vivap waterlily propagation, NEW THREAD

your opinion has good science to back it up. LOL the kitty litter allows for better oxygen flow. that's always better for plants. : )

When I first used it, I could feel it soooo soft and when I looked the tubers were racing out all over the place and putting out roots all over. I sat empty pots all under the piles of roots and there will start another plant for this winters deviding tubers. You got to devide while they are dormant if you plant to do that. It's easier to move them around from the kitty litter. The clay is heavier and sorta packs around them so you have to DIG in the clay to find the roots and stuff.

One of my lotus was doing that and starting out slow (Lav Lady) and once I put a fertilizer tab in, it started growing nice and green and putting out more pads.

On the vivap: I have a nice little plant that I propagated and one that propagated itself. There are 2 more starting naturally so I dont think I will have to vivap any more on that plant since the Panama Pacific is making its own now lol.

okay, it's good to know that the experts experience this, too! : ) i just took a gamble and put in a fertilizer tab this morning, since it really looked like a nutrient deficiency. i put it close to the roots of the new growth on the new shoot. i'll monitor it and update as needed.

my vivaps are growing slowly but surely - new roots and new pads. i plucked off a leaf and put it in one of the translucent barrels that i used to catch runoff. the water is very warmer! this might be my new vivap growing area. first, i want to test the water and make sure it's okay since it is runoff from the evap cooler.

we should all do a vivap trade at some point.

That would be great to have the trade, but you remember,I cooked mine?!?!? Poor baby, flower sent me another one she had, and I might say she did a good job on it because Baby girl Tina is doing well at this time. I would like to try the green smoke at some point but don't want to cook it either.

tusconplumeriaz,
This is a little OT but since your thing is plumeria I wanted to ask you if you know which one this is? It has white flowers with a small yellow center. They have a flowery citrus scent. The flower is about 4 inches. The leaves do fall of in the winter.


I would love to trade vivaps sometime, maybe this fall when it cools off?

Angel, does that flower smell like gardenias? If it does I have some of it, I just got for flowerehj. I have the name somewhere on a list.

no not really like gardenia more like a light floral but with citrus mixed in.

The ones I have aren't blooming yet but the lady that sent them to me said mine was suppose to smell like gardenias. They may not be the same. Sorry.

tusconplumeriaz,
I think you're starving your lotus and the fertilizer should help it. I have mine planted in a 19" pot with 3"-4" of fresh horse manure, covered with a 4"-6" layer of composted horse manure, and topped with 1" of Special Kitty litter. I don't need any additional fertilizer for the growing season. Here's a picture of one of my lotus' started from a seed a little over a month ago.
Rick

angel - i am not sure which plumeria you have. that is a common flower color. i would just enjoy it as a noid. : )

wow rick! i didn't know that was possible. how the heck did your water look initially? i have added another fertilizer tab. let's hope it's not too late.

thanks you guys for your help!

The water has always been pretty clear. I filled the pot up to the clay (litter) with water slowly so as not to disturb the clay, let it soak up, filled up to the clay again, let it soak, then filled the pot to the top with water. It has about 10" of water over the clay. The clay serves as a barrier to separate the compost from the water. I do have an interesting side effect, my pot makes bubbles, probably from methane gas from the horse poop.

This is a picture taken on 6/5, you can see the seed being held down by a stone. The other pic was taken 2 days ago, so that was 23 days of growth.
Rick

happy and safe 4th of july to you all!

YOU too, Tucson. Hope you have a great one. BIG 4th hugg.

Same to you both!

By the way, my biggest Tina baby died because I messed up. It had toppled over in the pond and the soil was everywhere. I took it out of the pond to repot it, but I forgot it a while in the hot FL sun. The leaves were all crimpled. I put it back in water as soon as I realized it, but the stems had suffered so much damage that some of my pond critters were able to cut them very easily. It lost all but 1 of its leaves that way and is now really suffering. It's acting like my stumped waterlily. Some of them just don't take off, and my biggest one is doing the same thing now. boohoo. I tried so hard to get that one to grow! Well, more babies on the way!
Froukje

Hey are you all newbies? We're having an unscramble on the seed trading forum to win a plant. Come on over. You unscramble the letters and if you do , you win the plant that was donated.Hurry. It's going on now. Oh, flower, did your flowers come today? Everyone elses I sent that same day did.

sorry, to hear about that flower. yeah, more to come...

Just checking in before going back to Chatooga river for cookout. Sorry about your Tina, flower. Hope she gets better fast. There is going to be a new scramble tonight at 6:00pm. Cue_chik is hosting because arejay is going on vacation. So come on over. I'll be back by then, I hope. Happy 4th and talk later.

FLOWER, My green smoke BLOOMED today! I went out to check on the pond and there was a bloom. Since I put the canopy over the pond there is a shadow over it so the picture isn't great, but in real sight it is. And a big bloom.

that looks nice mekos!

i found the perfect incubator for starting vivaps. it is a water collection barrel that's transulent and sits in the sun for part of the day. the air above the water is warm and humid and the water itself stays warm.

now i have to figure out how to extract them from the barrel. LOL

Maybe cut a plastic juice jug and put the clay in the jug and sit in the barrel and when it's ready, just lift the jug out and add another. You can get clear plastic jugs at the grocery store and when empth rinse and cut. Would that work?

