Just thought i'd let you all see how its doing after Phicks has helped my get it this far.
I'm not sure its as healthy as it could be but i think more sun would help.
Thanks again
Mike
Phicks thanks from my Nelumbo
looks ok mike your right more sun or a plant light what do you feed it?
I fed it phostrogen but nothing changed. It has got better since i planted it in the pot.
I have a problem with the plant light though ... its either warm or better lit. Where it is now its in a south facing window and its in the utility room at about 20oC + . If i move it to where my strip lights are i can't get it as warm. Its getting warmer and lighter everyday now so you never know!
I'll give it some more food in a minute and see what happens. Its hard to know how much as i do water changes quite often to stop it going cloudy and green. The air pipe helps with that though.
try useing Jobe s fertilizer spikes just use a half one push it down in to the roots its all ive ever used or theres mircle grow spikes to
Hehehe Never heard of Jobe wasn't he out of the bible?
Thats a good idea about using the spikes though as its a slow release i won't be washing down the plug hole.
Will have to get my misses to do it though was rolling around laughing when i bought the vase as i can't get my arm in the jar and she can nearly fit both of hers in.
Are they heavy feeders? Some of the other moisture lovers i have seem to be so it would make sense if they are.
They also have large tablets of fertilizer for water plants. I just one or two around the pot. Mine are in my pond so I use a long PVC water pipe to do the polking.
They are heavy feeders ive seen tubers that go 5 or six pound
I think i saw some water lilly feeding stuff at my aquatics shop. Probably that would work. ??!!
I'll give it a go.
I can't believe they are so rare here.... There great!
Amazing container you have that lotus in. I love it but with all that light getting in you must have a time keeping the algae under control.
Its a flower vase i bought for 3 quid from work. I don't seem to have an algae problem but i change the water regular and clean the insides as much as possible.
I might now i've started feeding it more though as algae loves plant food.
Mike
hmmm...thinking here a little pleco would maybe survive in there? Or would the fertilizer kill him?
I have 5 plecos in my aquarium, and they keep the algae in check, have even put them in the pond....and they are fun to watch!!
This message was edited Feb 4, 2007 1:14 PM
I was on the water garden thread and they put peroxide in their ponds and say it doesn't hurt the plants or fish but stops the algae.
Pleco grow huge. lol We had some at work they grew huge with big spines on there fins! Like Jaws of the fish world.
Just dies the goldfishes hair blonde! lol
lol...mine don't get very big...I think they grow according to the size of their environment.
I used to get little plecos and let them grow and get fat on the algae in my pond. When they reached about 6" or more I would sell them back to the pet store or trade them for food and fertilizer.
Ours where about 12inches long... Monsters!
Anyway where did this algae thing come from? I've never had a problem ... maybe you guys get more algae with all your sun!
Thats me moaning about the lack of sun by the way. hehe
Had never heard of this plant, so just googled it .... Beautiful! Makes me want a water garden so I could grow one!
Mike ive had Pleco that was 2 feet some will grow 4 feet or better in there native habbt and depending what kind it is the natives eat theam
Plantladylin, I have one sort of set up like Mike's in a pot within a larger container. It sits on my deck and I have a couple of tiny goldfish in there to keep the mosquitos at bay. It is dormant right now so all you see are the fish.
Ardesia: That sounds so neat. Can you post a photo of your set-up? Do you have some kind of pump going to keep the water circulating? Or is that necessary with fish?
No pictures of this one yet. Until recently I could not have any type of water feature in this house due to the raccoons. They tore up everything I tried, pulled pumps out of the water and all. About a year ago we got a dog and the scent of him seems to keep the raccoons away so I am trying water gardens again. I had many water features, including lotus pots, in my previous home. I set this one up in mid summer with a young and very small offset from a friend's plant. and we only had leaves, no flowers, for a few months; it went dormant around Christmas time.
Essentially it is one of those large ceramic pots with the drainage hole plugged. There is a product called UGH plug stop available at Lowe's that works wonders for this. The lotus is planted in a wide, flat pot (they do not need much soil at all) and this container is set within the larger pot. Fill the big pot with water, condition it if necessary, and add the fish. If you shade the surface of the water with some type of floating plant until the lotus gets going you will not have any problems with algae. I'll try and post a photo of the big pot tomorrow. I have never needed a pump or filter in any of my container water gardens and it gets very hot here in the summer. If you have a good balance of plants and fish you would not need one. Actually lotus prefer still water I believe.
If you are going to try this do it asap. Lotus have very tender shoots so you would want to plant the tuber while it is still dormant.
Where can I find the "Water" Plants? Does Lowes carry these? I don't ever remember seeing water plants there, but I've never thought about a water garden, so wouldn't have looked.
You might try the water gardening or plant trading forums here first. Water plants multiply faster than rabbits and there are probably plenty of people ready to trade some.
Thanks Ardesia!
Growing them from seed is easy (so far anyway!)
and really rewarding.
The pot thing is what i'll be doing. Sounds great.
Mike
In the middle of the night I remembered you really do not need to do the double pot thing. I have always done that because I switch my plants around and showcase whichever looks best at the time. I used to keep a child's wading pool, hidden out of view, where some water plants went for R & R until they looked special again.
You can really just plant a lotus in a tiny bit of soil (NEVER use potting mix) in the bottom of a good sized container.
Good luck, this is easy and fun.