Hardy water lily help

[Douglas]

Hello Eveyone!

Recently I think I need some insight on what is happening to me hardy water lily.

This year I transplanted my hardy water lily into a bigger pot. And it was growing wonderfully as the warmer days rose.
It bloomed in May and after blooming one flower it died back down and shot out small green submerged leaves. It has been like this for 2 weeks now. Water ranges from low 70s at night to mid 80s peak afternoon.

I'm assuming it is low in nutrients.
What do you think could be the problem?

 

[mrsclem]

Hi Douglas, it could be that since you repotted it its putting all its energy into growing the roots. Did you put any fertilizer in when you repotted?

 

[Mmathis]

Agree with @mrsclem. Water lilies don’t need a whole lot of room, so my guess is when you potted it in a larger pot, it has been stimulated to fill the pot with roots and to put it’s resources to making more leaves.

 

[Douglas]

@mrsclem @Mmathis I did add some osmocote fertilizer but now I feel like I didnt add enough. I remeber just sprinkling it in the soil. I was afraid of nutrients leaching into the water column causing bad algae growth.

It was just so wierd how after repotting, it was growing then died back.

 

[mrsclem]

By just sprinkling it, more likely to leach into the water.I use the tablets that take time to break down. Others use Osmocote wrapped in paper. What type of soil did you use?

 

[GBBUDD]

remeber just sprinkling it in the soil.

That is probably the problem . the fertilizer is right up against the roots thus over fertilizing . from what i have seen and heard you want the fertilizer separated from the roots the water will dissolve the fertilizer slowly thus feeding the plant.

 

[Douglas]

@mrsclem when I reported I sprinkled it with the topsoil from the garden. If not enough nutrients u have some gel capsules I am thinking about using.

@GBBUDD at this point I'm just been waiting to see what happens next if overfertilized.

 

[Douglas]

This is what it looks like since two weeks. Many small submerged green leaves but nothing floating.

 

[Mmathis]

How much sunlight does it get, and how deep is it?

 

[mrsclem]

It looks like the crown may be planted too deep.

 

[Douglas]

It's about a foot and half below the water line.
If its planted to deep why was it growing fine before?

 

[mrsclem]

Not water depth, the growing tip of the plant needs to be at top of soil level.

 

[HARO]

I've seen this several times over the years. Your plant is probably too deep IN THE WATER! Raise it up with bricks or an overturned pot so that there is no more than about 6" of water over the soil. It will probably recover shortly, and you can then lower it a few inches at a time until it's sitting on the bottom again.
John

 

[Douglas]

@Mmathis it gets roughly 7 hours of sunlight from sunrise till 2 pm then it shades for the rest.

@mrsclem when I planted it the tip was at the soil top but I topped pea gravel ontop of that. About 1 inch pea gravel.

@HARO it may benefit if indo that. Thanks

 

[mrsclem]

I would try to remove the gravel from the growing tip and move the plant up as was suggested.