3 yrs ago I ordered 10 lotus seeds from e-bay. Stupidly ignoring all advice to plant in containers, I put them in my farm pond (fenced from horses) and now I have no pond, just a lotus field! Is there any method of control besides herbicide? There are fish, turtles, frogs, etc. who call this almost water home.
Thanks for any help...
Pat
lotus run amok
Oh, to grow lotus. I, too, ordered lotus seeds, hoping to get them established in a canal right next to our building. I figured growing conditions in South Florida would suit them very well. Well, to make a long story short, it doesn't. The seeds germinate and send out 3 or 4 leaves. Then, I throw them in the canal but they never take. What am I doing wrong? Could we discuss you sending me a full-grown lotus? Please D-mail me.
Thanks.
Sylvain.
I would gladly take some off your hands, also. What color are they?
Jeri
So there you have it, POshuster: Don't kill them off, sell them off.
Sylvain.
Which Lotus are they? I wish I had an answer. I don't, but I am about curious about variety hardiness. How deep is the pond? Koi will destroy lotus planted in a tub if its not protected. I have to wire tie plastic fencing over the top of the lotus tubs to keep the koi from rooting the roots right out. The lotus stems grow easily up through the 1" holes in the fencing but the koi can't get to the tubers to root them out. I have seen koi drag a tuber out of the mud and tow it around the pond. Boy was I thrilled. Most lotus do not like a salt concentration in the water over .01. Some lotus will not tolerate any salt. You could try this in a lined pond but definitly not a mud bottomed one. Good Luck!
Please, come on, help yourself!!! If you know a good way to dig them up and mail them, please let me know. I think they are the native lotus, Nelumbo ??? They have huge round, (not notched) water-repellent leaves and a gorgeous stalked ivory bloom. And, of course, the classic lotus seed pods which do germinate in the mud at the bottom of my pond, by the way. I was told that didn't happen. They are beautiful, but now I can't see the water! I am in Zone 5 or 6, about 30 miles NW of Louisville, KY in s. IN.
I just posted on your other thread. :)
Copied:
You didn't say if the blooms were pink or yellow but I'll take a stab that you have this one. http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=NELU or possibly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelumbo_nucifera
I do know it can be invasive and I don't know what to do once it escapes. I guess you will have to start digging them out. The same thing happened at Thoroughbred Daylilies. They made the best of that situation. LOL [HYPERLINK@johnricedaylilies.com] I have to say that it's beautiful in person! They just can't do much else with it.
Info on dividing them: http://www.bonniesplants.com/lotus/dividing_tubers/planting_lotus_tubers.htm
Now, let me see if I can find some hip waders and come help..........."will work for lotus". LOL
Just realized the links did not copy from the other post so I fixed them.
This message was edited Jan 13, 2007 2:29 PM
I would like some seeds or plants if you have them!
Lotus seeds need to be pricked to germinate because of the hard outer shell,thats the reason the seed has lasted so long in the pyramids or tumbs they found some in and germinated. Some will get pricked by nature though. Lotus multiply from the tubers running mainly. With a seed germination you do not know if you have a true plant variety if grown around other varieties because of possible cross pollination. Thats why it is looked down upon in the selling end of the field plus the controlled growing end. There are many sellers selling lotus and water lilies which are not true varieties. People who want true plants buy tubers. I think in your situation the only way to clear them out would be to herbicide them. I have known of them planted in a growing pond without a liner and they grew down 2 to 3 feet which made it impossible to pick the dormant tubers. Draining the water and letting them die off was the only other way to control them.They now grow in lined ponds.ooops loaded wrong picture .Water lily pond here but the Lotus are grown in similar pond now.
This message was edited Jan 12, 2007 9:44 PM
I would still be willling to buy a few tubers. However, I was at a chinese grocery store the other night with my master gardener instructor. We came upon fresh lotus roots. So I asked the obvious question: If I buy one of these and plant it in the canal's edge, will it grow? The answer, it seems, is a resounding YES.
How deep do you have to plant these things?
Also, on the seed germination, I have enjoyed great success with the germination part of the operation by using a file to wear down an area of the hard shell until a creamy white dot is exposed in the centre of the filed area. They float when dropped in water, then they sink to the bottom and finally, they germinate within a week.
