I would like to grow native yellow lotus in a farm-type, earth-bottom pond near the place where my parents are buried. Can lotus be seeded directly into the soil of the pond-bottom, and if so, how deep (in the soil and in the water) do I plant? And do I pile pebbles/gravel/whatever over the site to keep fish and
ducks from snarfing up the young plants, and if so, do I do it immediately or wait till the plants are well up?

Also:
I'm afraid I know the answer to this, but is it absolutely too late (in late August) to do this in Zone 6? Or if the seeds _must_ be germinated indoors and then planted out, is it too late for that?

Thanks!

I would like to grow native yellow lotus in a farm-type, earth-bottom pond near the place where my parents are buried. Can lotus be seeded directly into the soil of the pond-bottom, and if so, how deep (in the soil and in the water) do I plant? And do I pile pebbles/gravel/whatever over the site to keep fish and
ducks from snarfing up the young plants, and if so, do I do it immediately or wait till the plants are well up?

Also:
I'm afraid I know the answer to this, but is it absolutely too late (in late August) to do this in Zone 6? Or if the seeds _must_ be germinated indoors and then planted out, is it too late for that?

Thanks!

I would like to grow native yellow lotus in a farm-type, earth-bottom pond near the place where my parents are buried. Can lotus be seeded directly into the soil of the pond-bottom, and if so, how deep (in the soil and in the water) do I plant? And do I pile pebbles/gravel/whatever over the site to keep fish and
ducks from snarfing up the young plants, and if so, do I do it immediately or wait till the plants are well up?

Also:
I'm afraid I know the answer to this, but is it absolutely too late (in late August) to do this in Zone 6? Or if the seeds _must_ be germinated indoors and then planted out, is it too late for that?

Thanks!

just want to thank you for doing that...... i had lotus seeds which i was afraid to start...... they are now 6 inches long and into the mud...... :)

I found that starting lotus seed in a tropical fish tank with the fish worked well. This was just an idea, thought perhaps someone who has a tank would try. Its rather easy! And if you had snails the snails love to feed on lotus seeds and it makes it easy to remove them from the tank when they feed on them. Missa

great page thank you so much for putting it together. This is the first year i am going to try to grow lotus from seed also. Your page has helped me trendously. congratulations on the sucess of your great new plants!

Suna

Margaret,
What a good job you did with your lotus seed info page. What kind of lotus did you plant?

Rich

Rich,

The seeds are from a Perry's Giant Sunburst, which is a hybrid, so I have no idea what I'll get when these plants mature.

By the way, I almost killed the poor things. They got spider mites on them (a problem in my greenhouse), and I automatically sprayed them with a pyrethrin-based spray: BAD IDEA!! It burned the leaves badly, although the plants seem to have recovered and are pushing up new leaves like gangbusters. All five of the seeds have sprouted successfully, and some of the leaves are now growing above the water.

Construction on my pond is starting next week, (it seems a silly thing to do in the middle of this exceptionally severe drought!) so I should have an outside home for my lotus next spring, assuming we ever have our ban on outdoor water use lifted.

---Margaret

You mean to tell me that they are that big in less than a month? Are those 2&1/2 gallon buckets? How wonderful! Linda

Linda,

Well, no. The leaves begin above water, but then they flop over as the leaves unroll and grow larger. And my buckets are only about 1 gal in size, so I'm worried if that will be enough to see them through until next spring. This is known as learning on the job!

---Margaret

I got a lotus from a friend in a pot. She had transplanted it and it wasn't doing too good, didn't think it was gonna make it. Then suddenly, it took of growing. Started putting out a lot of leaves and runners. These runners had little roots growing near the leaves. The runners would grow out from under the pot, and come up out of the water with leaves. So I cut off each of these little 'rootings' and planted them. Will they 'take'? has anyone ever grown lotus this way?

I read that it takes 2 yrs to bloom when you grow from seed. Is this correct?
Thanks

I have lotus to bloom this year started from seed this spring. Guess it depends on how healthy the plant is and how it is taken care of.

