[dwalstad]

The new little one looks like a different plant species to me. The leaves have deep indentations.
Your clay soil has big chunks and clumps. Hopefully, those chunks will disintegrate once submerged. However, if I were planting I would smash the clumps with a hammer or brick before planting anything in it. You can also push the soil beforehand through a mesh beforehand to get rid of clumps.

 

[johnwesley0]

The new little one looks like a different plant species to me. The leaves have deep indentations.
Your clay soil has big chunks and clumps. Hopefully, those chunks will disintegrate once submerged. However, if I were planting I would smash the clumps with a hammer or brick before planting anything in it. You can also push the soil beforehand through a mesh beforehand to get rid of clumps.

That's interesting. The redness of the leaves immediately made me think "red tiger". We shall see. Yes, immersion in water does seem to disintegrate the clumps; I discovered that when I replanted the second lotus; the clay had turned to pure mud within days.

But, I have another question for you. Do you think I have to keep that rescue bulb under water from now on? Is there no way of "storing" it indefinitely? EDIT: maybe, that peat moss I've been hoarding?

 

[dwalstad]

That's interesting. The redness of the leaves immediately made me think "red tiger". We shall see. Yes, immersion in water does seem to disintegrate the clumps; I discovered that when I replanted the second lotus; the clay had turned to pure mud within days.

But, I have another question for you. Do you think I have to keep that rescue bulb under water from now on? Is there no way of "storing" it indefinitely? EDIT: maybe, that peat moss I've been hoarding?

Good to hear that the clay chunks disintegrated!

As to what to do with rescue bulb, I think you have to keep it planted in regular soil. I'm not sure that you have to keep the pot underwater. You could try growing it emergent.

I would not put the plantlet in peat moss. Peat moss would work for temporarily storing a bulb, but your little fellow has already sprouted. Thus, it does not have the food reserves necessary for storage of more than a few days.

 

[johnwesley0]

You could try growing it emergent.

GENIUS!

 

[johnwesley0]

GENIUS!

Not sure whether to bury it all the way. Not really trying to grow it so much as keeping it "dormant" until possibly next year:

Keeping it covered for now. But, it does beg the question whether and how often to water it?

 

[mistergreen]

If it's aquatic, the soil needs to be wet all the time.

 

[johnwesley0]

If it's aquatic, the soil needs to be wet all the time.

Great! Just gave it a good soaking. In fact, it just occurred to me that this is not so different than dry starting an aquatic plant?

 

[mistergreen]

not so different than dry starting an aquatic plant?

yup, pretty much.

 

[johnwesley0]

Thought a picture might be in order:

The red tiger lotus has really taken off, making it hard to believe that this is the dwarf version. Was hoping to see aerial leaves by now. Maybe a little red lighting is in order?

 

[dwalstad]

Looks great!

 

[johnwesley0]

So... I left town for almost a week and this is what I found when I came back:

A better look:

This was a welcome and totally unexpected development. All along I kept second-guessing myself about the soil, the lighting and even the lonely pond snail that had managed to piggy-back its way with this plant's purchase. The latter didn't seem to be doing any harm to the plants and confined itself to skimming the surface slime in long lazy circles.

Anyway, the aerial leaves arriving in record time (compared to my first little lily) signaled it was time to move the lotus into deeper water. And, the snail soon followed.

So much has changed in the big bowl since last February, I have many more emergent plants and the water has grown almost permanently tannic from all the potted dirt. The red tiger lotus literally disappeared from sight as I eased it into the bowl, only its single (soon to be joined by another) lily pad signifying its location:

TBH, I'm a little disappointed that the red tiger lotus' pad is not actually red and only confirms in my mind the narrow taxonomy between it and the green tiger lotus. But, my nanotank has proven itself a useful experimental station for propagating plants before they go into the main tank.

 

[dwalstad]

I found same color difference with mine- green lily pads and red submersed leaves.

 

[johnwesley0]

yup, pretty much.