I don't give up easily.
Sylvain.
Sylvain, this canal your talking about - will the lotus, if they do become established, threaten to spread into any open waterway? Forgive the question if, as a student in a Master Gardener class, that was something you were already well aware of. I envy you the ability to take those classes. I have to work on the only night they are ever offered here. For the last six years it has always been on a Tuesday night. I have a must attend meeting twice a month always on that @#%& Tuesday.
Thanks for everyone's input. The seeds I have have been left outside and are pretty soggy, but I'm willing to mail them. As for the tubers, even though it's 57 degrees outside (this freaky weather!!) I feel realy pouty when I think about slogging elbow and ass deep in cold mud. Maybe spring?? As for their true species, I can't be sure. The seeds were from someone in Ohio, I think. They are definately winter-hardy. I think I mentioned the flower as scented, ivory colored. I have pictures if I knew how to post them.
They look exactly like the USDA picture someone sent me which was Nelumbo lutea.
Anyway, if you all want seeds, D-mail me with your address and we'll experiment. Sylvain, your germination method was identical to mine except I put the nicked ones in jars till the water warmed up.
This pond is an old farm pond, very, very silted in and probably somewhat leaky. I let willows grow on the dam--what is it with me and invasives?? Anyway, I want to clean it out, but this is sinkhole country and I'm afraid I'll lose the whole pond. Anyone with any experience with ponds in karst country?
Pat
Pat, if you save the file on your computer, name it and remember the name and where it is on your computer.
When you post, just like you did above, you will see a box below your post that says browse. Click on browse, then find your file and select it. You can click preview before you send, to make sure you have the right picture, then hit send to post your message and photo.
Well, I tried. Along with being a plant idiot, I'm also a computer idiot. I went into iPhoto, selected the pictures into an Album, which was my only choice. It won't let me select it to send. I'll try to ask some people tonight if they know how, but Macs are not common there.
Pat
There is a computer forum here on DG. :) http://davesgarden.com/place/f/computer/all/
I know nothing about the Macs but I am sure someone on the Computer talk forum can help you.
You get smarter with every day and every question asked! Experience and mistakes are our best teachers.
I will try again.
YOU DID IT!
And WOW! That's a bunch of Lotus. LOL
I just realized the links above didn't copy right. I fixed those.
Oy Veh, Golda! Seeing all those lotus growing with such wild abandon kinda makes my head swoon.
The lotus would go into an irrigation canal that does not return to the Everglades or the sea. The neighbouring golf course once grew them about 100 feet from here so it's not like these canals have never seen such plants. I have checked with the extension and mentionning nelumbo nucifera didn't raise any red flags.
My master gardener courses were every Tuesday from 8:00 to 5:00 from the beginning of September to the very last Tuesday before Christmas. I had a great time there and learned an awful lot. Gardening in zone 10-b (in sand) is quite a departure from gardening in zone 5 (in blue clay). I loved my MG course and I am looking forward to being able to share my new knowledge with the community. It's so important to give back something to the community.
Sylvain.
Pcshuster, 10 seeds did that Wow!! I think it's pretty though. I thought nature would balance itself out you must have the perfect spot for lotus. Mine don't do nearly that well.
Jeri
I want to intententially start the N.lutea in my farm pond that is stocked with bass, crappie, and perch. I built the pond years ago to have a place for my grandchildren to fish. They are all grown up now and we all go else where to catch fish to eat. I aquired 100's of seeds from a pond near by. I took about 10 of the largest seeds and took them to my shop and using the bench grinder, ground a spot on them until it showed white. I then put them in my bubbler in the greenhouse, and guess what? they have all rooted.
John
If you're able to get some heavy equipment in there to dig out part of the pond to make it deeper you would have some clear water. The lotus can't takeover the deepest parts of the pond so you would have the best of both :~) They are quite beautiful in your picture but I can understand your need for water not taken over by the lotus.
Lana
Lotus are just beautiful. I saw some again yesterday in a botanical garden. The flowers are amazing but the vestiture on the leaves is also quite interesting.
