Hi Sarah,
I can't believe they sent you tubers so early. They shouldn't have. Who did your order from?
Okay, the most important thing is to not make them too warm, or have them have alot of temp fluctuations.
Last year, after I thinned my lotus and had about 6 tubers, I put them in a bucket of water to keep for a little while until I could plant them. Then the weather turned really cold. So what I did was to keep them in the bucket, on the deck ONLY during the days when I knew it wouldn't freeze. Then at night, I brought them into the house, to the coldest area. Then I would take them back out during the day.
Make sure none of them are sticking out of the water. You could hold them under with something like an old plate.
I'm afraid your mini greenhouse would get them too warm.
So......out during the day, inside at night. But keep a cloth over the bucket, so they don't get light during the night. Good luck! I'm sure they'll be fine.

Can you store them in a bucket of water in a garage?

My garage is detached so it gets pretty cold.Probably hovering between 30 and 35. I have a cold mudroom that stays about 50 by the outside wall, temp doesn't flucuate much, and it's dark. Anyway I can find a place. So in a bucket with water over the top. Light or no light? About what temp should I store them in the bucket of water? And how long can or should they be stored that way?

And I can plant them when it doesn't freeze every night? (Frost is ok as long as they're under water?)

Thank you both!! This is what I get for getting spring fever before spring!
I will wait to order plants, I will wait to order plants, I will wait to order plants.....

That's okay Sarah. Go easy on yourself! lol! That's like me telling Trickers to send my tropicals at the beginning of May. After I thought it over, I realized they were right, and shouldn't be shipped until the end of May. I'll try to find something else to do make me happy in the meantime. hahaha
I found that I could bring my lotus tubers in at night (in the bucket of water), into a house in the upper 60's, and then back out during the day (if in the 40's), but I think if you keep them dark, you could probably leave them in the bucket of water in your cold room until it warmed up enough to leave them outside in the bucket.
You can keep your eye on them then, and see if they are putting out shoots. I grew one of my tubers in water all summer long. I was going to throw it out, so I just wanted to see what it would do. It put out alot of leaves, while the tuber just floated around.
If you are very careful, you can easily plant the tubers, even if they are putting out shoots.
Just try to imitate early spring at the bottom of a pond......cool and not so bright.
I don't know how you're going to plant your's, but I use the term "plant" loosely. I just lay my tubers on the top of the soil and hold it down with a landscape staple. That's all I do. You don't need as much water over them at the beginning, because you want the water to warm up as much as possible. But once summer gets going, you can lower them or add more water over them, so they're 4-6" below the water's surface.
I think the 2 things you want to avoid the most is 1)freezing the tuber and 2) having it think its warm enough to start to grow, and then being put back in very cold temps.
Sorry for rambling. Its what I do best! :)

Thanks Cath. I'm going to use Joyce's method for planting. She spelled it out over in the gallery in a thread with pictures of her barrels o'lotus.

Mine floated in a bucket of water hovering around freezing in my dark garage for about a month before I got a chance to plant them last spring because of all the surgeries I was having, (complete hysterectomy and then radical bilateral mastectomy 4 weeks apart) just didn't have the strength or ambition. Then when I did get 'em planted, my hubby actually did it with direction from me.
Then mine went outside and for a couple weeks, every once in a while had a skimming of ice in the mornings which melted off by noon every day.

Like Catherine said, never more than 4-6" of water over the soil surface.
With dwarf or 'bowl' lotus, 1-3" suffices.

I always thought it was funny that lotus tubers were supposed to be so fragile. I dumped my left-over stuff after thinning a lotus last spring onto the ground, and just left it there for over a month. We hardly had any rain. When I finally moved it to the compost pile, I found a tuber that still looked good, so I threw it in the pond, and it grew all summer! I think they are pretty hardy. You just don't want to lose that first sprout though.
Can't wait to see pics this summer Sarah!
I've never grown small ones, but I do know that sometimes my larger ones didn't blossom the first summer. Was that ever true with your smaller ones Joyce?

As long as I have you two here, one more question then. The lotus are Chawan Basu, semi-dwarf and Red Scarf, medium. Should I plant them in the full 1/2 whiskey barrels (lined all the way to the bottom) or use one of those liners that are 7" deep and fit in just the top of the 1/2 barrel?