Well, it's been almost a month and I thought a picture might be in order:

My rescue bulb remains firm and that bit of growth seems to indicate that it is still alive. No roots, but so far, it seems to be mimicking the behavior of a terrestrial bulb. The only difference is that I have to keep it wet?

 

[mistergreen]

I would raise the water level to the bulb.

 

[dwalstad]

I have Lotus plants from same source in two tanks. The submerged leaves have quite a different color. One has more green leaves than the other. Not sure why, because lighting and soil are the same.

I really like this plant! I want to start propagating it and adding it to more tanks.

 

[johnwesley0]

I love my lotuses! My poor hardy lily, my "first-born" might as well have been packed off to boarding school compared to her two rambunctious tiger siblings. The lotuses are constantly sending up new pads and it's really hard to tell (because I only see them from the top down) which ones belong to which plant. But, you're right; both of them seem perfectly capable of sending out fundamentally different colored pads: solid green pads as well as pads that are olive colored with definite red speckles. The contrast from a bird-eye view is quite pleasing.

And, my "dry" soil experiment seems to be coming along; the rescue bulb is still alive after six weeks. I think if I had another bowl, I would have planted it by now. I would imagine the trick propagating a lotus would be knowing what's going on underneath the substrate and at what point the parent plant is completely independent of the bulb?

OTOH, the more delicate hardy lily is grown from a rhizome; very similar to the anubias..

 

[dwalstad]

Johnwesley's posts have inspired me to propagate my own Red Tiger Lotuses. I divided up the plantlets from one of the bulbs that sprouted in my summer tank. There were 6-7 plantlets with delicate roots--no longer than 2"-- that I divided into three of my new pots. (The clay sides are semi-porous and allow some gas exchange.) Attached is photo of one pot with a baby. I hope it does well!

 

[johnwesley0]

Johnwesley's posts have inspired me to propagate my own Red Tiger Lotuses. I divided up the plantlets from one of the bulbs that sprouted in my summer tank. There were 6-7 plantlets with delicate roots--no longer than 2"-- that I divided into three of my new pots. (The clay sides are semi-porous and allow some gas exchange.) Attached is photo of one pot with a baby. I hope it does well!

Well, it's been two months since I put my rescue bulb in "dry" storage and my wet thumb is getting itchy, too. So, I've decided I have room for one more k-cup on the bottom of my porcelain bowl. I've also removed most of my floaters with a slight uptick in ammonia (0.25ppm) a possible result (@spaquarista may also have a point about bladder snails representing a whole other level of bio-load.)

Anyway, I'm hoping another aggressive tiger lotus will make up for the loss of salvinia minima.
I'm using the same southside Virginia clay capped with gravel that I used for the dwarf red tiger. Only this time, I'm throwing it right into the bottom of the main bowl:

UPDATE: When I tried to lift out my first k-cup (which you can see just underneath the new bulb), I was met with a lot of resistance. In fact, I could see the substrate in the immediate area heave every time I gave the cup a gentle tug. So, apparently, there is an entire root system that has emerged from the bottom of the first k-cup. This explains why the dwarf red tiger lily is thriving so well! The rich mulm at the bottom of my bowl seems to suit it. It was also a timely reminder to make sure the new k-cup had holes punched on the bottom of it - which I did just this moment.

 

[johnwesley0]

As it happens, in my focus on replanting my rescue bulb, I quite forgot that I had another rescue bulb sitting right under my nose. It's the one from my dwarf red tiger lotus which got its own k-cup treatment two months ago. And, TBH, I'm not sure why it was sold as a dwarf plant. It's pads are easily as big and as long as it's supposedly bigger bowl mate sitting in the big clay pot inches away.

So, I figured it was time to separate it from its bulb which I could observe had migrated to its side. Since the k-cup was firmly rooted to the bottom of the bowl, I had to reach in with both hands, using one to steady the cup and the other to gently wriggle the bulb off. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a clean snap with no one the worse for wear:

You can see the space it left in the older k-cup:

And right into the "dry" start pot it went:

 

[dwalstad]

Another birth in progress! Your porcelain bowl will soon be filled with these lilies.