Water Lotus Seeds

Question
QUESTION: Have you grown lotus from seeds before? I recently recieved seeds for several lotus plants from Amsterdamn. I have drill a small hole in the round section of the seed and am now soaking them. Once they sprout, what next?
ANSWER: From my web site:
"To germinate lotus seeds, you cannot just dump them in some wet soil or a pail of water. First, you must be sure that they are fertile. Fertile seeds are larger and hard. Infertile seeds are shriveled up. Anchor each seed in a vice. Then, use a file to file (large ones for wood, plastic, and metal are okay but a nail file is too, although it takes longer) through the dark seed coat. Once you see a white to yellow spot, you have broken through. When I tried this, the seeds kept slipping out of the vice so I just cracked them (barely, do not split them) with the vice, and they later sprouted. Place the filed seeds in some pond water. Every day, replace the water with fresh water or bacteria and/or fungus will grow. When something begins to sprout, place the seed right on the surface of some mud but into it a little. Keep the mud wet but do not put a lot of water over the seed. Once it starts to put out leaves and good roots, put it in the pond under just a few inches. You may need to protect it from any fish. Every few weeks, lower it a bit until it is about 3 to 6 inches deep, depending on whether it is a dwarf or giant variety."

I tried it once but the baby lotus did not survive once I potted them outside.  I hope you have better luck!

Robyn
fishpondinfo.com



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How many lotus seeds per pot would you recommend? I am using 5 gallon pots and placing them in half whiskey barrels, 25 gallons and placing them on a patio.

Answer
You can always transplant the baby lotuses later if they take.  If you have enough time, pots, room, etc., you could put just one seed per pot.  If not, then you can stick groups of two to five seeds in a 5 gallon pot.  It's rare to have them all do well so, over time, you can move any extras if more than one survives in a particular pot.