| I do not grow any lotus in a pond, they are heavy feeders and the amount of
fertilizer needed will turn the water green AND most of my fish are 30 inches
and they would have a "field day" with the lotus.
These lotus are "stock" plants we grow to sell. In late
January we harvest tubers and begin shipping them in February. Around
mid-March, when we are done shipping and we start new plants for shipping in
2 years. The rows of pots you see will be allowed to grow for 2
years. We have pots that are not shown that will be harvested in January
of 2005.
We start the tubers in the heated greenhouse and let them grow until there is
no danger of frost. After frost danger is past, we move the huge pans
outside and dig them into the ground. This is how the bed looks before we
put down hardwood mulch to keep the weeds down. The pans are watered with water
from the well that has a pH of 6.0 and fertilized once a week. We have a
fertilizer injector that we use in the greenhouse that mixes the fertilizer to
right ratio of water
The tuber must be kept warm if it
is to root and grow.
One trick if you keep your
house on the cool side is to set the pan on a heating pad that is set to
"low". | 
