio is 10:26:10 to give the extra help with blooms and green leaves. if you notice the ratio of these plant tabs has a higer number than usual fertiziler. my lotus and lillies thrive on it. its very convienet to just push the tab into the soil. lotus are heavy feeders and you can get a bag of this highland rim fairly inexpensive. i order mine off the internet. it ships fast and its good stuff! like ive said its specially formulated just for lotus and lillies! i shop around online and find it for the best price! your lotus will thank you for it :) good luck and happy gardening!

I finally got some aquatic MG's to germinate and grow .. Hopefully they will put out some flowers and I can get more seeds.

there easy to get to flower X but hard to get seeds . Paul

Just thought I'd chime in on the dormancy question. My dwarf lotus are in a little south-facing pond in my entry. The water temp goes down into the 50's in winter (a normal winter here, that is) and the last two winters the water dropped into the 40's. The lotus plants disappear completely once the water temp drops below about 70, and don't wake up until the water temp rises into the 70's again. I can hurry them up if I pull their tub out of the pond and put it in a warmer, sunnier corner. But then I have to wait for the pond to warm up before I can put them back. It's not worth it. They get lots of leaves, but never bloom until the weather gets really hot. I have my first flower bud coming this week.

That being said, I'm pretty sure lotus grow in equatorial climates where the water never gets cold as well. Don't know if they go dormant in places like Egypt or not. If you keep them warm all winter, I'd guess you need to keep them in the sun, and keep giving them fertilizer, too. Leaves make tubers, tubers make leaves and flowers. Hard to say if they will bloom sooner with that treatment or not. Maybe keep a couple in the warm, and let a couple go dormant, see what works?

If I had to guess, you'll get flowers either way next summer as long as you have tubers by this fall. Grow lots of leaves! Elaine ps. I use the aquatic fert tabs, too. Lotus are heavy feeders.

Thanks for the info .. I've got two tubs full so I'll keep one going and see what happens.

Ah, I just know someone, a member of DG from India, Dinu perhaps Dinu can help answer the questions you've raised above. Let me shot him an email. Or would you care to do that? Since this was your question? Great question by the way. I love your pond as well.

There are a number of types of "Lotus". Our native one, Nelumbo nucifera, grows all year. They don't have tubers, there's only 'runners' with leaves and flowers arising from nodes along the runners.

From what I understand "Egyptian Lotus" is actually a waterlily and not a lotus.

Then there's the Lotus genus with several species. It's these that I think go through the winter dormancy. It's in the genetic make up of the plants so you can't avoid that happening. About the best you'll be able to do is extend the growing period beyond your normal climatic conditions, up to a point.

But definitely, you first need to find out which one you have.

Bummer - traded for some Lotus seeds .. that's the only name attached to them. Being totally new to water plants I didn't think to ask what kind.

You are fine X, water lilies do not make the same kind of large, hard seeds like you had. Also, the leaves you pictured are lotus - Nelumbo's.

You may be able to ID which lotus you have by the flowers. Can you ask the person you traded with what color the flowers were, and how tall the plant was?

The leaves are all pretty much the same, except for size. Some lotus get huge - 7 ft. tall leaf stems - and others, like my dwarf one, only get about 2 feet. You should know that by the end of summer.

yes you should be able to tell weather or not its a nuciferia or lutea by the flowers. nuciferia is usually pink or white. lutea is yellow. also i believe if you look it up the flowers appearance is different also. so when the plant blooms you will know if its the nuciferia or the lutea (american lotus). keep showing how its doing with pictures! they grow so fast and before you know it it will be huge with aerial leaves! how exciting! i love growing lotus and have about fifteen plants of my own in two lotus bogs. i am waiting for my first flowers this year! it should bloom soon. i believe where i live they bloom in july and aug. i keep looking for the buds to come! good luck with your lotus. keep us posted.

Have you thought of putting each plant in its own tub? If they are a large variety of lotus, they will be overcrowded very quickly, and possibly stunt each other if you leave them all together. Better do this soon, before they get too entangled with each other. Be extremely careful transplanting, though. The roots are somewhat fragile so move them gently with your hands, not tools.

