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lotus seeds

by klaus.schoening/jungle.org (Segeberger)
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999

 I have tried this before so I know it works.  Go to a craft store and
buy the decorative lotus pods they sell.  Remove some of the seeds and
score the rounder end with sandpaper.  Plop into water and after a few
days the seed should sprout.  I don't know if that is what you asked,
but you can get lotus plants for your pond that way, so it may be of
some interest to some folks on this list.

- -> Robert,
- -> Where did you get your lotus seed?  I'd sure like to get some and 
- -> give it a try! TTYL, DL

s.

RE: Tiger Lotus Bulbs

by boukmn/mindspring.com
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999

Love 'em! Fast growing (under C02). Place the bulbs an organic substrate or
place in a pot w/ lightly fertilized potting soil topped w/ gravel. It
shoots from "eyes" like a potato so keep them free of hair algae. Leaves
are 4 times as large w/ CO2 than w/o CO2. Give it LOTS of light (2) 40W GTE
daylights over a 20gal long in my case. I have great success transferring
the strong, large plants to a pot w/ a fertilizer implanted red clay ball.
When I want the best out of them, I set two up in their own dedicated ten gal.
under CO2 to keep them closer to the lights. I have yet to see a photo on
the net that beats MY lotuses.

Positive Points:

1.	It's gorgeous! NOTHING competes with this plant in 	terms of appearance!

2.	Once it gets going, it grows FAST! (Under C02) 

3.	Easy to propagate by removing adult plants from the 	bulb and replanting
each separately.

	Negative Points:

1.	Surface leaves: w/o strong light its new leaves make a 	B-line for the
surface where they spread out like real 	"lily" pads and block light to
nearby (and no so 	nearby plants).

2.	It grows Wide so consider a large tank (55 or <).

Tiger Lotus

by krandall/world.std.com
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999

>Mine always do the bolt for the surface no matter how much I trim them
>back.  They have also infested about 1/2 of my 90 gallon tank.  I got them
>because I wanted a red plant with nice leaves like the pictures. 
>
>The tank has no CO2 and 330 watts light in standard 90 gallon tank
>(48X18X24 tall).  Is this to little light to get the none lily pad leaves?
>I really like the plant and it has spread like crazy, but it takes only a
>few days to recover most of the tank surface after a complete pruning of
>every single leaf.

The problem is if you let _any_ leaves get to the surface.  Once the plant
"knows" that it _can_ reach the surface, it puts out predominantly floating
type leaves.  The trick is to pinch _every_ floater _before_ it hits the
surface.  This means that you'll have to check the tank every morning,
because under strong growth conditions, if a leaf is heading  for the
surface, it will be there by the evening.  If you keep this up initially,
the plant will "give up" and produce all or mostly submersed foliage at
least for a while.  Then it may occasionally send up another floater to try
to reach the surface, but not so persisitently.  You can re-train one that
is producing mostly floating leaves to remain submersed again, but it's
harder than starting from scratch.

Karen

"lotus" seeds?

by Karen Randall <krandall/world.std.com>
Date: Sat, 06 May 2000

Paul K wrote:

>If the self-fertilizing is successful,
>it might take a long time for the seeds to develop.  The seeds should be
>about the size of peas and have a very hard seed coat.  The seed coat must
>be cut or "scarified" with a knife to get germination.  I read somewhere
>that lotus seeds can stay dormant for many years if the seed coat is left
>intact.  I think I recall reading that Lotus seeds hold the record for
>longevity in seeds.

Isn't this talking about "real" lotus - Nelumbo sp.?  What we call "lotus"
in the aquarium are really water lilies, Nymphaea sp.  Claus told me that
all 'Zenkeri' are produced from seed. (which is why there is a fair amount
of variation among the plants)  Of course that doesn't mean they're self
fertile, but it would seem unlikely that the seed is that hard to sprout if
that's the way they're produced commercially.

Karen

"lotus seeds"

by "Bruce Hansen" <bruceh/powerup.com.au>
Date: Tue, 9 May 2000

Paul

I think it all goes back to Nymphaea lotus being one of the most popular
species of aquarium-suitable nymphaeas. As is common they tended to be
called "lotus" and then all other similar species were branded with the same
name.

