How to Fertilize Potted Lotus
The editor introduces the basics of flower cultivation, specifically about lotus. How to fertilize potted lotus, let's continue with the introduction from our site editor.
Base Fertilizer: To ensure lotus flowers bloom well, animal phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are essential. In the Beijing area, the traditional method of applying base fertilizer is to add 500 grams of hoof slices as base fertilizer in a 50 cm diameter earthenware pot. This method is too costly for home gardening or large-scale potted lotus nurseries, making it unsuitable and causing people to abandon this traditional practice.
The author has experimented with placing pig hoof shells directly at the bottom of the pot as base fertilizer, with good results. The downside is that the decomposition time is long and it easily produces an unpleasant odor. Later, based on the characteristics of animal phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, the author directly purchased bone meal from feed additives as base fertilizer for large-scale production. When filling the pot with soil, first place the bottom soil, then add a certain amount of bone meal depending on the size and texture of the pot, achieving significant results.
Top-dressing: After sufficient base fertilizer is applied and the lotus tubers are planted, generally no additional fertilization is needed in the early stages. Only during the vigorous growth period, it is necessary to top-dress based on the leaf color and the growth of the lotus. Fast-acting fertilizers like urea and potassium dihydrogen phosphate are mainly used for top-dressing.
Fertilizer Amount: Fertilizing potted lotus must be flexible, not only based on the size of the pot but also considering the different nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium contents in the matrix used. It is not advisable to follow the book's instructions rigidly. If using loam or plain soil as the cultivation matrix for lotus, generally for containers with a diameter of 50 to 60 cm, in addition to using 500 to 800 grams of bone meal as base fertilizer, a small amount of organic compound fertilizer should be mixed into the soil during filling due to the poor soil fertility. For containers with a diameter of 30 to 40 cm, about 250 grams of bone meal can be applied. For smaller containers, such as No. 3 pots with a diameter of 25 cm and No. 4 pots with a diameter of 20 cm, the amount should be reduced according to the actual situation. The amount of top-dressing in practice is difficult to master, requiring staff to operate with a certain amount of grams per pot. Therefore, the author often uses the "five-finger pinch" as a standard: a small pinch with five fingers is suitable for No. 1 pot top-dressing, four fingers for No. 2 pot, and three fingers for No. 3 pot. This is easy to master and less likely to cause fertilizer damage.
Fertilizing Based on Different Varieties: To ensure potted lotus blooms well, it is necessary to carefully observe and be familiar with the characteristics of the variety during cultivation, and fertilize and manage accordingly.
For example, large varieties like 'Sino-US Friendship Peony Lotus' and 'Jianxuan 17' have large leaves and many flowers, with leaves easily turning yellow, requiring more nitrogen fertilizer, with urea as the top-dressing showing significant results. Varieties like 'Red Sun', 'Phoenix Spirit', and 'Thousand Petal Lotus' have multiple layers of petals, heavy flower buds, and softer flower stems, easily causing bending, incomplete blooming, or falling over. This requires phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to be the main focus during fertilization. Taking 'Red Sun' as an example, when adding base fertilizer, the author doubled the amount of bone meal in pots of the same size, basically solving the issue of bending during blooming.
Fertilizing for Dry Cultivation and Potted Cultivation: For potted lotus, placing the pot directly on the ground is called dry cultivation, and placing it in a pond is called pond cultivation, with pond cultivation generally yielding better results. The later top-dressing is mainly urea mixed with a certain amount of potassium dihydrogen phosphate. For dry cultivation, fertilize directly into the pot, following the principle of applying less frequently. It can be observed carefully based on leaf color and the number of flower buds, and then adjusted after 7 days. For pond cultivation, there are various options for top-dressing, such as mixing urea and potassium dihydrogen phosphate in proportion, mixing with fine clay to make small mud balls, and inserting them into the pot soil, or wrapping them in newspaper and quickly inserting them into the pot soil.
The above is a detailed introduction to how to fertilize potted lotus. Have you understood it?