Interestingly, when I looked up my dwarf hybrid in the DG Plant Files, it says it is a hybrid of Nelumbo nucifera! So are several other well-known hybrids in there. But they do make tubers and go dormant here. I wonder if the Australian variety never makes tubers because the warm climate keeps it growing and producing leaves all year. Tropicbreeze, do your native lotus bloom all year as well?

Well I just got an email back from the person I traded with .. they are nelumbo nucifera. No cultivar was mentioned.

There are two plants in each tub .. I keep sticking my fingers down in the sand but don't really feel any tubers, just root. I'm going to keep them where they are until they reach the 2nd stage then I'll probably transplant them into larger tubs.

I keep forgetting to ask .. should I remove the dead leaves or leave them?

I remove them, otherwise they will just eventually sink and rot.

"Tropicbreeze, do your native lotus bloom all year as well?"

I don't think so. During the wet season when water levels rise they just seem to produce leaves.

You need to be careful with trimming leaves. One way to get rid of Lotus is to cut the leaves off below the water. A rot seems to get into the stem and travels down into the root system. Let them die off first or cut them off above the water.

Nelumbo nucifera in habitat.

The flower

Tropicbreeze, what fantastic shot of the Lotus field! It's beautiful. And the very important point you've made about stem rot, if it were cut below the water level. Thank you.

Oh that is pretty! When my sister came to visit we went to Cypress Gardens and they had a cypress swamp full of lotus .. or maybe they were water lilies.

Those are water lilies, but beautiful none the less!

i Fertilize all my water plants with Jobe stiks have for years even with fish in the pond X Most Lotus need a Dormant period. if you try to keep theam growing all year may weaken the plant.am growing some pink ones ill be glad to send you one at the end of summer . paul

Thanks Paul! Great to see you back online.

X, I remember seeing lots of the native lotus (N. lutea) in the Cooper River tributaries. They have yellow flowers which stand above the water surface. .

Really? Wow! I didn't know lotus were native to America .. I certainly have a lot to learn!

Here's a link http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/10 with info on the American Lotus. Nelumbo Lutea

If you click on the little thumbnails, there are pictures of big swaths of these, very impressive. But unless you have a pretty big pond, I wouldn't plant them. They'll take over! Hardy even up into Canada. I'd like to smell the air around those lakes when the flowers are in bloom.

Xeramtheum, your original post inspired me to see if I could get lotus to grow from seeds. Like you I am amazed at germination speed. I have run into a problem of my leaves turning black, even though the plants seem to put putting on new leaves. Did you run into this problem by any chance?

I can find any answer as to what is causing it in any sources I have located..

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1205325/

This message was edited Aug 8, 2011 12:10 AM

I've not had that problem and really can't tell you what might be going on. Mine are still at the coin stage putting out leaves like crazy .. I remover ones that are totally brown and that's about it .. I haven't fertilized mine because my tubs have turned out to be regular watering holes for birds, opossums and an occasional mud dauber which delights me to no end because that means the water is healthy and not stagnant.

This message was edited Aug 8, 2011 6:33 AM

How interesting. We have one huge water lily in our small pond that blooms each day. I too have been buying the aquatic fertilizer. Someone, please list some of the other fertilizers that can be used with Koi in the pond.

I have been reading about propagating my water lily by tieing the bloom with gauze and letting it sink to the bottom for a few days. I'd like to give it a try before the summer ends. Has anyone had success with this method?

That's a new one to me!

I read this in the Am. Horticultural Society's Plant Propagation book. Of course, there are a couple more steps that I don't remember without going back to the book.

Birds, possoms and raccoons regularly drink from my fertilized water features with no ill effects. Heck, they drink from the foulest of puddles and seem to do just fine. I do provide fresh clean water for the birds but they are not fussy about where they drink.

