I've been seeing no-hole pots for sale on various wesites. Currently, i'm using a square pot with net-like holes, sold at lowes, for all my aquatic plants, including my water lilies. Is this OK?. I am also using plane kitty litter for all the potting medium. I had used a commercial one gallon pot for the water lily without problems. I have two goldfish in the small water feature made with an oval livestock watering trough. There is no filter, but there is a recirculating pump and water spitter. So far, the plant has done well and the roots have grown out of the pot's holes. I want to start another Water lily in another waterfeature and want to make sure I'm using the proper pot and medium. Thanks in advance. STU
Pots and Soil for water lilies?
I've used both types of pots for water lilys. It doesn't seem to make any difference, except the solid wall pots help to contain any fertilizer you might use to the plant roots instead of leaching out into the pond water. Otherwise, plant growth is the same. Lotus are typically grown in a round solid wall tub. Plain kitty litter is a perfect potting medium for all aquatic plants that I can think of. When the lily tuber begins pushing the sides of the pot out or the leaves start standing above the water's surface instead of floating on the surface it's time to repot. In a warm (lucky you!) zone like yours that might be a bit more frequent chore than for us frozen northerners.
Your best advice will probably come from MerryMary and a couple of others who water garden in Zone 9. I expect they will be along shortly.
This message was edited Feb 11, 2008 7:01 PM
Snapple....Hope you're having a great day!
FLStu....I have used just about everything for my water lilies, and it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference. Snapple is correct, the plain Kitty Litter (I use the cheap stuff from WalMart because it's all clay and has no additives) seems to work the best.
I've purchased black colanders from the dollar store, lined them with black mesh fabric, filled them with kitty litter and planted the lily. Slowly sink it into the water.
I've also planted water lilies in black aquarium gravel in small black wastepaper cans (again found at the dollar store) to see if it would make a difference. Nope, same blooms, same everything.
I tried charcoal for aquariums, it too worked.
SO, after assorted experimental mediums, and assorted costs....back to good old kitty litter and any old way to keep in contained. With 2 goldfish, you'll have just enough free fertilizer for the lilies, so the main concern will be to give them as much sun as possible.
If you switch to koi, they are the grand puba's of rummaging, and then you will have to put a layer of rock on top of everything you plant. I use the 3 inch rounded black river stones from Lowes, so they don't show as much, and don't change the water PH.
:)
MerryMary & Snapple45........ Exactly where I got the litter. I also had purchased three (one died withing the firwst week) feeder goldfish from Walmart in the spring. Boy have they grown. It's in full sun, so that's not a problem. I'm actually now looking for a dwarf water lily to go in the newer feature on the lanai. I like the one I have in the front and it does really well, but I want a smaller one for the lanai. Thanks to both of you for your advice
My favorite container for water lillies are hanging planters (the kind with the handles that stay rigid). I try to get the larger ones. Once i sink them in my pond, the top of the handle is just below water level. This accomplishes two things: (1) It helps me monitor the water level because if I see the handle, then the pond needs more water; and (2) It makes it real easy to pull the lilies out when I need to separate or fertilize them!
jo
I have use all of the above and thanks to my koi, my llillies are now in the bottom of the pond, (the koi like to root around in the gravel and in doing so they dumped the pots, the pond is too deep to retrieve the plants,) So I v'e let them grow in the bottom of the pond, and this last 3 years, I had as many as 12 blooms at one time the plants are growing like crazy. And over the last 2 years they have produced larger and larger blooms.
For water lilies I use pots with holes in them. I use regular nursery 1 or 2 gallon pots and put newspaper in the bottom to cover the holes. I think sandy clay based soil works the best. The newspaper holds the soil in untill the roots have time to take over. I seperate my rhyzomes at the start of the growing season each spring by cutting sections off that have growing tips and replanting. I have sometimes gotten as many as 10 new plants off one tuber that grew during the previous season. Growing in 1 gallon pots seems to trick the plant into forming new growing points or tips. I learned this from a commercial grower I buy from. I now have my own internet plant site. I fertilize regularly also during the growing season. I always put pond tabs in when I repot each year. 1 or 2 months into the season I will seperate my plants I sell to have more to sell.
Lotus tubers should be grown in no hole pots because of the way the tubers run. If grown in pots with holes they can run wild in your pond and take over alot of area. They also like sandy clay soil or top soil. They will start to run when the water temperture reaches above 70 f.. Lotus pot shown here. TomSG
