Lotus question

I finally found a few tubers with growing tips on my lotus. I know how to pot them but am not sure if it is ok for the growing tip to be under water. I also broke one of the tubers but it still has the growing tip on it. Will it still grow?

Thanks
Betty

with lotuses the growing sproat starts underwater and grows out and up... if you have a root mass on a shoot you can just plant that...mine shoot out all over the place and root themselves in the bottom of my ponds in the muck or just hang...and eventually shoot to the surface. Some 'branches" are 8 feet long under water...but most of the blooms come from the pants that are established in pots at least the bigger blooms... I love lotus since they are SO easy to grow One large lotus can do the work of 10 stinkin lillies in keeping your pond shaded as well as beautiful...David

Thanks David

Are you saying I don't need a tuber just a part with roots? Will they grow if they just look like this or do I need the tuber part with the growing tip? I let my mud bottom pond dry out and am having a very hard time finding the tubers but I do get lots that just have hairy roots at the bottom of the dried stalk.

Betty

This I an not sure of If the roots are planted w/o the complete tuber and growing tip it will probably work as long as there is some tuber there...If I'm not mistaken thats how they are sold... and how mine came originally but it's been a really long time ago...From your pic you've got plenty of tuber so I'd say it will do fine just plant in pot with pea gravel on top of soil and your in business... don't know how cold it gets but you may have to wait til spring to find out... I am not an expert though and if others know more they should chime in... BTW I always use lanscape fabric to line the pots to keep the dirt fron going out the bottom holes ...also I use large plastic storage boxes...clear or green if the have them you can get at home depot or lowes I drill a bunch of 1/4 holes in the bottom at the bottom edges and bottom ...Don't buy the containers too big cause they will weight a ton to small and youll eventually have floaters that tip over and a mess... lotuses get big and need a fairly large container David

This site seems to have good information:
http://www.bonniesplants.com/lotus/dividing_tubers/planting_lotus_tubers.htm

Thanks David. I just potted the ones below and will try some with just roots. I am moving and I am hoping to take some with me.

Betty

Thanks Giorio. That is the site I used to find out how to pot them.

Betty

Hello....any luck growing lotus from seed? I ordered some from Ebay, got them to sprout with 2 nickle sized leaves on 6 inch underwater stems, now not so sure what to do with them....any advice?
MerryMary

MerryMary, I also bought seeds from ebay. I think mine are doing quite well. I nicked and "planted" them this past August. I started two seeds, both germinated. The beginning of Nov. I had six or seven floater leaves and three or four leaves about 7 to 8 inches in the air, with what looks like more coming. Weatherman predicted frost so PLOP into the pond they went, to keep from freezing. They are continuing to grow leaves. Really cold weather will be here soon, so time will tell!
Melanie

Hi Betty,
I was having trouble figuring this out too. This past summer, my lotus grew these long runners. In some areas, it was just roots, and in others, there was an "eye" growing out near the roots. It's my understanding that you have to have one of those eyes to grow another lotus. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that's the case. Good luck!

This message was edited Dec 9, 2005 7:59 PM

Mine got to the point of nickel sized floater leaves, about 3 or 4 of them, but then never did anything past that....I was hoping for the ones that rise above the water, even if I didnt' get a bloom, but they seemed to have stopped there......I was wondering if anything important happens at that point that I missed(?)
MerryMary