Cultivation of gorgeous and sacred flower – The Lotus

Almost everyone is fascinated by the glorious flower of lotus. It has a sense of royalty that attracts the eyes of every passerby and the colours are mesmerizing at the same time. And having them in your backyard or in your home is going to be super exciting and delightful. Growing this sacred flower can be a little tricky. But once you master the art of growing them, there is no turning back. Let’s learn some simple methods to successfully cultivate lotuses.

Planting lotuses with seeds require some attention. Let me tell you a fascinating fact, the seeds of lotus are one of the longest living seeds of plant kingdom. Due to their seed dormancy, they can live anywhere between 200 to 1300 years!

• So, one needs to deactivate the mechanisms of dormancy in order to germinate the seeds. The seed coat of lotus is very tough which doesn’t allow water to gets absorbed. All you need is to rub the seeds on a sand paper or any rough surface. Even concrete will work! Rub the seeds till a white layer is exposed and black part disappears.
• After that you need to place the seeds inside a glass container filled with water. You can also use some other containers but make sure to remove any seed which is rotting otherwise it will kill the whole bunch!

• After a period of 4 to 7 days, you will be able to see the seeds sprouting. They will start to grow and in 2- 4 weeks, the very first set of leaves will appear.
• The water in the container should be clean and should be free of dust particles. If you feel like it has become muddy or something, change the water. You should keep these glass containers in shade most of the time.
• As the leaves emerge, it is now time to shift them into large containers. The container should be deep (around 12 to 16 inches), otherwise the leaves of plants will start to jump out and scatter themselves. You can choose the diameter as per as the availability of space in your home or in your pond but it should have a minimum diameter of 20 to 24 inches. Drainage holes should not be present.
• Layer the container at the bottom with 1 to 2 inches of light sand. The second layer is formed by adding 3 to 4 inches of clayey soil. Alternatively, you can skip the sand and only layer the container with heavy clayey soil. Light soil particles will start to float and make the soil muddy so it is better to keep them in bottom as they are also necessary for aeration.

• If you are planting using tubers, keep the pointy heads towards the surface and carefully place them. Similarly, the saplings must be placed with care. Do not bury them deep, try to keep them on the surface.
• Lastly, water the plants daily. Make sure the soil is moist at all times otherwise the plants will fail to grow. One important thing to care about is the temperature of water. Lotuses love a warm water bath not a cold one. Try to use water with a room temperature or in winters you can even heat it up a little. In summers the sun will take care of the temperature.
• After the stems have grown enough, if you have a pond or an artificial large water body, you can shift these plants along with the container as they will be easy to manage and fertilize.
• Lotus flowers need a full bright sun for 6 to 8 hours every day to bloom.
• As the leaves grow in size, you can increase the water content of the container till the leaves are flat and floating. Try and keep the water level same especially in summers.
• With time you will observe that the plants have started to develop aerial leaves which are above the floating ones and have a longer stem. After that, it’s only a matter of time and you will be able to witness the grand event of a lotus blooming in front of your eyes.

P.S. – You would need to wait a year or two before seeing this, but don’t let this stop you!

Written by
Antra Thada