Water Lily Propagation?

[Kristoph91]

Was out with my Dad yesterday and he was showing me a friends pond in a place where he is working, its beautiful!
It has an island in the middle full of red acers... Looks really lovely.

Anyway, it is full of water lilies, the red speckled leaf kind. The owner said I could have some if I wanted, but I didn't know what parts to take or whether or not they would grow under the lights in any of my tanks...

How should I go about removing them, they are heavily rooted into the substrate and I don't want to take them and then for them to die at home.

Advice ?

Cheers guys

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Kris they aren't very suitable for a tank, even the small ones (like Nymphaea ‘Pygmaea Helvola’) grow incredibly quickly.

Perfect time now for propagation, you need to get about 6 inches of rhizome (our lilies don't have a bulb), and if any of the lilies have leaves out of water? the rhizomes are near the top of the water.

Once you've found a rhizome tip, you need a very sharp pair of secateurs or best long armed loppers, and then you just need to pull on the cut section until the roots come out of the mud.

Best of luck, it is a horrible muddy, exhausting job normally

cheers Darrel

 

[Kristoph91]

I have a tall low light hex tank and I was thinking that maybe it might grow in there as it is tall and skinny.

Thanks for the info darrel, it's very helpful! I'll let you know how I get on

 

[dean]

Kris I cut of a very small piece off the same sort of Lilly it's about 25mm square it had a few leaf buds its now in my low tech trigon and one leaf is at the surface
Don't bury it just let it sit on the bottom it will soon root if you bury it it will rot