How to Grow a Lotus Plant Indoors from a Seed

Monday, 27 February 2012

Taking everything i learned from last year:
American Lotus
Sprouting Lotus Seeds
Lotus in the Sun
Final Lotus of the Year

I'm trying to grow some lotus plants inside again this winter. But rather than a big pot with mud i figured i could try placing them in clear plastic cups inside of a fish tank. That way i could see how the tubers or roots are growing too.

The 3 keys to growing them:
Heat - underwater heater, stays right around 88 degrees
Sun - by the window and grow light
Humidity - Saran wrap over tank

Here's the setup. There are 2 Asian Lotus seeds and 2 American Lotus seeds.
I think it took about 5 days for them to break through the seed shell, and 4 days to grow to this point. The Asian Lotus seeds sprouted first.
The roots starting to form.
A week and a half later they had grown quite a bit bigger.

Several leaves.
The first tuber and more roots.

Second tuber a week later, so it appears to still be growing.

We'll see if they continue to grow or die like the many others that i tried growing indoors.

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Bamboo in Heavy Snow

Saturday, 25 February 2012

At least once or twice every winter here in Michigan we get a day of really heavy snow. Even though this has been one of the warmest winters in a long time, i woke up a couple of weeks ago and saw this in the back yard. There was a snow and ice storm and the bamboo was completely bent over and almost broken.
But the bamboo is strong. I went out, shook off the snow and the trees immediately started unbending and straightening up.

Here are links to previous posts about growing bamboo in my backyard in Michigan:

• Bamboo - Transplanting from West Virginia

• Bamboo 2 - First Winter

• Bamboo - 2011 - Winter and New Shoots

Here's what it looked like a few days later, good as new.

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Banana Tree

Thursday, 16 June 2011

I'm surprised how well the banana tree grew in my house. It had lots of roots.
With it now being 80 degrees i decided it was safe to move and replant outside.
It likes a lot of water. I've noticed that even watering it every day outside isn't enough, the leaves sag a lot and turned brown. But a water pan underneath it's doing better.

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Garden - October

Monday, 12 October 2009

Well everything has been picked from the garden except gourds and tomatoes which are still going great. I grew 2 pumpkins that were about softball size and lots of carrots.

Also the bamboo is taking over, by next year my yard will look like a Vietnamese jungle

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