Joyce, I can sympathize. I spent last spring recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. Non-weight bearing forever it seemed like. Had to sit in a lawnchair while my friends raised my plants, set up my new 60 gallon veggie filter etc. Nothing got divided, but none are the worse for it :) Couldn't even get into it to move stuff around 'til July, and I wanted to so baaddd.

Best wishes on your continued recovery, Sarah

Sarah.....how are you going to store them in the winters?
That might make a difference in how you keep them in the summers. Unless you have a garage that stays above freezing, and you can easily push/roll/pull the whiskey barrels to that place, then I would say go with the container that will sit in the top of the whiskey barrel. Will you have something under it, supporting it (under it in the whiskey barrel.....like soil)? Even the smaller container might weigh more than you can easily lift. I know I can't lift mine.

Winterizing - sheesh, you know how to put a damper on my spring fever! My plan was to let the foliage die back, dump 'em out (gently), hose off alot of the dirt, put them in something and cover the roots with something wet/moist and store them in my friend's root cellar (40-50F all winter). Yes?

Meanwhile my beautiful tubers are floating (floating - that means some of the tips are exposed to air - should I have all parts submerged?) in a bucket of pond water in my mud room - dark and about 50-55F. And I'll watch them for new growth. Am I OK?

As big as these tubers are I'm thinking of planting in the whole 1/2 barrel. But the 7" deep insert would certainly be easier (and lighter). Then I could just store the whole insert in the root cellar, maybe cover them with moist mulch. What do you think?

Sarah

LOL! Sorry about that Sarah.
Do you remember the "Debbie Downer" character on SNL? I remind myself of her sometimes! hahaha
I've never stored roots/tubers loose that way, so maybe someone else can talk to you about that.
I take the whole container (the smaller container that is IN the stocktank) and bury the whole thing in a hole in the gorund. Then I do my thinning out in the spring.
It is VERY, VERY heavy. But I have my husband drag it to a hole in the ground in the Fall, next to the house. I cover it with leaves there.
I would love to experiment sometime, and dump it all out in late fall, and harvest some tubers then, and keep them over winter. Its just that my basement is too warm.........60's.
If you try to save all the tubers and roots loose over winter, my fear is that they will dry out. I think they would do even better just floating in water, that you might change a couple times over the winter. I wish I could advise you better about this. But I do think they are a bit hardier than we've been lead to believe. Worst case senario.....they die over winter, and you've learned what NOT to do next year! That's how I've learned! (a degree from "the school of hard knocks" as they say!)
I would try to keep those tips in the bucket under water. In nature, they would be at the bottom of a pond, and that's what they like. So somehow try to keep them gently under water. maybe with a plate on top of the water??
P.S. Even if you do move the whole container to the root cellar for winter.......keep it filled with water then too. You may have to add water to it a time or 2 throughout winter. Remember......they are usually at the bottom of a pond all winter. They need water, not just moist mulch.
Good luck Sarah. You'll do fine!

Just have to throw my 2 cents in. Last year I planted a lotus in a half whiskey barrel. Man you talk about heavy!! I had it in the wrong place to start with (definitely not enough sun) so my SO had to drag it with a hand truck to a more sunny area. Well that lotus was a happy camper but I hadn't thought about what I was going to do in the winter. I didn't have the heart to have the SO drag the barrel to my cold frame greenhouse or to dig a hole to bury it...so I had him make a fence around the barrel with enough space between the barrel & the fence to fill with mulch. I put a tarp over the top and added more mulch. Granted I'm in a warmer zone but it worked real well. Maybe add more mulch around to protect it??
Just a thought
Evelyn

Thanks for the input Evelyn. Sounds like your solution was good! I'm willing to bury it or move it or whatever, 1st I just want 1 to GROW!

Does anyone divide them in the fall once they're dormant and just store the viable tubers? If so, how?

Cath, I set a coffee up on the labels on the tubers and everything is submerged now :) They labels are plastic strips very loose around the root.

