Can bowl lotus be grown completely in water all the time?

The ornamental value of the bowl lotus is very high, and this is a consensus everyone can see. As an aquatic plant, the bowl lotus is very suitable for water cultivation, but it is usually in a state of water on top and soil at the bottom, which makes it easier to grow well. So, without soil, can bowl lotus be grown completely in water all the time? Perhaps this is a question many plant lovers are thinking about or have thought about.

As for whether bowl lotus can be grown completely in water all the time without soil, we still have to consider different situations. If the pot contains only water and no substrate or decorative material at all, it is usually not easy to grow well. This is not because there is no soil to obtain nutrients to maintain growth; we can solve that problem with nutrient solution.

It is mainly because the roots of the bowl lotus are photophobic, and with no soil at the bottom of the pot, the roots of the bowl lotus also tend to float freely in the pot, and the whole plant drifts around like duckweed, and the roots can never be fixed in place. If the roots are exposed to light or come into contact with air, they often tend to wither, until they die.

If we consider it from this angle, the bowl lotus is usually not suitable for being grown completely in water all the time. So, if we want the bowl lotus to maintain normal growth under pure water cultivation, then on the one hand we need to fix its roots, on the other hand it needs to obtain sufficient nutrients from the water, and on another hand we need to avoid the roots being exposed to light and avoid contact with air.

As for the first aspect, we can place a few pebbles at the bottom of the container to fix the roots; for the second aspect, we can use nutrient solution to solve the problem of nutrient supply; for the third aspect, we can shade the roots from light. If everyone can handle these three aspects properly, it is generally possible to grow it completely in water all the time.

But after all, a pure water cultivation environment for bowl lotus cannot compare with a care environment of water on top and soil below, so the ornamental value of bowl lotus grown in pure water is naturally not as good as that of using both water and soil. Whether in terms of growth vigor or flowering effect, it often cannot match the situation where water and soil coexist. This is mainly because when bowl lotus is grown with both water and soil, the roots can grow better in the mud, the plant grows more vigorously, and the flowers are naturally more numerous, larger and more brightly colored.