Can water-cultured water lilies bloom without soil?

The water lily is a flowering aquatic plant. Because of its many varieties, rich colors, and large, brilliantly colored flowers, it is highly ornamental, so many gardening enthusiasts like to grow it in pots at home for enjoyment, and it also brings a lot of fun to our lives. There is no doubt that when growing water lilies in pots, the water source is very important, but can water-cultured water lilies bloom without soil?

In fact, for water lilies, soil mainly serves to anchor the roots and provide nutrients to the roots. If we can solve these two problems, then that is enough to ensure that water-cultured water lilies can bloom on schedule even without soil. And anchoring the water lily's root tubers is usually quite easy to achieve; generally, placing some small pebbles or perlite at the bottom of the pot will do.

But after all, the growth of water lilies cannot do without nutrients, and they themselves are quite fond of fertilizer. Since there is no soil, it is naturally impossible to provide nutrients to the plant through the soil, so we can only ensure nutrient supply for the water lily through the water. But adding nutrients to the water is also achievable; besides using fertilizer liquid, we can also use nutrient solution.

But whether using liquid fertilizer or nutrient solution, during the growing season the main focus should be on supplementing the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. So, as long as we can get these three nutrient elements, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, into the water, it can generally meet its growth needs. But besides direct fertilization, we can also keep some fish in the water, which can not only purify the water quality just like the water lily's roots, but the fish feed and excrement dissolving in the water can also supplement quite a lot of nutrients for the water lily.

Of course, when we use fertilizer liquid or nutrient solution for water-cultured water lilies, we must control the concentration well and make sure the fertilizer is sufficiently dilute, so that it will not harm the plant's root system. Because with complete water culture, the water lily's root tubers are in direct contact with the water. Once nutrients dissolve in the water, it is equivalent to the water lily's tubers coming into direct contact with the fertilizer, which easily causes fertilizer burn. So, if you adopt soilless water culture for water lilies, you must strictly control the concentration when fertilizing.

It should be noted that if we let water lilies coexist with fish when water-culturing them, we must first scoop the fish out and keep them elsewhere when fertilizing. Usually we need to wait at least 3 weeks before putting the fish back into the pot; otherwise, fertilizing in the water will have a certain impact on the fish's survival, and in severe cases may even lead to the fish dying.