Unusual Lotus Question

[pecan]

Do you really need a pump? What if you just put mosquito dunks in to keep the skeeters away? Would the plants suffer in the still water with low oxygen?

 

[sissy]

aerator petco sells a cheap 4 port one that i have had for 4 years and it works great .i am now using it in my stock tank because of plant roots clogging the pump .Last time i looked it was less than 30 dollars and comes with lines and aerators

 

[taherrmann4]

If I bought tubers from my local koi guy, i can say they are hardy, because he has a lotus pond, keeps them out year round and sells tubers from there. Maybe I will try both seed and tuber...

I got some of my lotus seeds from a lake that has a huuuuuuge mass of them. The lake is on a golf course and I was able to reach some of the flower heads with the seeds and took them. This fall you may want to look around and see if there are any wild ones like this.

 

[jenn.]

I want to add a little gouramis fish (or something small, cute and easy) along with our lilly so I would need to oxygenate for that. I could live without the fish I guess (got almost 30 in my pond) but I figure if I can I probably will :razz:

 

[addy1]

Do you really need a pump? What if you just put mosquito dunks in to keep the skeeters away? Would the plants suffer in the still water with low oxygen?

My 300 gallon lotus tub had no flow no air all of last summer, the lotus did fine, the rosey reds did fine, just could not see into the sucker, murky water, algae off and on. Now it is connected to the main pond we can actually see into the water.

 

[pecan]

Thanks Addy, I wouldn't mind green water so much. I was kind of hoping the lotus tub would be a good habitat for froggies. Would Rosy Reds eat tabpoles?

 

[addy1]

Thanks Addy, I wouldn't mind green water so much. I was kind of hoping the lotus tub would be a good habitat for froggies. Would Rosy Reds eat tabpoles?

I don't think so, they seemed to stay away from them, if they did eat some, I could not tell a difference in the tad pole population. Had 1000's

 

[taherrmann4]

Pecan I added a solar pump to mine b/c within days it was very cloudy and algae was starting to grow, since I added the pump the water has been crystal clear as you can see in my pics in above posts. Might be the kitty litter that helped it as well can't say for sure what caused it to become clear as I didn't do a case study on it and didn't have a control one to compare it against, so you will just have to take my word for it.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Pecan, We have two tubs with lotus in them, one by the dog leg and one by the
biological pond. They are both in 5 gallon tubs, buried at ground level right up
to the pond. The lotus looks like it is in the pond, as we plant ground cover and plants
all around.

Your Idea to use liner is good...We do have to frequently add water as 5 gallons tubs aren't
very big.

No pumps are necessary, but you'll have to add mosquito dunks (we break them up
into small pieces)

In the winter (zone 7) we just cover the tubs with filled bags of leaves to keep them warm.

look at about 1:30 in this video... and you'll see the lotus, it's next to the garden fairy...the taro
in the foreground next to the lotus is planted in the pond, bare root between the rocks
on the pond shelf....The lotus looks like it's in the pond.

even more lotus...look by the garden fairy.

 

[j.w]

You have such pretty grounds, like the garden of eden! Love the sound of the birds and the water and watching the fish swim.

 

[taherrmann4]

An update to my lotus progress. The one lotus is growing quite well has a leaf about the size of a saucer plate and two more following, in all this is the best luck I have had growing lotus. I have a solar pump in this pot and have found it to not be necessary as my other two pots are crystal clear as well, the pump does keep the water circulated and I have noticed more bugs on the surface of the ones that do not have a pump. I have two more lotus that have started growing in one of the other pots they each have two leaves so I shall see if I have the same luck. The third pot has two small pieces of water lily that I found in my skimmer, just pushed them into the kitty liter and they are doing very well also. I am a bit stoked at the lotus as I had zero luck last year with them.

 

[addy1]

Neat tmann, good luck. I had two of my five not come back this year. oh well

 

[sissy]

my lotus i started out are doing pretty good 8 nice little leaves .

 

[don't ask]

I have like 4 on mine i started... hope it keeps going

 

[sissy]

I moved my from kitchen window to the stock tank