Anyone have any experience restarting tropical lilies from tuber?
restarting tropical lilies
Fairly easy really, plonk tuber in a couple of inches of water, leave bobbing about... At 70°f or more it will steadily chug out new offsets, these can be nipped off when they definitely have formed a good set of roots and shoots to be potted up.
If you start them a month or less before outdoor waters warm to 70°f they should be a reasonable size to handle without becoming too tangly...
Regards, andy
I have planted mine in cups. Seems I read this somewhere. Do they seem to do better in either situation?
When started free floating, the offsets can be nipped off and lifted absolutely intact, to be gently pegged onto the surface of the soil of a more permenant pot. Assuming you are starting tubers with no fish around, the roots of a free floating tuber are likely to grow to the maximum without the resistance of soil to penetrate
If they are started off in sand, clay or any kind of medium, I don't see how you can avoid root damage if the roots have grown into it, when you come to lift them to pot on
It can take weeks for water lilies to establish a strong root network before they really get bulging into strong growth, anything that mangles the roots at an early phase is to be avoided
Regards, andy
thanks for the info