At least that seems to be how it happened here in Australia.

Regards,
Bruce Hansen
president@angfa.org.au
Please visit us at http://www.angfa.org.au

- ----- Original Message ----- > Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 05:59:29 -0700
> From: krombhol@teclink.net (Paul Krombholz)
> Subject: Re: "lotus" seeds
>
> I was thinking about the real lotus.  I was assuming that what aquariasts
> were using was some member or members of that genus.  I have never had any
> Nymphaea or Nulumbo species myself, and did not know that the lotus plants
> used in aquaria were misnamed.  How did that happen?
>

lotus

by "James Purchase" <jpurch/interlog.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000

Gitte asked:
"Sounds nice (how did you keep the algae away?).  My tank doesn't get any
direct sun, although (in addition to the fluorescents), it gets some
daylight from two sides, because it's situated in a wall, and open to both
sides.  Perhaps this will be enough."

In my particular case, I set this tank up specifically FOR this dwarf
waterlily - everything else in the tank was kind of secondary. That why it
_might_ be hard to balance the needs of the lotus and the rest of your
plants in a standard mixed species tank. I'm sure that it can be done
however, it will just require you to pay attention to what the other plants
are telling you thru their growth patterns.

In the case of the tank I had set up, I was able to avoid algae by keeping
the water column as free of dissolved nutrients as was possible. I used Sera
Florenette T, a mineral fertilizer tablet designed for water lilies and pond
plants. Some "pond tabs" are big - these are individually about the size of
a large Tylenol pill, so I wasn't worried about overdoing it. I have no idea
what these things contain, there isn't a breakdown on the package. But since
I was using them in a specific tank for a specific purpose, I didn't really
care (there were no fish in this tank). Whatever they contained, it worked -
the plant bloomed continuously for months.

"I have all 3 kinds of Jobes, and perhaps in this case, rather
than using the usually-recommended palm & fern spikes, should I try a piece
of the ones for flowering (house) plants?  Maybe for this, the higher 3rd
number is justified??  I can push it far enough into the substrate, so that
the fertilizer doesn't get into the water column."

I think that you are correct here - just don't use too many at once and
remember to let the growth of your plants guide you in how frequently you
re-dose. Pushing the Jobes sticks deep into the substrate will at least
minimize any possibility of fouling the water column and causing an
explosion of algae.

"I am curious, though, as to why the floating leaves are necessary for
flowers?  The sketch I have shows that the flower grows up from the roots."

All water lilies and lotus plants grow from an elarged rootstock (or
tuber) - this acts as a nutrient reserve. It takes a lot of energy for the
plant to produce a big blossom every day for months on end, and I noticed
that when my plant eventually petered out, the root stock had shrunk away to
practically nothing. Growth comes from the rootstock, thats why you've seen
the flower (and the leaves too) coming from the roots in the drawing. I
don't know if floating leaves are NECESSARY before the plants start to
flower, but a floating leaf is a much better collector of light energy than
one which is submerged, and the plant may need this extra input to start and
sustain blooming. A floating leaf also has better access to atmospheric CO2
than a submerged leaf - so that might play a part in it.

You say that the placement of your tank allows daylight to reach the tank
from both sides, to supplement the fluorescent light from above. This will
hopefully be enough to keep your other plants going as the plant sends up
floating leaves. I don't know how many floating leaves you should allow or
if it is possible to get a plant to revert to only submerged leaves once it
gets into the habit of sending out floating and/or arial leaves - maybe
someone who has experience with pond plants can interject their thoughts.

However you manage it, hang in there because it might take several months
before the plant decides to start blooming. Common triggers for bloom
production can range from increased light to a sudden change in water
quality (from good to better). In the case with my water lily, I think that
the trigger was a span of about three weeks of sunlight in late December and
early January following a rainy and cloudy November. Anyone who lives in the
north knows that day length and light intensity is low at that time of year,
but it was enough. This is why I think that your efforts will probably be
successful. Are your lights new, or are the bulbs old? Most fluorescet tubes
lose intensity with time and your eyes aren't the best indicator of that
loss.

One other thing to look forward to is that quite often lotus and water lily
blooms can have a wonderful smell. It might be an added bonus to all of your
efforts.

James Purchase
Toronto

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