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  • Results 1 to 13 of 13

    Thread: When can I detach the tuber from my tropical water lily?

    1. #1
      Greenthumbnails's Avatar
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      Question When can I detach the tuber from my tropical water lily?

      I normally repot my tropicals with the tuber and all. When I unpot and find more than one or two tubers I'll baggie the rest and float them until they sprout and then pot them up too when I start to see roots.

      This time I'm wanting to grow another lily out of a tuber that is still attached to a tropical and I don't have extra tubers to do this with so I'm wanting to retrieve this one. I know that in the fall is a good time to break them off to overwinter them (if I were wanting to do it that way), but what about when you want to do it in the summer so that you can get another plant to blooming size before the fall? I've tried detaching small plantlets with visible roots from other tubers in the past to not the greatest success and the small plants died and also failed to tuber themselves. I've also noticed that sometimes a sprouted tuber when unpotted might pout and go back into dormancy.

      If the tuber that I am after is attached to a tropical that now has a couple of dinner plate sized pads floating and its first (small) bloom out, do you think I can retreive the tuber out now if I don't disturb the roots (assuming there are some roots by now in the pot) too much?

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    2. #2
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      A single finger curled under may dislodge a sprouted tuber without setting it back, wiggling it upward and outward from blooming plants

      Regards, andy
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      Quote Originally Posted by andrew davis View Post
      A single finger curled under may dislodge a sprouted tuber without setting it back, wiggling it upward and outward from blooming plants

      Regards, andy
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      Thanks Andy.

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      What you can do if the tuber is big enough, plant it horizontal forcing the roots to grow down instead of over the tuber. When the plant is big enough the tuber can be wiggled loose. Repot overgrown tropicals that way too (Vic-Adv has a link showing how).

    5. #5
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      Tubers can, and will, give you different looks, but this is a fairly common one. You can see the plant attached....the main attachment is the thickest white material in the photo and the tuber with the plant removed.

      Most sprouts will appear around that "crater".

      Hope the visuals help.
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      Craig

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      Like Craig s demo, I also have a tutorial on my website where you can see how to wiggle the plant free. I also pot up tubers at an angle as Kat mentioned. Makes it much easier to detach and start more plants.

      My tutorial is at http://www.seanmstevens.com/seansponds/Navigate to tutorials tab.
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      Thanks for the photos Craig, they are very clear ones too! Kat and Sean, never knew I could plant it sideways...always thought that it had to be planted going vertical but I see how that would certainly make it easier to detach later. Will have to try that on purpose next time.

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      If you are into propagating tropicals, lateral tuber planting makes your life so much easier. If you do what I do, when the tuber has been removed from one plant, move it about an inch away to start another, crowding them causes the small plants to form their own tubers faster. It's a survival response and works better than floating the whole plant which actually starves it of nutrients. I tend to get five plants per season from one tuber. Each plant forms it's own tuber.

      Cheers,
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    9. #9
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      Great info,Thank-you all~

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      Quote Originally Posted by Sean's Ponds View Post
      If you are into propagating tropicals, lateral tuber planting makes your life so much easier. If you do what I do, when the tuber has been removed from one plant, move it about an inch away to start another, crowding them causes the small plants to form their own tubers faster. It's a survival response and works better than floating the whole plant which actually starves it of nutrients. I tend to get five plants per season from one tuber. Each plant forms it's own tuber.

      Cheers,
      Sean
      Sean, So you can still get a planted tuber to sprout fairly quickly? I thought it would be faster to float the tuber in a baggie until it sprouted, then plant it? Think I'm going to need a bigger pot to try to move it an inch from the plant that gets seperated. I've got a mix of tropicals planted in dixie cups when I am trying to force it to give me a tuber and larger pots when I want to get bigger blooms and have a spare tuber already of the same tropical.

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      Quote Originally Posted by Greenthumbnails View Post
      Sean, So you can still get a planted tuber to sprout fairly quickly? I thought it would be faster to float the tuber in a baggie until it sprouted, then plant it? Think I'm going to need a bigger pot to try to move it an inch from the plant that gets seperated. I've got a mix of tropicals planted in dixie cups when I am trying to force it to give me a tuber and larger pots when I want to get bigger blooms and have a spare tuber already of the same tropical.

      If you are using my Dixie cup method, just twist off the tuber and move it over a bit. It will sprout and root in.
      I find if I fertilize my growing media, for me it's sand, about 1/2 inch below the top, the new plantlets root in quickly, find fertilizer and get a quick spurt of growth. When there are a few pads up and it's decently rooted in, twist the tuber again and repeat the process.

      I only float spare tubers for storage, not to get them to sprout. I find floating them makes the water in the bag go green quickly and you do not want algae competing with your sprouts for sunlight to photosynthesize.

      Cheers,
      Sean
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    12. #12
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      Quote Originally Posted by Sean's Ponds View Post
      If you are using my Dixie cup method, just twist off the tuber and move it over a bit. It will sprout and root in.
      I find if I fertilize my growing media, for me it's sand, about 1/2 inch below the top, the new plantlets root in quickly, find fertilizer and get a quick spurt of growth. When there are a few pads up and it's decently rooted in, twist the tuber again and repeat the process.

      I only float spare tubers for storage, not to get them to sprout. I find floating them makes the water in the bag go green quickly and you do not want algae competing with your sprouts for sunlight to photosynthesize.

      Cheers,
      Sean
      Ah ha! Thanks Sean, now I understand why my tubers that have green algae in the bag, or on the tuber itself, are taking so long to sprout! I guess I'll put those ones in dixie cups instead. Also will put fertilizer closer to the top now too...I've been putting it mostly on the bottom of the dixie cup or pot. Thanks for the propagation tips

    13. #13
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      Quote Originally Posted by Greenthumbnails View Post
      Ah ha! Thanks Sean, now I understand why my tubers that have green algae in the bag, or on the tuber itself, are taking so long to sprout! I guess I'll put those ones in dixie cups instead. Also will put fertilizer closer to the top now too...I've been putting it mostly on the bottom of the dixie cup or pot. Thanks for the propagation tips
      Your Welcome!

      PS, I fertilize the lower 2/3rds of the container with granular fertilizer then cap it with plain sand by about 1/2 inch. Fertilizer gets used up quickly with tropicals so starting with more keeps you from re-fertilizing so soon.

      Cheers,
      Sean
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