Water lettuce help!

[27goldfish]

New to having this, actually got them today. They have long roots. Will these roots eventually sink downward to make the lettuce stand up correctly? Currently the roots are floating to. Or am I totally missing something?

 

[koiguy1969]

theyre fine..the roots are supposed to spread out some stay up, some down

 

[27goldfish]

Maybe I am too impatient. They have only been in there for 25 minutes, as of now. I was just curious because they are all floating on their sides

 

[fishin4cars]

Sounds like it may have some trapped ait in the roots, you can try lifting them up and doen a little to loosen any trapped air. they will settle on there own. they most likely will start off looking like they are dying. The leaves may get brown around the edges or may even get a little mushy. leave them alone as they go into shock just like fish. mine took about three weeks to start really growing and now I have literally hundreds. I'm already starting to remove some and throwing them out as I have gotten to many in the pond now.
question for you, did you order these? If so how did they pack them? I tried to ship some to a friend in Calif. and they didn't do good, took him three days to get them and they had turned completely to mush. Some of the other plants I sent him did ok but the lettuce did not. Thanks, and good luck.

 

[27goldfish]

They packed them in wet phone book pages and newspaper in a plastic bag. Shipping was approximately 3 days. Came from Florida to Indiana. All looks good. No mush or brown on them and they all seem to have at least 8" of roots. Hope that helps.

 

[fishin4cars]

Yes it does, thank you! I used paper towels to wrap the roots, maybe I'll have to try and ship him some more and wrap them in newspaper to see if I can get him a start. Much appreciated.

 

[taherrmann4]

Yes it does, thank you! I used paper towels to wrap the roots, maybe I'll have to try and ship him some more and wrap them in newspaper to see if I can get him a start. Much appreciated.:lol:

Fishin whenever I have recieved any pond plants from mail order they have always taken 2-3 days and were wrapped in wet newspaper then inside of a plastic bag, they have always done well.

Now I bought some water lettuce about 3 weeks ago from a local supplier and it has turned brown around the edeges and they don't sit upright in the pond always lean to one side. Hopefully mine will kick in here soon but the weather has been crappy, rainy and cool only a high of 52 yesterday and the average is 75.... So that might have something to do with it as well, we shall see.

 

[vertigo72]

They definitely dont like cold. I got some a few weeks ago and they all nearly withered away completely, going brown and all mushy. Now that the weather is warming a bit, they seem to recover. One is even spawning 3 new "plants". My water is around 15C (60F).

 

[Malak]

Yes, my water is 62 and the majority of the cress looks dead, but there are upshoots. Not sure if it's a last gasp for life or what. They should call it the Enigma plant! lol

 

[DrDave]

They are lopsided from shipping. They will eventually spread out and float right.

 

[27goldfish]

Thanks, they finally started floating right :twisted:

 

[DrDave]

Every winter I save about 100 water lettuce in the pond. If I am lucky, 5-10 are alive enough in the spring to start the new crop. I have already sold 120 this year and a lady is coming by today for 40 more.
These grow very rapidly and never present the problems that hyacinth does. I quit selling those last year. Too messy and when they start getting brown bulbs, the entire crop seems to wither away.
So if you get barely alive ones in the mail or your WL go brown because of a cold snap, be patient and they will come back.
You might even try building a floating greenhouse over them on cold days to protect them.