Help lily shipment arrived

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Hello all,
I received 4 water lillies yesterday. they were wrapped in wet paper towel and in a plastic bag. Since I know Saturday may be the soonest I can plant them I put them in a clear class vase with water, covering only the corm. This morning the leaves are shriveling. Any thoughts on what I shoud do or what I should do differently. I also have them where they will get the most sunlight.
Thanks for all your help!
 

addy1

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you might want to pull them out of the sun
let them get over the shipping
I kept mine cool and out of direct sun until I got them outside
 

j.w

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And cover even the leaf pads w/ water. When they go into your pond they will be under water also and will grow and reach for the top :regular_waving_emot
 
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Thanks for the advice, yes indeed, the leaves under the water were fine. I will be planting them tomorrow, so all should be well. Any tips on planting? I was thinking of doing them in stockings with pea gravel and dropping them in the pond, I do not have a soil or rock bottom and I am not sure how many of the pond baskets I have left, and I am too cheap to buy more.
 

addy1

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Get some cheap oil pans from walmart 2. dollars or so the pans work great. Lilies do fine in a shallow pan
and use cheap kitty litter pure clay at walmart, red bag, around 2 bucks or so
or just do as your are saying lol

I also put a little osomocote in the bottom of the pan, but I do not have koi in my pond.

I have some in pea gravel too koiguy, but have very little fish, so giving them a little more to grow in with the clay
 

koiguy1969

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i use oil change pans myself and peagravel, oil change pans are $1.79 at Meijers ...but just go to the dollarstore...lots of containers to choose from...
 
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Ah, great ideas! Walmart, here I come. I do have koi, will the kitty litter be a bad thing? I am sure I can also get pea gravel at the big W. Also, I have read conflicting advice on fertilizing lillies, as my pond is in full sun I do not think it is a good idea to use it. I do not want to encourage more algae growth by using it.
 

addy1

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They put the pure clay in koi ponds to help with their koi. So no not bad
I don't have many fish mousems 5 in 10000 plug gallons so plants need a little food lol

get the red bag from walmart, I paid around 2.79 for 25 lbs it is the cheapest and pure clay
 
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My personal opinion is never to use plant fertilizer in the pond even for lilies. Just don't like adding chemicals to the pond. But I am sure it is safe. Deinitely use the 100% pure clay cat litter to pot them. Great for the pond and does a good job of holding the lillies in place.
 

addy1

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So far the pond and few fish have done fine rsfish, but yeah I have added very little plant food. Need more fish to feed the plants, lol
 
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Trust me, I have plenty of fish by-products to feed the plants. LOL That's why it takes 2 of us to pull out some of the pots from year to year. It amazes me how I divide each year and then haul out a 40 pound pot of plants and roots again the next.
 

addy1

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Yeah once they get established, my lilies are babies, the pond is new, the fish are babies, now by the end of this summer I am sure all will be different.
 

koiguy1969

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if you choose to go with clay...bentonite or zeolite clay is the clay to look for. clay means feeding tho..and in peagravel they will feed from your water removing nutrients...further filtering your pond
 

fishin4cars

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cat litter- MAKE SURE IT IS 100% clay, no additives. Don't use clumping type or smell eliminator types! Clay is VERY beneficial to all types of of carp, Koi and Goldfish

osmocote- BAD IDEA! It's a slow release fertilizer than can increase your nitrogen
significantly over time, It also is not in the range of what your lilies need.

Oil tubs- great idea, low sides large bottom. perfect for growing large lilies! ONLY use new un-used ones or ones that have only been used for pond use. ALWAYS rinse any product no matter what it is off before placing in pond! Even new products can have contaiminates, I learned this lesson years ago! May have been air freashner, bug spray, or someting else but I placed a planter in a small water garden tub that had been sitting outside on my work table. Forgot to rinse it, withing two hours all my fish had died.

pea gravel as a soil substitute. Not good, no way for the lily to get good root growth. Bottom half should be filled with a WATER planting substrate or (KITTY LITTER), If available river sand does VERY WELL. pea gravel on top, great for goldfish, sucks for Koi! Koi love to get it out a swim around with it before spitting it out. Your pot's will be 75% empty by summers end. use large gravel on the top if your koi are over 6" this will stop them from removing the rock and stop most digging.

fertilizer in ponds- I use Highland rims Aquatic Plant fertilizer, On tablet per lily per month during the entire growing season. I have 7 lilies in the pond. All bloom and last year no green water although I did start using a UV light at the rate of 1 watt per 100 gallons. You do not want to use ANY fertilizer in ANY pond plants that are not designed for ponds Period, They are made to be safe for fish, Non-aquatic fertilizers are not designed to be fish safe, If you can't use aquatic fert. tabs don't use anything except cat litter. the lilies will grow from the nitrates that are produced in the pond, they won't bloom as well, but they will grow and should bloom some.
 

fishin4cars

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koiguy1969 said:
if you choose to go with clay...bentonite or zeolite clay is the clay to look for. clay means feeding tho..and in peagravel they will feed from your water removing nutrients...further filtering your pond

Yes! I was looking back into some notes for that bit of info! I knew it was a special type that was best to use but couldn't find that! THANKS!
 

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