Red Tiger Lotus training

[Courtneybst]

Hey everyone,

I think I know the answer to this but I'm not 100% sure.

I've got some Red Tiger Lotus that are doing really well, the only thing is the leaves are getting huge, like 1ft wide kind of huge...I was hoping to have smaller leaves on shorter stems, so if I keep trimming it will the leaf and stem size get smaller eventually or will it just make the plant compact? I'm not really sure how it will respond. Any help appreciated.

 

[Gill]

In short yes, keep trimming and the stems will get shorter and leaves smaller.

 

[Courtneybst]

In short yes, keep trimming and the stems will get shorter and leaves smaller.

Thanks Gill, I'll do that.

 

[zozo]

Nice leaf... I like it... 🙂

It's in the maturity of the Rhizome / Tuber 🙂 The bigger the bulb, the more energy it stores, and the bigger the plant can and will grow till it reaches its genetic limit. These bulbs can be divided, this makes smaller bulbs with lesser stored energy and thus producing smaller plants. It's a form/method of rejuvenating the plants. This is also what you buy in the LFS, small bulbs / small plants.

If you don't like to make the mess with digging it up and research how to divide it, then trimming off leaves before they mature is the only option.

Here is some more information on propagating Lily's by rhizome division.

http://natures-water.com/education_information/resources/pond_plants/aquatic_plant_propagation.pdf

The Tiger Lily has a Mexicana rhizome.

 

[Courtneybst]

Nice leaf... I like it... 🙂

It's in the maturity of the Rhizome / Tuber 🙂 The bigger the bulb, the more energy it stores, and the bigger the plant can and will grow till it reaches its genetic limit. These bulbs can be divided, this makes smaller bulbs with lesser stored energy and thus producing smaller plants. It's a form/method of rejuvenating the plants. This is also what you buy in the LFS, small bulbs / small plants.

If you don't like to make the mess with digging it up and research how to divide it, then trimming off leaves before they mature is the only option.

Here is some more information on propagating Lily's by rhizome division.

http://natures-water.com/education_information/resources/pond_plants/aquatic_plant_propagation.pdf

The Tiger Lily has a Mexicana rhizome.

Thank you! That's quite interesting actually and would explain why one of the offshoots an old bulb produced is still small. It has very little reserves since there's virtually no bulb.

 

[zozo]

It has very little reserves since there's virtually no bulb.

That's it!.. 🙂 You can compare the Mexicana tuber somewhat with a Potato plant. The initial plant starts from a seed that develops one tuber but while it matures it grows runners that will develop its own tuber again. But we do harvest the potato before each tuber forms a new plant.

The lily does this much slower, but if you wait long enough you will pull out a connected bunch of plants and tubers. In mature tubers, you'll see distinct growing eyes. that can develop small plantlets, these you can cut off with a small piece of tuber still attached. Depending on the food source and light conditions this plantlet can stay rather small for many years. This way you can grow any type of lily in an aquarium, even the ones that are deemed much too big and not aquarium suitable. Well, they would be in mature form but this obviously is very relative. 🙂

The other rhizome types of the lily sp. stay attached and grow horizontally in and over the substrate. But can be cut, if cut naturally they live on to become a separate plant(s).

 

[tiger15]

Another way that may work is to plant it in a pot to restrain its tuber growth. I have a red tiger lily planted in a quart size net pot for years and it remains small both in leaf size and bush density. My complaint is that it is not getting bigger. After reading this, I realize that its restraint growth is probably due to tuber bound (not root bound as the net pot allows the roots to reach out). So I am thinking of repotting it in a bigger pot to see if it will get larger. If you plant it in the substrate with unconstrained tuber growth, it will likely reach enormous size.

 

[Courtneybst]

Another way that may work is to plant it in a pot to restrain its tuber growth. I have a red tiger lily planted in a quart size net pot for years and it remains small both in leaf size and bush density. My complaint is that it is not getting bigger. After reading this, I realize that its restraint growth is probably due to tuber bound (not root bound as the net pot allows the roots to reach out). So I am thinking of repotting it in a bigger pot to see if it will get larger. If you plant it in the substrate with unconstrained tuber growth, it will likely reach enormous size.

That's an interesting concept actually. Yeah with no constraints the leaves are growing over 1ft wide!!