OR a milk jug, cut in half.

i would have to cut the lid off of the barrel first. right now it just has the two small openings that made when the barrels are formed. i roll the lily pad to insert it in the barrel. i'll post pics soon...

here is my vivap incubator (center barrel). originally, i was putting the pad in the uncut barrels. the air can get very water and air inside get hot! however, the air is humid and that's a plus for me since the vivap initially start growing above the pad and are subject to the hot, dry air that we have here. it is hard to extract the vivaps once they are ready to be transferred to the shallow mini pond. therefore, cut the top off of one of them and placed some fabric over the container to keep in the humidity.

Tucson, I know this is going to sound stupid but I have thought about this for a long time, How do they get light in those barrels? With the tops covered it seems to me it would be dark in there and I thought they needed light to develope faster. How is it doing any way? Thought you may have more to show by now. Is it working?

it's totally working very well mekos. the barrels and canvas material are translucent, so sunlight filters through them to the inside.

That is great! I couldn't imagine how light would get in there. So is this going to help with your hot temperature to allow them to grow with out getting too hot? I got a couple DOUBLE Egyptian Sacred water lotus if you want to try one and see if it will grow for you. They almost always bloom a big beautiful pink and you can keep them in a container. They won't get too big for it. I think they are dwarf. I was gonna send one to flower, too when she gets back, so let me know if you want to try one. I have put 2 in a bowl to sprout. They are swolen and looking good so far. Should sprout in a few days. Send me your address if you want to try one. I'd be happy to share with you. Then when Flower gets back, maybe we can all show our progress.

hi mekos,

the water does get very warm. however, that was not the problem. the pads would get scorched by the light once they grew to the surface and the sun would scorch them outside since the vivap grows on top of the new pad. all that is not a problem now because the air is humid in the barrel since it is covered.

thanks for the offer but i will have to pass as the stage in the season. plus, our air is too dry for lotus leaves to grow above the surface of the water. they would be fine if they just stayed on the surface. do you know of any lotus leaves that just float on the surface of the water. that's what i need.

Na, sorry , mine go above the top of water. When they bloom, it's above water too.

i think i have seen lotus pads that just sit on the water. i don't know what variety it is though and i don't know if they is a dwarf version. i will have to check out in the internet.

As soon as I get a chance, I have a web site where you can buy seeds and they may have some like that, I'll go check. Let you know as soon as I find them.

it's been a long time (2-3 mos) coming but one of my vavaps is pushing out it's first bud. woo hoo!

SO good! I can't believe it. Bloom this soon. WOW, you did good. Do you know if green smoke can be done that way? If it can, I'll send you a couple pads. They are HUGE pads. Bigger than the lotus pads. I'm so happy for you, you will have to send pictures when it opens. Congratulations.

hi mekos,

things will be slowing down here shortly so i haven't been starting any more vivaps. i just transferred a couple from the incubator and hope that they will get established before the cold weather moves in. i have no idea how to store the tropical lilies for winter. i guess i should look that info up.

i don't know if green smoke vivaps or not. i remember there was that list of lilies that vivap. have you ever seen any nubs of GM?

dete

NO, but it's in the pond. It blooms every day with several blooms at once and sometimes just one, but everyday there is a bloom. It is beautiful. I ordered some BLUE egyption sacred lotus seeds but haven't got them yet. The hardy lilies are good to cut green off of and store in fridge for winter, but I leave mine in the pond, as long as it doesnt freeze the whole pond solid, it is fine. Our winters aren't that cold so I just put in the deeper part of the pond. I'm guessing the tropical can stay also in the deep part, and spring bring up to the lower end. I'll have to find out before winter.

the water gets too cold here for my tropicals. i have lost a some lilies that way. if anything, i'll just bring them inside and they can rest in a shallow tank or something. let me know what you find out.

OK

I posted a thread to get help for you in Arizona to find out how to over winter tropical water lilies. Will let you know what I find out.

Someone came on and said you have to over-winter the same as me.( For zone 7.)
That means you got to keep her at 60 degrees. You would have to bring it in and keep in a cool room so it won't try to grow over the winter(if it gets above 60 ,it will try to grow and can cause real harm if it doesn't go dormant, to get extra nutrician during winter for the coming spring season.) Some places said to cut the pads off and store it in wet sand at 60deg. in a plastic bag, others said not to. Really don't know yet. But someone from Arizona said if you had a garage just put it there, in the container.

Hey guys,
I've been away a long time. Still love hearing all the stuff you're writing.... I'm moving this coming week, starting as a full time student again and starting my new position as a teacher. Also, my stepdaughter's mother died and she needs her father and I for some major emotional support. Hectic, hectic, hectic! My Tina is doing well, blooming most all the time still, and the babies have been traded for, so I don't have any of my own to see if they might bloom soon... Good job! I haven't been home in like a month, so the garden looks like a mess. The great thing is that the pond will never look weed ridden even if I haven't attended it in a while. Tadpoles are in there by the thousands, and new eggs are laid all the time. Boy, it's a crazy busy pond I have! I'm excited to hear about your green smoke and the seeds you ordered, mekos, I don't think it can be vivip'd, though. I have some baby Tinas I'm working on outside, but they aren't doing all that great. Maybe I should go back to the light. But then, when I'm away (it's on a timer) the water evaporates and that's no good. I'll be checking in once in a while :-) when I can get a moment between classes or weekends or whatever.
Froukje
P.S. Mekos- haven't had time for your seeds yet, but the wl you sent is doing great and blooming right now in my pond, the plumeria is growing like weeds and I am hoping to see blooms on them soon! I enjoy them tremendously!