Thanks so much! Linda

Your web-torial is wonderful!. I got into this by accident and had seeds soaking for weeks!
When I thought that I had drowned them, I turned to the web, I am so glad..... My next seeds (from real lotus growers) sprouted in the same time frame. If not for the wonderful pages you put together, my lotus adventure would never have started!

Thanks so much!

Your web-torial is wonderful!. I got into this by accident and had seeds soaking for weeks!
When I thought that I had drowned them, I turned to the web, I am so glad..... My next seeds (from real lotus growers) sprouted in the same time frame. If not for the wonderful pages you put together, my lotus adventure would never have started!

I'm still having probs. The seeds sprout, grow, get put in three inches of garden soil, under four inches of water...they pop up above the surface, brown out and die..I baked the soil, remove any fertilizer, let the water i'm using sit for a few days to rid it of chlorine..I don't know what else to try..

Does anyone if the seeds from dried lotus pods available at the craft store for dried arrangements are viable?

A friend and myself started some lotus seeds from some dried arrangements from a flower department. That was 3 years ago and she now has a plant that is putting up leaves once again. We are hoping it will bloom this year.

I used this technique to start my lotus seeds. I have two sprouts out of four so far.

Laura

Missa, I was wondering how you sprout lotus seeds in an aquarium. I have some lotus seeds I want to sprout and an aquarium sounds easy!

Margaret, awesome page about sprouting your seeds....How are they doing now?

Karin

Hi Laura here again. I have seven seeds in a pot and so far, I have one seed that started to send out a shoot and then it stalled. I am wondering if it is dead or will it start growing again? I think this happened when I put the seeds outside for a couple of days and the temps in the pot got too cold.

One shoot is growing gangbusters and it was started at the same time as this other one.

The other seed was not scarified enough and has absorbed no water and never sprouted. One other seed looks like it might send out a shoot but for now is just expanding and opening up its shell.

All of the others were scarified about a week ago and aren't doing anything at all.

I guess I thought this would be easy. I am surprised I only have one shoot going well so far. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks. Laura

What great imformation, and a great presentation. Makes me want to go right out and get some seeds and start!

Given the right conditions, these plants are very rewarding and beautiful. Lovely website!
Anthirum

After reading the the posting (thank you so much!) I'd like to acquire some lotus seed for planting. If anyone from of philippines have some lotus seeds to spare please let me know asap!

THanks

wow. great website. I've been growing lotus from seed for a few years now and I'm curious what kind of fertilizer tabs you are using as well as your feeding schedule. thanks.

what a wonderful website! i'm totally inspired to grow my own lotus now! thank you!

Hi,
Can anyone tell me for how long we can keep the lotus seed ?
And how to keep the lotus seeds ? Is it under normal room temperature or in a cooler place ? Thanks in advance !

IF ever you have spider mites please use liquid seaweed 1oz to a gallon of water and fill your sprayer and those suckers are dead. And your plants lvoe you for it as it fertilizes them too. Or try Bioganic by Green Light. It is all organic and none of it will turn your leaves brown unless you do it in the hottest of the day. Neither of that stuff will harm fish either. Use the sprays in the cool of the morning or early evening. *S*

BTW - BEWARE Pyrethrum and Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO)

You have done a FANTASTIC job! I am just now starting my lotus collection from seeds and I am patiently (cough cough) hoping they turn out like yours. *S*

Thank you so much for sharing your progress with us!

Margaret, your lotus tutorial is beautiful!

To the person wondering about how long the seed will keep: Some archaeologists found some lotus seeds in what had once been a lake bed (Africa? Middle East? Can't remember) The seeds were a couple thousand years old, and they germinated. Wish I could give you a reference, but it has been a long time since I read it. National Geographic?

Wow !!!! I am speechless !!! Can anyone guess what I'll be doing this weekend ??? Hahahahahaha I am so inspired by you Margaret !! That was incredible. I want a lotus so badly !!!

I have a large lotus plant that has had 2 flowers. The
petals fell off and it left a number of seeds. I took
off the seeds and put them in water. My puppies got the
pot and chewed a number of the seeds so I put the broken
seeds back in the water. This wasn't as nice as you did
yours Margaret, but I will try anyway. Do you think it
might work anyway? I am very impressed with your work.

