Lotus Plant too big and how to have many small of them ?

[CoryDorus]

Can anyone help to advise ?

The Lotus plant grows too fast. Right now it has reach the top water surface with Huge Leafs with each succeeding/emerging stem, after my last pic. [:0] Tank

How does it propagates to have smaller bunch of them ? I mean how to split it into 2 or 3 if I need to put in more tanks ?

[hwchoy]

look on the bright side, when it developes floating leaves, it will soon be flowering! If you want to split the plant, actually you can't, you have to wait for it to produce plantlets.

[Goondoo]

Liu from Teo's once advises me that if I want smaller leaves on lotus breeds, cut away all the bigger leaves leaving one or two. Repeat this process until smaller leaves are attained. Anyway, I notice most plants looks better after much pruning.

[spilopterus]

I got this weird problem, my lotus is actually barely surviving and I have no idea why. One already died, the other has two small leaves.

H.polysperma doing badly, but the tough to grow like MM, xmass moss, java fern all doing well. Funny ah...

[sherchoo]

I've did what Goondoo has described and it works like a charm for my Red tiger Lotus. I've grown them even in a 2ft tank and to make it remain small, I often remove taller and bigger leaves. The results were a shorter, bushy tiger lotus.

Spilop,
Try using Jobbes sticks if you have or any other fert spikes that you can get a hold on. It did wonders for mine.

[loupgarou]

the proper way to grow small lotuses is to stunt them.

method a: grow it with roots in a basket of gravel.
method b: grow it in a tank with no base fert.

go check out genX lotus and you'll see what I mean.

[learner]

Actually, I was keeping 2 plantlets of 4 colour lotus. I don have base fert and they were growing well but short. Think my 2x 36w PL lights in the middle was kepeing them down.

However, I did a blackout for 3 days and guess what? Within 3 days, the bigger leaves reached out and reached the surface of my 1.5ft tank!. And before that, I had it for at least 3-4 weeks but managed to keep it to 6 inches tall only.
Maybe you'll need a certain amount of light can keep it down too.

[wahboy]

hello gang,

you can grow your lotus in plain gravel without any ferts. this will keep them small without compromising colouration.

hope this helps.

wahboy

[hoppinghippo]

I believe there are 2 kinds of lotus arnd, one has a rhizome while the other doesn't? cuz I bought the rhizome kind from Teo. and for me, with base fert and 2X36W PL for a 2ft tank, my lotus grows really flat and spread out, no leave with tall stems at all! wonder if its due to the diff kind of lotus?

[hwchoy]

hoppinghippo, I also had the thin smooth leaved type with a rhizome from teo, this thing grows like a monster (see my tank in the gallery) and reaches to the surface, then it flowers.

Given that waterlilies (which is what the tiger lotus really is) grows in pond under direct sunlight, I don't think strong light will keep it down submersed. Certainly my 108W in a 80cm tank didn't have any such effect.

[CoryDorus]

No base fert in the tank. Add Sera tablets selectively like the Lotus.
Guess will need to starve it.

A pity if need to cut. We are talking about huge nice Vibrant Coloured leaves. How much further will they grow since they've reach the waterline ?

When can we see the plantlets normally ?

[:]

[Irn-Bru]

if i really want to cut a leave out, where is the best part of the leave stem for me to cut?

[vinz]

Irn-bru, cut at the bottom of the stem, as low as you can.

To keep lotus low, don't give it a rich substrate... you end up with huge but fewer leaves. Cut the leaves when they get too tall, but always leave at least one or two. Any new leaf that does not open completely by the time it's above the older ones, is likely a floating leaf. Cut that one immediately.

[hwchoy]

----------------
On 2/10/2003 10:00:59 AM
Any new leaf that does not open completely by the time it's above the older ones, is likely a floating leaf. Cut that one immediately.
----------------

only if you DON'T want flowers ! [:]

[CoryDorus]

Yeh. I like to see the Flowers. At least once ...