How to grow bowl lotus hydroponically? A step-by-step guide

Bowl lotus, because of its smaller size, does not need a very large container or space when growing, and is a variety often chosen for home plants. Bowl lotus has large flowers and bright colors, with a delicate fragrance that carries far, and has extremely strong adaptability; it can also be grown in pots and cut for vases, and in modern landscape gardening it is increasingly favored by people and more widely used.

1. Sowing

(1) Time:

Any season is fine, but the water temperature must be above 16°C.

(2) Seeds:

Lotus seeds have a hard shell, so before soaking the seeds you must make an opening by hand. One end of the lotus seed has a small pointed tip, and the other end has a small dent. Rub the end with the small dent on rough cement ground until a layer of skin is worn through; be careful not to damage the kernel inside, and do not remove the shell. The purpose of rubbing the skin is to let water seep in through this opening, so the seed absorbs water and swells.

(3) Soaking the seeds:

Put the seeds whose shells have already been opened into warm water at 20-40 degrees, changing the water once every 1-2 days; they generally sprout after 3-5 days. Promptly remove lotus seeds that produce white foam and cannot sprout or emerge. Generally, when external conditions are suitable, seeds that still do not sprout after more than 7 days will no longer sprout. Seeds without the ability to sprout often float to the water surface, with yellowing embryos and rotting, foul-smelling cotyledons.

(4) Transplanting the sprouts:

Choose a 45 cm-75 cm bottomless ceramic pot or plastic flowerpot, add half a pot of garden soil or river pond mud free of chemical pollution, add water two weeks in advance to soak it, and do not fertilize. Press the fine roots of the small lotus seedlings into the mud, one plant per pot; during transplanting, mix in a small amount of decomposed cake fertilizer liquid or soybean meal or peanut meal as base fertilizer. However, although bowl lotus is a fertilizer-loving plant, it must not be overfertilized; generally, when planting, mixing a small amount of cake fertilizer powder and other base fertilizer into the growing medium can meet its needs for the whole year, and no additional topdressing is needed, so as to avoid excessive vegetative growth.

2. Light

(1) Bowl lotus likes ample sunlight; if there is less than 4 hours of light per day, it cannot form flower buds.

(2) During the growing period, it needs to be placed on a sunny balcony or in a sunny spot by a windowsill so it receives full sun.

(3) When floating leaves cover the pot surface, promptly press the floating leaves into the pot mud as well, so as not to affect ventilation and light penetration.

(4) Bowl lotus plants are delicate; in summer and early autumn, appropriate shading is needed around midday to avoid direct strong light. If exposed to direct strong light, both leaves and petals are prone to scorching and withering.

3. Pruning

When leaves grow too many and too densely, some leaves can be appropriately removed to help the plant breathe and ventilate. It also helps with flowering. When growing multiple plants in the same container, if you find leaves competing for sunlight, you should promptly divide them into separate pots.

A reminder for friends who love growing bowl lotus: to extend the flowering period, in summer you can use a piece of decomposed cake fertilizer crumbs the size of a plum pit as topdressing, stuffing it into the mud at the center of the pot. Never apply it around the pot wall. It easily causes root damage. Base fertilizer must not be applied too much, otherwise in mild cases the leaves flourish but flowers are sparse, and in severe cases the seed lotus will be “burned to death.” After one year of cultivation, bowl lotus has reduced fertility and dense underground rhizomes, so it is best to turn over the pot and change the soil each year before sprouting in early spring.