Water Lillys.

[Dan Robbins]

Me and plants do not agree.
Anyways, I have a big 5ft fish tank, which i have a breeding pair of jaguar cichlids is. the tank is very tall, a little too tall for my liking, and it looks very bland and boring as there are no plants which will reach the surface. (or get abliterated by the jaguar cichlids.) anyways. I have a water lilly growing in my pond. its a central american species and is very tough. What i want to know is, If i cut the root which is tuberous, will the rest die? can i cut half the water lily to put into my tank?

Please answer a.s.a.p as im excessivly bored today and an in need to chop something with a kitchen knife.
dan

 

[Carp4U]

I want to help fill your satisfaction of chopping something, but i don't really know how to advise you and don't want you to risk killing your lily. But, if you have a large crowd of lily pads on the surface, then you can try to cut the tall, long stem from the root crown (the big "stump") in the planting container (if you use one, otherwise just do the same!) This shouldn't kill the rest of the stems shooting off it. I am not sure if it will work, but try and stick the cut stem and lily pad into a pot or bottle of pond water. Now, like most other ground plants, it should put out roots off the ends of the stem within a few weeks. Once it has sprouted roots you could try to plant in your pond. Please only do this if you have lilies to spare, as i can't assure i'm doing this correctly- i'm probably getting it completely wrong. But, anyway, let us know how it goes! Hope this helps!

 

[SuperColey1]

Lilys (Nympheae) grow from bulbs. If the plant in your pond has a bulb then take the bulb off. The plant grows from it but does not need it once grown.

Put the bulb in your tank and let it grow nother, then you can keep seperating the bulb and repositioning getting many plants from it.

The bulb will look like a lump of wood or cannabis resin<-----so I'm told. lol

Andy

 

[Carp4U]

oh right, thought i got it exactly wrong! so just ignore me dan and listen to the other guy!

 

[SuperColey1]

Bottom left of this picture are 2 x Nymphae Rubra bulbs. These are approx 1 inch and resinlike. In the centre are 2 x Nympheae Zenkeri (Tiger Lotus) bulb approx ¼inch and more traditionaly shaped.

The Zenkeri turns into this (1st pic is red zenkeri and second green zenkeri):

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

Just to set Carp4U's mind at ease.

I have just read a post on another forum I use by Tom Barr and conincidentally it is on propogating Lilys. He says whereas in an aquarium it is easy enough to move the bulb around that with well established pond lilys that you can take the tuber (the crown that the stems come from) and halve it/quarter it top to bottom with a sharp knife trying to keep as many leaves on each section and just replant that.

So I've just learnt a thing or 2 about pond plants. lol (they don't get to be that established in an aquarium)

This is a method I have used before though but it was on Nuphar Japonica (Spatterdock) which is altogether another plant.

So top marks to you there carp4u

Andy