Sylvain.
pcshuster I am in Louisville KY you should stop in and visit the place sometime I grow a lot of aquatics and odd tropicals and hardy tropical plants. I am just south of Louisville on Preston Hwy.
I would also be interested in a few of your lotus. But first how to deal with them. I am not completely sure how well this works as I have never had your problem but it maybe very helpful in your time of need. First you need a idiot I mean brave soul with a weedeater or a knife LOL. You need to cut off the unwanted plants slightly below the water. The larger the stems the better flowering stems are usually very thick. Once this is done you will see the stems bubbling this is actually drowning the plant. Now the next day or two you will see a whole lot of brand new leaves shoot up this is the plant in panic trying to get air it tries very hard to reach the surface so it only will take a few days and tons of new leaves will be up. So chop again you may have to do this a few times in a row. You will then see a dramatic decrease in lotus. You might be able to use a wire or something to cut the leaves faster using two people.
Bwilliams, are those lotus growing in soil? Oh, I have just got to get my hands on some ot those lotus! Look at those leaves! Take a gander at those blooms. Do you have a root or 2 for sale? It reminds me when I was in zone 5 and I grew petasites japonicus giganteum in a simulated bog in my back yard.
Sylvain.
This is in a bog lined with pond liner. Huge plant with giant leaves. I also grow Petasites 4 forms of it at the moment. Have yet to get it really really huge but have gotten some large leaves. I was lucky enough to keep Gunnera in the ground here. Should be interesting to see what it does this season.
Bwilliams, we are cut from the same cloth: large leave enthousiasts. My petasites reached 43 inches across in Montreal (zone 5). The artificial bog (pond liner and mostly clay and black earth) bog was self-watering and set for 45 gallons of water a day on days where it didn't rain. I have researched planting a gunnera. From what I found, it wouldn't have survived winter in Montreal and I wouldn't survive summer down there. Aren't we gardeners all the same, always wanting to grow something that is just plain wrong for our climate? I may simulate a bog again and try some of those lotus seeds that are somewhere around the house, if I can find them.
But a question remains. Would you be willing to part with a couple rhizomes? At what price? Oh, what projects are swirling around in that head of mine. Plus, we're leaving on a cruise on Saturday.
Take care,
Sylvain.
Hi, bwilliams--Wow, those are beautiful lotus! I thought my leaves were large...not even close! I'm in Louisville all the time so I'll definately stop by. Maybe if I start using your method in spring before they become so rampant...unfortunately, the idiot would just be me and me's a little lazy.
Pat
What is a petasite? I tried looking in the plant files under petasites japonicus giganteum and there were no results listed...........
Tetley, if you type Petasites in the Genus box, you should get ten listings. You can narrow it down more by putting japonicus in the species box. http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Petasites&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
They are awesome big leaves sure to get attention! I got my start from a fellow DG pal. They get a large strange artichoke flower in early spring. They do very well by a downspout in partial shade. LOL
OMG I can't even get 1 Lotus to grow!!! They are beautiful!!
You guy's can send a few here to NJ I would love to try them!!!
sue
Thank you so much for the help badseed. I do not know much about latin names so I just did a cut and paste of the whole thing in each catagory when I went to the plant files. Those leaves are huge! Would make quite a statement no matter where you put them.
No problem at all! Just remember to put the first part of the name in the Genus box and you'll be fine. :) If all else fails, google! LOL
LOL good luck diging those i just went and dug up some wild ones the rhyzomes are as thick as my arm . i just took one regards paul
heres a pic of the one i got today regards paul
That doesn't look like a lotus. :)
what is it then?
could it be a butter cup?
Here is a decent pic of a lotus leaf. http://www.wtv-zone.com/gufisufi/lotus%20leaf.jpg The stem comes up and attaches to the center of the leaf and the leaf has no slits. I'm thinking yours is some type of lily. Did you say it's a native plant? Does the root look more like a peeled potato or an iris rhizome?
I'm sorry. I've been gone most of the day and my brain did not come home with me. ;)
How big are the leaves? I meant to ask that.
i think this is what it is Nuphar spp - Yellow Waterlily, Cow Lily, Spatterdock has a iris type rhyzome and very big