I'm not sure what you said Sarah, but what flavor was the coffee? Was it caffeine-free? :)

You Girls are a hoot!! I can always count on you to bring my spirits up, just by reading your posts! Thanks for the therapy!
As well as all the great info!
Dianne

OK, let's try that again. The tubers have plastic strip labels on them, about 6" long, I set a coffee CUP (full of water of course, since it's submerged) on the strips and that holds the tubers under water:)
But since you asked, I prefer dark strong coffee, sometimes with Amaretto flavoring.

I would like to just sink the inserts in the pond, but I'm running out of room for pots sunk for the winter!

Dianne, we strive to be entertaining!!

Sarah (lol and grinning like the Cheshire Cat!)

You know, you girls could go on the road as a Comedy act, if you ever get bored with ponding!!! Oh, but then who would I get all my info from?!?
Keep up the act, its wonderful!!
Dianne

Oh no Dianne, ponding will never be boring! And now Cath has 2 new tanks to keep her busy, and me with my baby tubers to tend...

I've made the executive decision to plant them in the inserts that only go 1/3 of the depth of the 1/2 whiskey barrels...but I have a couple weeks to change my mind. Anyone object?

Hey Sarah.......how are those tubers holding up?

The water has a bit of scum on the top, but the tubers look the same. No new growth.
Still freezing here at night and we've had 8" of snow in the past week, though it melts during the day. I'm hoping to get them outside in about 2 weeks, even if I have to cover them at night.
S

Sounds good Sarah. They're just continuing to have a winter slumber. Keep us posted!

Oh, I shouldn't let myself fall behind on these posts!

I had my tuber floating and a leaf (rolled up but it didn't look the same as the growing tips) did dry out. I think I'll lose that one but the others are swelling and reaching for the surface! Next time I'll weigh it down. The other thing I found when I went to pot it up - two weeks ago, I think - was a clear slimy gunk on all the tips. Any of you ladies know what that was? I rinsed it off and it showed up again the first week in the pot but it seems to be gone now.

Sarah, I see yours are still in water. I asked in another post. Any slimy stuff on yours?

Vanessa

HI Vanessa,
Is the gunk only on the tubers that have been floating in water? I've never had gunk.
My lotus are still buried in the ground. I'm thinking in the next couple of weeks I'll dig them up. I hope I don't start seeing aerials growing out of the ground before then!
I'm not quite as intimidated by them now, now that I've had the experience of dumping them out and cutting out tubers.
The one I thinned last spring I think I'll leave alone. The other one will be in its 3rd year, but only put out 1-2 blossoms last summer and put out nothing its first year. I can't decide if I should thin that one or leave it alone??
Vanessa, sometimes well water can make slime. I don't think I'd worry about it. Who knows.....maybe its good for the tuber!

Hi Catherine,
The one tuber that was in the bucket is the first and only tuber! I think I used water from the stocktank pond for the bucket. That's filled from city water with dechlor but who knows what was also growing in there by that time. I freaked at the time but I'm not going to worry about it since it's growing anyway.
Your experience is definitely giving me confidence. I'll bet you're itching to dig them up!
Vanessa

Hi Vanessa,
I'm sorry I forget......was this a new tuber? My memory is getting worse by the second!
I am excited to dig them up........or should I say I'm excited to have my husband dig them up! They are sooooo heavy!
I also can't wait for all those little froggies to come and sing to me! It will probably be 2 months before I see much growth from the lotus though. But I can be patient....... :)

i have the exact same problem, my tubers i got in the mail are sending out little shoots... so im nuo sure if they have gone out of dormancy... so i dont want to place them in cold water... help?

It's a new tuber, Catherine. I hope I get frogs. I don't know if they're around here or if they'd be able to get into the tank. Sometimes I think I hear frogs or toads at night in the summer but I can't figure out where it's coming from. Set all the neighbor dogs to howling, creeping around with a flashlight so I quit looking.

cjohns8, I'm not ignoring you. I'm letting the more experienced people answer. It's my first lotus and I don't know what you do if it's already starting to grow!
Vanessa

Vanessa........"My" frogs jump up into my Rubbermaid stocktanks......which are 25" high.
They're professionals. ;)

Vanessa, I never knew we had tree frogs til I put in my pond. With in a few weeks they showed up, hanging on the side of the house!