Nymphaea Lilly Bulbs (red Or Green)

[fish-r-fancy]

Hi I just purchased a package of what is called nymphaea lilly bulbs (red or green) at Walmart. This is my first shot at planting so I thought that I would go for what seemed to be easy and cheap plant. I payed $3 for them. In the package I got 2 bulbs that are guaranteed to grow 3 to 5 inches in just 20 days. All I have to do is drop them in the gravel and as the roots develop they plants will anchor themselves. These plants will be going in my 72 gallon bow front tank. For lighting on my tank I have 1 long red light and another long blue light. I would like to know how many hours I should have the lights on in 1 day for the best results. I will be planting these in the back of the tank as they are background plants but I would like to know if they should be planted on seperate sides of the tank or together. My final question is how many lilly pads will I get from just 2 bulbs? Thanks in advance

 

[mattb]

If they are like the one i had in my tank until 2 days ago loads! I pulled mine to rescape and the roots from the bulb had stretched across half of the tank (216l!)

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Wow! Did you get the ones at Walmart that com in a package and you just drop them in the water and they are guaranteed to grow?

Wow! Did you get the ones at Walmart that com in a package and you just drop them in the water and they are guaranteed to grow? NAd where yours green or red?

 

[mattb]

I'm in the UK and we dont have Walmart here! Or any supermarket that sells tropical fish stuff. Got mine in a random plants pack from online. It was red. Just remember not to bury the bulb in the gravel. They do grow very quickly, you can also 'train' them to not send leaves upto the surface by pulling them leaves as soon as they appear, eventually the plant will stop producing these regularly and you will get far more under water leaves.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

They do grow very quickly, you can also 'train' them to not send leaves upto the surface by pulling them leaves as soon as they appear, eventually the plant will stop producing these regularly and you will get far more under water leaves.


Thank you that was very helpful. So if I just pull the all of the leaves as soon as they appear they will look nicer underwater. Thanks I think that is what I will do.

 

[TammyLiz]

Don't pull off all the leaves as soon as they grow! You'd have a plant with no leaves, which is pointless. What Mattb was meaning is that the plant will send floating leaves, aka lily pads like you mentioned, unless you try to train them back. He was suggesting that if you want the leaves to stay low, underwater, then trim off the leaves once they get tall just before they reach the surface, but only those leaves that are trying to shoot up to the surface, not all of them.

I bought a pack just like you're talking about from Walmart. One bulb didn't grow, but the other did. It is green. I actually spent some time earlier today pinching off leaves because I had leaves fully covering half the surface of my 55 gallon tank, and overlapping each other, too. I removed about 15 or 20 leaves and it didn't even seem to make a difference. I wish I could remember when I originally put it in, so I could tell you for sure, but I think it was about 6 months ago. The original bulb had a major die back a couple months after I got it, but there are three smaller plants now, offshoots of the original one. I haven't tried digging them up to see if there are three individual bulbs under there or what.

hth.

Tammy