Don’t see any sign of my lotus coming back yet, is it dead?

[brokensword]

You have them in buckets like 60 individual buckets or all the seedlings in just a few buckets? And with just plain water or with soil as well? Right now, since I started these earlier than last year I keep having to put them inside for colder nights below 60 and put them on heating mats. If days are cold, I have them on heating mats under a grow light. Not sure if back and forth sun and lights is bad for them but not sure what much else I can do. It’s been such a cold year so far here in NJ.
The ones I lost were supposed to be blue, which I was so excited about but too bad for me. These ones I’m growing now are pink and I think I’m good with that lol.
So when I eventually put these seedlings in pots, can I dress the surface with sand? Or does it have to be pea gravel?

I don't believe there are any blue lotus, just water lilies of the tropical variety. A lot of vendors via ebay/amazon claim them to be lotus but they are really water lilies. mrsclem can set me right if I'm wrong but when I went looking for blue ones, that's what I found.

 

[mrsclem]

Sorry to say there are no blue lotus! Blue water lilies but most of them are tropical so they don't survive winter in most areas. Yes, 60 buckets plus the larger containers for the mature plants and about 20 elephant ear plants. Everything is planted in the plain clay kitty litter. Why do you feel you need to dress the top? I don't use pea gravel with any of my plants now as they are not going in the koi pond.

 

[Heruga]

I got the lotus seeds last year from here https://www.shamansgarden.com/p-142-blue-lotus-seeds-nelumbo-nucifera.aspx
I’m not sure if it’s actually a blue lotus as they claim but it sure was a lotus I was growing, not lilies.
I was told I need to dress the surface with something heavy so that the seed/tubers won’t float out of the pot. Also maybe so it doesn’t dirty up the pond water from the original media
This is last years ‘blue’ lotus that I was growing.

 

[mrsclem]

Look up nelumbo-nucifera- it is lotus, just not blue! I wait until I have a good mass of roots to move mine to pots and then just lightly push the roots into the clay. You don't want to rick covering the grow tip or damaging it. If you do want to top dress, I would wait until the plant is established with leaves above the water.

 

[Heruga]

Thanks mrsclem. So it’s been quite a while since my lotuses germinated and growth has been so unusually slow. Last years seedlings grew so fast. They are still this small and I’m wondering if something is wrong with them. I’ve been taking them outside on warm days and bring them back inside on cool nights on a heating pad. I also still replace the water every day(not sure if still necessary as they already germinated) and put a small solution of H2o2. Could that be what may have been stunting their growth? Also all of them have 2 or more sets of leaf stems on it which idk is normal or not because last years seedlings did not produce its second stem until later on it it’s growth stage.

 

[mrsclem]

Not sure about the H2O2. If you can get them outside in a sunny location they may do better. Once mine sprouted, I only changed the water once a week but you need to be careful not to damage the sprouts. They break off very easily. Are the outer shells cracked open completely? I only got double sprouts on seeds that had not split completely, not sure why! I had mine in glass jars in full sun and they took off fast.

 

[Heruga]

I’m not sure, is this considered complete outer shell crack? I have them outside today in 93 degrees full sun and I still don’t see any noticeable growth. Also there are many brown dots on the seedlings, is this normal? I can’t remember from last year whether they had it or not

 

[mrsclem]

Did you nick the outer shells of the seeds? It could be it wasn't enough.

 

[Heruga]

Yes I drilled them with a 1/4 in bit. Did it like that last year too.

 

[mrsclem]

The outer dark shell on mine split open when they sprouted but I cut mine with a dremil blade. As long as you have the sprouts, your good. The outer shell will come loose and then roots!

 

[Heruga]

I’m still confused on why the slow growth rate even in hot weather. I guess I will see and will update..

 

[mrsclem]

Please do. My plants that I divided were slow to start but now that the weather has warmed up, they are growing like crazy. Seedlings still barely have any leaves.

 

[Heruga]

Well I woke up to see some new leaves unfurling and I don’t know that this looks normal. First of all they shouldn’t be unfurling their leaves underwater should they? They’re just refusing to grow their stems

 

[mrsclem]

How deep is the water? I kept mine in 3-4"

 

[Heruga]

About 8 in. I did the same for it last year and the seedlings kept growing it’s stems until it reached out the surface. I have a feeling I’m gonna need to chuck these soon