Unusual Lotus Question

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I am thinking about taking some extra liner I have, digging a hole, lining it, filling it with kitty litter and pond water and sticking a lotus tuber in it. It would be about 100 - 200 gallons. Would the lotus tuber easily break through the liner and cause leaks? Maybe I should use a stock tank or something else? I would just like to use liner since I have some extra pieces that would do the trick.

What are your thoughts?
 

DrCase

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I believe it. Would work just fine. I had a old pre form and turned it into a lotus pond this spring
 

addy1

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The roots just make huge circles, they are soft easily broken, so can't see anyway for them to break through a liner.
 
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Thanks again everyone! A couple more questions...

I plan on making it about 2'-3' deep and as big around as the piece of liner will allow (maybe 4'x4'). Is 2' to 3' feet good for a lotus?

Then I am thinking about dumping a bunch of kitty litter straight in. How much space should I leave between the top of the kitty litter and the top of the small pond? 12" maybe?

Then put the water in.

Kind of like this. Please let me know if this is a good plan, as I have not grown lotus before :)

Untitled.png
 

fishin4cars

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Liner works fine, Try and remove as many wrinkles as possible as the tips will get in the wrinkle and causes the growing tip to turn and sometimes gets lodged. This is where the blooms form so you want them to continue to grow. No need for 2-3' foot deep unless you plan on leaving it outdoors for the winter. Even then I doubt it will really help. I ran about 12" of media, and about 2" of water above the media. If at all possible some water flow is beneficial, Not absolutely needed but it does help. very small pump just to move a little water or a air stone helps to keep the water from becoming stagnant and becoming a mosquito breeding facility.
 

taherrmann4

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Pecan why not use the liner then individually place the lotus in pots with kitty litter, rather than filling the entire thing with litter. This would also make it easier for you to split and maintain the lotus and use less litter. You could get those pots with rope handles on them to make it easier for you to take them out.

I am using a whiskey barrel look a like pot, probably holds about 7-10 gallons. I put my lotus in an oil pan filled with kitty litter then just set the seed on top of the litter and let it do its thing. It has taken off quite well so far, will need to take a pic at some time, but I lost one leaf and that concerned me b/c the last few times I have tried this I would lose a leaf and that was a sign that things were going to get worse. However that was a few weeks ago and it has since began growing more leaves and spreading its growing tip. I have it about 6" under water to the top of the liter and use a small solar pump just to move the water around during the hottest part of the day. If you are going to grow them from seed there are instructions on how to do it. I was trying to start them off in a glass but always failed so this time I just dropped them in the pot that would be their new home. I just started another one yesterday so we shall see how well I do.
 

addy1

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Mine are in a stock tank, then in the rope handle buckets from walmart. In those tubs is kitty litter, the water is around 10 inches or so above the tubers. They so far have survived a mild winter. I keep air flow going, now have it interconnected with the large pond. This is the first time I have been able to see into the tub, have a nice flow going in and out of the pond, not too fast, maybe 60 gallons an hour, will need to fill a bucket and time it.
 
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I plan on leaving them out all winter. We are zone 7 and the lotus tubers I can get here are hardy so I think they should be fine. Thanks for the tips on the water level, depth etc. Now to find the right spot. :) I am thinking maybe in one of my higher maintenance flower beds to reduce the maintenance, not sure though.
 

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The main thing is you don't want the tubers to freeze in the winter.
 
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Todd I'd love to see your pics. And, I have some seeds, did you just score then and then put them into the kitty litter, about 2-6" down and besides the solar pump, leave them go? I could do that! I bought some tubers, all had leaves, all died except one, so not too happy about that. But, I also got seeds, I think 10 of them, of a yellow lotus, so I may just put them into the pots I had the others in (still waiting and was hopeful maybe they would come back to life but nothing so far ...). How do you keep the seeds down, or are they heavy enough to stay on the soil? Did you push them a little into the litter, or just lay them on top and let them find their own way into the litter? Interesting!
Good luck, Pecan! I'll want to see pics and hear all about yours, too, and how you keep it from freezing that deep, etc. in the winter.
 

taherrmann4

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CE I just scored them with a hacksaw, all the way around then I took a small screw driver put it in the cut and twisted. I put my hacksaw in the vise upside down to hold and I take the seed between my fingers and move it up and down the saw while at the same time using my fingers to go along the side of the blade to keep it stable and on the same cut. I go all the way around the seed, only takes me a few minutes on each seed now that I have the hang of it. Once I get the end piece off (just the outer shell) I dropped them in the oil pan with kitty litter and let them go, did not push them into the litter or anything. All my seeds sank to the bottom, nothing I had to do to hold them down.

Here are some older pics of some I tried last year but you can see the seed and the piece missing. You can also see it starting to grow. The one seed I took the whole outer shell off.
P1020969.JPG

This is the one I just started about two weeks ago. It is in a 10 gallon (guessing) whiskey barrel type pot and has an oil pan filled with kitty litter and sits on the bottom. This was taken last weekend and it is now a little bit bigger. You will also see a small lily that I dropped in there and it has taken off. I will have to transplant it here in a few weeks. With my bad luck with getting lotus to start I figured this was my backup and go figure both are doing great. Oh well. I will take a more recent pic in the next few days. I just started another one too in another pot, but this one won't have a solar pump at least yet. I found that the pump does just enough to keep the water moving and it is crystal clear.
P1040061.JPG
 
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Neat pics, Todd. I think I will try that, and the solar pump sounds like the way to go, just enough to keep the water from going stagnant. The water in my pots the lotus were supposed to be growing in are all green. I've changed it out several times (about once a week) down to about the bottom 2-3" and it stays green. Not sure if that's good or bad. No mosquitos in there, though.
BTW, speaking of mosquitos, I see all these little wiggly things in my filter, on rocks. The best way to describe them is an inch worm. They move like an inch worm, and are between 1/4 and 1/2" long. Do you know what they might be?
 

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