water lotus planting

Question
Hi, i just had a few questions reguarding planting water lotus.  i ordered 10 seeds and so far one has sprouted (today) and i was going to dig up dirt from my yard because i cant find any clay dirt in the store.  I was just wondering, i have a lot of walnut trees here and wanted to no will water lotus live in acidic dirt?  And i was just going to plant them in round plastic food conatiners about 1.5 cups each will this be big enough to plant the seedlings in?  Lastly, i had 5 floating seeds out of the 10 and 1 of them sank but they all absorbed water are these plants alive?  I thought they didnt live if they floated.  Thanks for your help.  This is my first time growing any aquatic plant from seed and so far i estimate 9/10 seed will germinate.

Answer
Hi Dustin,
Thanx for your question.  Water lotus need to live in ponds or lakes, near the shore.  Do not use soil from walnuts or hickory trees.  Lotus must be submerged in water.  They must be submerged deep enough into the water that their roots will not freeze.  I've had good luck germinating lotus seeds by taking a file to them and barely exposing the inner (white/yellow) part of the seed.  Germination occurs quickly in warm water.  Don't use dirt from your yard.  Buy some potting soil and use that.  When planting the seedlings in a pond, make sure there is about and inch of gravel on top of the pot so the soil and seedling won't float out of the pot when you submerge it.  I hope this helps.
Tom