Repotting water lilies mid-season?

[michey1st]

I received some water lilies last year and did a half-arsed job of potting them up. I'd like to get them into the oilpans with kitty litter I read so much about (and give them honest-to-goodness fertilizer), but they are actively growing and some are even flowering. Is it bad to do that now? I want to get it out of the way now (especially now that the water is warm), but I don't want to risk killing them. I don't mind if they will be set back a bit by messing with them as I think they will be happier in the long run, but don't want to do something that may be detrimental.

What has your experience been?

 

[adavisus]

No problem, sliding them out intact and moving to a larger pot, its called 'potting on'

Trim off all fading foliage to encourage a new set of pristine pads

Wait till the weather is coolish, cloudy, so there is less stress to the roots and shoots when they are exposed. After dark, or light rain would be good timing

Regards, andy
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/

 

[dieselplower]

Can anyone comment on what happens if you cut the tubber while splitting them mid season? I know almost nothing about water plants.

 

[j.w]

@dieselplower as long as there is an eye or so of sprouting coming from the cut tubers they will grow but will be slower in putting up growth. It will just take time for them to get going but they won't die unless no sprouts on that piece of tuber. Then the next season if you don't mess w/ cutting them they will grow and spread more and so on till you need to divide them and give them away. In a few years you will have more than you know what to do with. I'm trying them w/o soil for the first time this year. We shall see how that goes.

 

[adavisus]

If you can divide the rhisome with plenty of intact roots it should transplant fine

If you end up ripping off, or hacking all the roots short it can set the plant back considerably, taking weeks for new roots to form, weeks for a new cycle of pads to start, then weeks for buds to form

Tropical waterlilies in particular can go into considerable plant shock and die back completely, wrecking the chance of blooms or tubers forming if a bad hack job is done on their roots

Regards, andy
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/