Walmart Lily Bulb

[Amunet]

Alrighty, so we just came back from Walmart, and I saw that they had those dried lily bulbs in their fish section.
I've gotten these and the aponegeton(sp?) ones before, and every single time I've just chucked them in to a tank... every single one of them has gotten that white mold or fungus whatever stuff on it and never grew.

Is there something I'm completely missing? Is there any kind of trick to make sure they grow?

Photo of it in case anyone was wondering what I was talking about

 

[Davo86]

No idea on the answer to your Q, but just wanted to say good luck,
I've brought 6 of these in the past and not one grew, shame really because IMO they look spectacular

 

[three-fingers]

I've bought bulbs a few times before, never had mould grow on them though (apart from once when I let them dry out a bit too much during a drought simulation I was doing).

My experiance with them is that they don't last long unless you give them a substrate with lots of nutrients, at least partially bury the bulb when planting and the the plant a rest from growing after ~8 months.

Right now I have one growing in my shrimp tank, I have it in a pot separate from the other plants (so I can take it out and give it a dormant period when I want). In the pot I have some Miracle Grow "organic all purpose peat free soil" mixed about half and half with sand, with a thin layer of sand on top.

If you want to keep the submerged leaves, you have to cut back the other leaves before they reach the surface. This is quite a bit of work...because they put out a new one almost every day. I'm not sure how well the submerged leaves can absorb nutrients from the water though, so your probably better off supplementing the soil with root tabs after 6 months or so (or it a dry period for a few months before repotting it). The laves that reach the surface will have much greater access to CO2, and this plant likes to grow fast, so if you want the submerged growth, you should probably inject CO2.

Another thing I can say is that mine always shows signs of potassium deficiency when other plants don't, unless I add potassium to the water. This is probably something to do with my very soft water, so if you have soft water, it's probably good idea to source some ferts just in case you need them.

 

[Phage]

Is that a red tiger lotus? I have two plants in my tank. The bulb fell off of one and started growing a new plant. No idea about walmart plants.. but I can mail you that bulb It likes higher light though, and grows big... lol.

No idea about the fungus though...

 

[Amunet]

Yeah in the photo it's a red tiger lotus and a regular green one.
I'm gonna give these a shot again. And take them up on their guarantee this time if they don't grow again. I bought 2 packs of them so hopefully at least 1 will grow.
Do you think the trumpet snails will bother them? Would hate to actually get a good one and then have trumpet snails munching on it.

 

[Amunet]

Alrighty, going to experiment. Had a 3rd pack of them that I thought was those aponogeton things but it was just more lilies

First up, have 2 in the aquarium that I had to partially bury b/c they didn't want to sink. Bad pic quality, woot! heh

And then I have 3 bulbs sitting in a small bowl of water.

And finally, planted the 2 smaller bulbs in to some of those soil tablet things. Will have a plastic top over the tray to keep moisture in

So yep.. we'll see if any of them make it heh The bowl along w/ the tablet ones will be placed in front of a window to get some light (have other plants in the tray as well).

 

[Phage]

I have loads of trumpet snails. I haven't seen them bother any of my plants.
I bought my bulbs online and they were in a dark, moist package for a month (because they came from Malaysia and took forever to get here). When I opened the package a few tiny leaves were starting to sprout and there were tiny roots as well.
Goodluck with your bulbs

 

[Amunet]

*nods* We ordered one from Malaysia as well. Took about 2 weeks to get to us.
The one we got was almost black in appearance, looked like it was just sprouting a leaf, and I think the trumpet snails in the tank may have eaten it b/c when we looked again, no leaf. They usually don't bother healthy plants at all in our tanks, but they just swarmed to this thing so *shrugs*
It's still in the tank somewhere lol...