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Growing spatterdocks

andy

Member
Joined
14 Sep 2007
Messages
261
Location
Lewes, East Sussex
Last week, i got a
very rare red spatterdock, from greenline.

The picture looked awesome so i parted with my £6.50 and awaited delivery.
Imagine my surprise when this "water lilly" arrived complete with 2 foot long stems and leaves that were the size of a saucer. Bearing in mind, i only have a 15" deep tank with 3" of substrate (the corm was 5" long !!!), this was a bit of a shock.

Anyway, i chopped all but two of the leaves off and planted it in my tank. It has since thrown out more leaves which i've again had to cut off.

so really, what shall i do with it ?....will it ever be like the picture below ? or have i been ripped off ? Should i contact trading standards ;)

Seriously, can i ever expect mine to get like the pic....if so, how ?

Andy

S149RED.jpg
 
Love the colour! If its like the other lilies, it'll not require to much additional work. You can train lilies to grow 'small' by removing the leaves before they reach the surface, after a while it'll 'learn' and only produce underwater leaves, same probably goes of the leaf size.

It will probably grow a fair size root network so once it established you'd not be able to move it, so think carefully about where you want it!

Sam
 
Thanks Sam....i was taken in by the pic too :oops:

I plan a bigger tank after xmas...about 28" deep so i might actually pot it into a 6" clay pot and try to keep it contained a bit and grow it in a pot in the new tank.

Anyone done that before ?

Andy
 
Hi mate, i have tested the results of planting a tiger lotus in a "shot" glass and it has much weaker stems and much smaller leaves than ones that are left in the substrate. It's about 70% smaller in almost every way.
 
I got a Nuphar japonicum from Greenline that was enormous too. I could only plant it in the substrate by wrapping it in a long lead weight to weigh it down! I had heard horror stories about large rhizomes rotting away to nothing, but it grew away fine and has never looked back. Initially it threw up a good few floating leaves. I left them at first, figuring that the main plant would grow better if I left them and only after a month or so, when I knew the plant was growing well, did I start cutting them off to get lots of submerged leaves. I've now got two growing great.
 
Sorry to throw up such an old thread,but I've just bought one of these,for a two foot tank :wideyed:
I like the idea of containing the roots,do you think the bottom of a plastic drink bottle would work?
Ed,you don't happen to have any photos of yours in situ do you?
 
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