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    Thread: Lotus "Pruning" Tips / Help

    1. #1
      KoiNC's Avatar
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      Lotus "Pruning" Tips / Help

      So all of my Lotus have run their course this year it seems, despite it still being hot out. Their big leaves have yellowed and most have browned and died. I have a lot of these things in pots, they actually busted one of my favorite large pots open from growing too much! So I likely have hundreds of tubers.

      From what I have read here o the forum, sounds like I should cut back the dead stems to just above the water and then wait until "winter" (which here in NC is probably January-March) to dig them up and split them.

      Any advice?

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    2. #2
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      Lol...while you done good, the most likely outcome is you will not have hundreds of tubers, but rather, a few large healthy ones. You can cut the dead foliage off for cosmetic reason, but there is nothing in nature that mimics this, so I never bother. The tubers are winter hardy, that meaning they survive cold temps but not a hard freeze, so you can leave them in situ, if the tubers are deeper than yotu freeze line. My friend Perry Slocum grew them in outdoor ponds in Franklin, NC, with obviously good results, while he wintered up the road from me in Fl. < g > Barring that....bring the pots into a garage, cellar or any area that won't be subjected to a prolonged hard freeze. Nelumbo naturally ranges into Canada, so overly drastic measures are not required to overwinter them. Having said that...leave sleeping lotus lie. You do not want to divide them until late winter/early spring....once the danger of a freeze is past, but before they begin to 'run'.
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      Craig

    3. #3
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      Quote Originally Posted by CraigP View Post
      Lol...while you done good, the most likely outcome is you will not have hundreds of tubers, but rather, a few large healthy ones. You can cut the dead foliage off for cosmetic reason, but there is nothing in nature that mimics this, so I never bother. The tubers are winter hardy, that meaning they survive cold temps but not a hard freeze, so you can leave them in situ, if the tubers are deeper than yotu freeze line. My friend Perry Slocum grew them in outdoor ponds in Franklin, NC, with obviously good results, while he wintered up the road from me in Fl. < g > Barring that....bring the pots into a garage, cellar or any area that won't be subjected to a prolonged hard freeze. Nelumbo naturally ranges into Canada, so overly drastic measures are not required to overwinter them. Having said that...leave sleeping lotus lie. You do not want to divide them until late winter/early spring....once the danger of a freeze is past, but before they begin to 'run'.
      Thanks Craig, super helpful. The ones in my pond I will cut back above the water line for aesthetics but the ones in my pots I will just leave be and dig them all up in the then. The reason I say "hundreds" is because I planted maybe 5 per pot before I realized that was way too many! One of my big planters that's about 2/5' around busted wide open and late Summer and I had to dig it out. There were about 15 tubers in that. ave 2 more that size... so I will likely be sending a bunch of free Lotus to whoever wants them on here!

      By the way, the lilies you sent me are all doing great! Thank you again!

    4. #4
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      Hopefully you do have a bountiful harvest! It will be interesting to see what you get. My season is also about wound down. The edible tuber species is still throwing some large floaters, but the only bloom is on a 'Mrs. Perry D. Slocum' and there were no other buds obvious. It wasn't my best year for lotus....the heavy summer rains kept the pond filled to the max. The pads you see are in close to ten feet of water....which is an estimate, that end of the pond use to be fourteen feet deep, but erosion over the years has filled it in some. The dry season has arrived, so with luck, once the water level drops I can get in to harvest some root. There is no external feed to the pond, so what you see is essentially the groundwater level. < g >
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      Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.”― Miyamoto Musashi

      "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~ Jimi Hendrix

      “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen Hawking


      Craig

    5. #5
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      I am about an hour and half from you in zone 7b. I believe Charlotte is zone 8. I only have my lotus in pots outside of my pond. For the last 8 years or so, By the end of December, I cover my pots with a double layer of 6 mil plastic. Then I take a bungee cord to put around the pot holding the plastic to the pot. When I take the plastic off the first of April, I already have surface leaves.
      Just some info on how I do it in my climate.
      Nancy



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    6. #6
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      Thanks! I'll do this for the ones in pots then!

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      I am in Clemmons, just west of Winston Salem and I've always cut back my stalks and moved the pots to the deepest part of the pond for overwintering. glad to learn than I have the option to take the pots out and cover them with plastic and give the fishes more room in the deep.

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      All these years I thought Perry Slocum would have been a female. Favorite lotus flower!

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