Peg

I fertilize my waterlilies with the Laguna year long fertilizer spikes - it only has to be done once and it doesn't hurt my fish or the birds, squirrels or anything else that drinks from my pond.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/1/1/641-laguna-plant-grow-fertilizer-spikes.html

I have never tried the propogation method you mentioned - however, early each spring, the waterlilies are pulled from the bottom of the pond and divided with a sharp knife. Make sure you have a growth point in each division and before you know it, you will have more waterlilies than you'll know what to do with.

So mine are sitting in tubs .. from what I've been reading I should just leave them where they are and let them freeze over? They are still at the coin stage but a few are starting to grow above the water line.

I would think so, but not positive - can some be split and brought inside for the winter?

My initial thought is that is how they often propogate themselves and that your babies should be fine.

I do believe that lotus are hardy in your zone.

Carolyn, Laguna would be perfect for me instead of the monthly schedule that may fall off course every now and then.

X, I would give those little lotus plants of yours a bit of fertilizer to work on before the end of summer. The leaves you grow now will make your tubers for next year, so it will benefit the long term outlook for you to make lots more leaves now. Lotus grow really F A S T and big. Your little plants should be making bigger leaves by now, jmho. Do you still have several plants in the same tub? I think you might see a dramatic surge of growth if you give them some fert!

I always like to consider what would be happening if my plants were growing out in the wild in their natural habitat. Your lotus would have 'natural' fertilizer if they were in a wild pond - fish poop and leafy materials in the bottom muck. They don't have any of that in your tub.

I also fertilize the lotus and water lilies in my little pond and have healthy fish, lots of birds, squirrels, possums and raccoons drinking there. I'm using the monthly tablets by Lily Gro just because I like the flexibility - and you do push them down into the pots, so the fert is not released directly into the water. I have a very small water lily, and another that is larger, plus my lotus is a 'dwarf' variety all in containers in a 750gal. pond. As the water temp changes, their growth rates also change so I can adjust the fert dosage accordingly.

You can get the tabs in a small amount from most nurseries that have water plants. Or order it online if you want a larger amount to keep for next season. Go easy at first, maybe just one or two tabs in the tub and see what happens. You could give them a light dose now, and then if you get encouraging results, give them a bit more in September.

Here's my 'Baby Doll' lotus blooming. It has leaves up to 8" across standing about 18" above the water. I started with two tiny tubers in March.

I'm feeding mine with miracle grow since I have no fish.

X - Great thread on growing Lotus from seeds as well as helpful information from everyone posting!

There are some interesting information links about growing Lotus on the Internet. My favorite website links are these two:

Lotus:
http://www.victoria-adventure.org/lotus/lotus_main.html
Lotus articles:
http://www.victoria-adventure.org/lotus/articles_index.html

And here are some interesting videos:
How to plant a lotus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ow1VbBds84&feature=related
Fertilizing Lotus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CX6yIaO7Ks&NR=1

I am trying the Miracle Gro since I also don't have fish in my water pots.

I finally got blooms this week from one of my water pots. I believe this cultivar is called "Red Scarf". My other pot still hasn't bloomed.

May I make a comment on fertilizing. The lotus do need a rest period. If you fertilize too late in the season and then the temps drop, you could get root rot. That happened to me a few years ago and I lost all my Lotus. Most fertilizer tabs or MiracleGro last about a month or so. So figure out a month and a half before your typical cool weather starts moving in. Also if you try to grow them indoors, they may not do well as they really need sunlight. Mine have been out in the freezing weather the past 2 years and came back in the Spring. So they do seem to be pretty hardy if you can move them to a sheltered place where it might be just a little warmer. The water in my pots froze over solid with ice and the lotus came back despite that. But the freeze didn't last but a few days, so don't know if that had anything to do with it. I do know people who move them into their greenhouse or garage and just let them go dormant right there in their water pots. Drag them out when the weather warms up and they come right back!

Actually I quit feeding everything in August, water and terrestrial plants. I'll probably just move the tubs with the lotus in them next to the house and forget about them til next spring.

Thanks for the links .. I'll be checking them out more in depth later on.