(A healthy lotus plant in my pond)

This guide will walk you through how to get your lotus tuber off to a good healthy start, with a good outcome. I know I had to kill a few myself to learn how to properly start a tuber, they tend to rot instead of grow sometimes. This will save you a lot of money!

First of all, inspect your tuber carefully when you receive it. It's ok if there's a little surface fuzzy mold on it, but you don't want the tuber to be mushy and brown. It's a goner if it looks like that. Inspect the tuber and make sure it has at least one intact growing tip, too.

 This is what a healthy growing tip looks like. This one actually has two!

Like I said, it's ok if the tuber has a little bit of white surface mold. That kind doesn't do well underwater and is only an issue if you're storing the tuber for a little longer before planting. If you are storing the tuber for a little while longer before planting and it has mold, then dip it in a fungicide solution, like Physan 20 mixed 1 t per gallon of water, or in a 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, or spray a little lysol spray on it, let it stand a minute, then rinse it off  carefully in slightly warm water. Then take the tuber, put it in a little bit of peat moss in a baggie, and store it in a cool dark dry place like a basement or a refrigerator.

If you're planting your tuber now, just carefully rinse off any white mold that may be present in tepid water.

To plant a lotus tuber, you need the following:

a lotus pan (pot) or other appropriately large container that is round with NO holes

topsoil, with clay is preferable, but use what you have. Not potting soil.

a rock or piece of a brick

water hose

a heat mat is ideal if it's still cold outside, or even a heating pad you'd use for an earache, etc

You'll need these later:

some pea gravel, gravel, or lava rock

Probably an assistant to help you get this heavy thing in your pond!

Take your pot or container at least 12" across and 7 inches tall round and with no holes. Fill it with approximately 4 inches of the topsoil. Lay your lotus tuber on top of the soil with the growing tip point pointing towards the center of the pot. It's ok if the stubby end of the tuber is close to the edge of the pot. It only grows in one direction, and that's the end with the tip. It will grow to the edge of the pot and then spiral around and around in the pot.

Take the brick half or rock and lay it across the tuber to anchor it to the soil. Don't lay the rock/brick on a growing tip! You'll kill your plant if you do that.

Now take your pot and put it in a nice warm sunny place. I like to sit mine on a heat mat in the greenhouse, but you can also cover the top of the pot with clear plastic for solar heat and put it in the sun, then take it inside if it's cool at night. After you decide a good location for your pot, then carefully add warm water to the pot to give it a nice warm start. You need enough water to cover the growing tip completely, but it doesn't have to be covered by much, only an inch or so is fine. Another good option I've found is to place a fully submersible aquarium heater in the pot with the tuber and water. Don't put the heater on the tuber, just lay it in there near the tuber. Set your heater on 75-80 degrees, then remove the heater when you are seeing good growth during warmer weather.

Check your tuber for signs of growth. Keep the water topped up. When you see green leaves starting, you can add more water to your container and fill it up completely. I like to take a little pea gravel and put it around the tuber and over the surface of the soil to keep it from making a mess in the pond and keep the fish from digging it out. If you have larger fish, use lava rock, they don't like to dig in the sharp rocks. Be very careful not to break or cover the growing tips. Every few days, "overwater" the pot so that a little water runs over the side and keeps the water fresh and clean. Lotus leaves are sensitive to buildup of contaminants and salts in the water and leaving them in the same water without any change of water can cause the leaves to burn around the edges and rot.

 If your pond is warm, when your plant has a few leaves, you can now put the potted tuber in the edge of the pond.  Don't worry if the leaves are a few inches under the water (6" or so is fine) right when you put it into the pond--the leaves' stems will actually stretch to rise to the top of the water, on a sunny day, usually in only a few hours to overnight. So check back with it in a few hours to see this. If not, check back the next day. If they're not stretched up to the surface after a day or so, you probably put it in too deep, pull it back out towards the edge or prop it up to a more shallow depth with some blocks under it. After the leaves stretch to the top of the water surface, you can then slowly nudge your lotus plant a few inches a day to deeper water. For your ultimate location, around 2.5 to 3 feet is very good, this will help keep the tuber from freezing in the winter and increase hardiness!

You also can grow a lotus on a sunny patio or deck, or outside the pond. They DO need sun for good blooming and growth, don't grow it in the shade. They need full sun for good blooms!

After one month, you can fertilize your lotus plant, and should do so for good growth and blooming.

Thanks for reading my guide on how to start a lotus plant from a tuber, I also have another guide that you can read that shows how to take care of your lotus plant from this point, or if you decide to purchase a prestarted plant at a nursery. They are more expensive, but the hard part has been done for you!

If this guide was helpful to you, please take a moment and rate it as helpful. Use it for your personal use however you wish.

Thank you,

Sandy Burrell, Northern Tropics, Muncie, IN