Margaret, I love your website! I used it and got 100% germination on my 15 water lotus seeds--much better than I expected. Thanks so much!!!

I want to grow some lotus from seeds. Where can i get some seeds? Websites or stores or what?

I am impressed by the knowledge of the members. 2 questions
1 on geocities.com/josh_shilling/lotusprop.html there is an acount of drilling holes in seeds to get germination also describes keeping in special water, not clean and changed. Any comments?
2. Why can't I print out some of the pages? some good tips given.

I also used your website and now have 13 lotus plant babies. I planted them 1 month ago and now they all have 6 leaves! I had 13/14 germination and they are all still doing well! Thanks so much for the information, I would have never been able to do so well without your help!

Hello!
I live in California. I want to buy lotus seed and learn to grow the plant,please tell me where can I buy lotus seed from my state and what month I can start.
Thanks

Wow!! from me too! Started out looking for help as to why my lotus has never bloomed, this yr only one aerial leaf and that not healthy, I assume because my pond is now innundated with too much shade, darn trees! Thanks Margaret!

I have tried this seeds thing many times each time I learn something new. Thus I can say that water temp is critical in going from sprout to plant. My expiramental seeds came from the local craft shop. Every one sprouted.

I just have been bitten by the lotus bug this year.I placed 7 of my seeds in my pond water and changed when cloudy like all the "instructions" said. Then I placed 7 in regular tap water as an experiment. The ones in the tap water seemed to grow faster and healthier than the pond water ones. Also the tap water had to be changed less often than the pond ones. So far 4 of the 7 tap water and 2 of 7 pond ones have sprouted.And wow do they grow fast! Some have grown over inches in just 2 days.

Hi i really want to grow a lotus plant from seed but i need some pointers. I am in South Africa so climate isn't an issue. The year round heat we receive here makes lotus a hardy plant and also Obtaining the seeds is not a problem too. There's an abundance of public parks from which i have received permission from to harvest the seeds for research. I'm currently trying (and i think failing) with one seed. I have a 2L glass jar to which i'd fixed a bulb into the lid, so it's like a mini green house. I filed the seed then eventually like snipped off the based of it to expose the inner white flesh (the air spaces wer huge so it didn't get damaged.) i made a little piercing into the flesh and submerged it in like half an inch of water in my mini green house. The first few days the water started turnin brown which i read was normal so i changed it every two days. The seed is now soft, i can see the inner core, it's been two weeks and no further progress has occured. Is there something i did wrong? What should i do in future?

Sounds to me like you got a bad seed. There should not be "air space" inside the hard shell. All of mine were scored with a dremel tool, down the side, just until I could see white. Put in water "no light needed yet" change the water every other day. Mine started sprouting on the third day.

This is SO awesome. I have been obsessed with Lotus for a while. I want to give it a shot.

What is your fav. source of obtaining the seeds and/or plants?

I have a lake in the backyard...small pond...I am in GA...what plants/bog plants would work near the lake. Right now lot of wild, long, unsightly grass is growing.

Anyone?

Hi there,
Your great web site encouraged me to start growing lotus from seed. However, my first experience was total lost. No new grow and was very disappointed it. I would like to try again. Does anyone have any lotus seeds to give out? Please advice.
Thank you
PS
I do have some fresh passion flower seeds and four o'clock seeds to trade if anyone interesting.

Hi. I too have been bitten by lotus bug! I grew two last year and they came back this year! I can't wait for blooms! This year I made a lotus bog pond all for lotus! I'm excided to watch them bloom!

I picked up some bare root lotus at a great price, and within days of planting they were throwing out new leaves. 3 flowers have bloomed (I should have fertilized again last month, but forgot). Anyway - one of the seed pods now has seeds that are shrinking and turning dark, but have not fallen free yet. At what point are they ready to harvest? Can they then be sprouted immediately, or do they need a resting/drying out period?

Great website. Thanks for any info you can provide.

This is an old post, but I just found it. Tried to get to Margaret's site, but couldn't. Anyone know if this is still available?