Tiger Lotus

[dingweding]

i have some red tiger lotus, now they grow too big, the leaves reach the surface and covered most of the surface, so other plants can not get enough light.

so could cut the leaves? i heard u can train this plants to keep them underwater, how to do it?
Many thanks

 

[Castellop123]

 

[ICEEGRL]

Remove the stem down by the bulb when they get too long. Eventually you should get a shorter smaller plant. There are some that just won't cooperate though. To get them to stay smaller I think you need a good deal of light too.

 

[dingweding]

do u mean i cut the stem just at point connecting to the bulb? I have quite strong light. 60L tank with light 72w

 

[nry]

I found that if you grab the stem tightly and pull it sharply the whole stem and leaf comes off in one. Mine never suffered at all for this and it was a stunning plant, I really loved the deep red colours. Best growing plant I have ever had under only 1wpg, under almost 5wpg it should do amazing!

 

[reiverix]

Tiger lotus can be trained to stay more compact with constant pruning. You have to keep at it though and never let leaves hit the surface.

 

[mlawson]

I had bad problems with my Tiger lotus in my Juwel 180, eventually I moved the plant.

 

[dingweding]

Tiger lotus can be trained to stay more compact with constant pruning. You have to keep at it though and never let leaves hit the surface.

so, once it hit the surface, i just cut it? again and again? now i have 5 lotus, 2 of them are huge now, the other 3 will do the same in a few weeks

 

[lljdma06]

Tiger lotus can be trained to stay more compact with constant pruning. You have to keep at it though and never let leaves hit the surface.

so, once it hit the surface, i just cut it? again and again? now i have 5 lotus, 2 of them are huge now, the other 3 will do the same in a few weeks

No, don't let the leaves reach the surface. Cut before it reaches the surface. Yep, again and again. If the light is good enough, you can literally sit down and watch leaves grow, they sprout that quickly.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I pinch mine off where it attaches to the bulb. When I try to pull them it pulls the bulb loose sometimes. I usually do this weekly during water changes. So... yes... pretty often. They grow very fast. It doesn't take long and is very easy to do so I really don't mind. It keeps them looking really good.

 

[wei0204]

I had this experience before too... What I am doing now is just cut off the leaves which reached the surface and if there are too many leaves (not reaching surface) I will trim a bit too so that it will grow some leaves to replace those instead of growing high up to the surface.