Lotus seeds needs to be scarified in order to germinate. Online I found 2 methods. One is to use a knife and cut a slit until you see the white parts. Another is to file the outer coating until the white part shows. I tried the filing method, I gave up after an hour. Cutting a slit is tough but much easier than filing down. (In nature lotus seeds spend 50 to 100 years at the bottom of a pond before they germinate. You can see how tough that coat is)
To get the seeds to germinate you're suppose to soak the seeds in distilled or rain water. I put the seeds in a jar and covered them with rain water that I collected. Place the seeds in a warm location and change the water every few hours when it gets cloudy.
It's only been a few hours since I started the seeds but I have noticed something. From what I read online the outside coating gets lumpy due to water absorption. That happens after a few days. The one that I filed down is already lumpy. We'll see if that speeds it up in a few days.
Hi. Lotus are fun to grow. Congradulations on your seed. What works well for me is to "scar" the seed on the cement. Only to the point where you see a line that is white around the oval rubbed area. If you see the fleshy white you have gone too far. The seed will be more sepatable to bacteria because the shell is actually open. Inside each seed is an embryo plant and you don't want bacteria to weaken the plant. I only "scar " to the point where I see the oval ring . This works well and the seed absorbs the water and the area that was scared takes on a leathery texture. Make sure and adjust the water debth to the EXACT debth of the plants final location before the first leaf reaches the top because once it reaches the to the plant is not accepting of water debth differences. An example is my lotus bog is 13 inches of water. So I grow my seeds in a container of exactly 13 inches of water so the plant can be easily transfered when ready. Remember to feed your lotus after the fourth floating leaf has emerged. Until then they are fed from the seed. Use a good fertilizer like highland rim it has a ratio of 10:26:10. You will notice the high ratio of phosupherous in that ratio . That will help with blooming when the time comes. It the fertiziler also keeps the leaves nice and green! Make sure your lotus recieves 6 plus hours of direct sun! They really love that. I wish you the very best in growing the lotus and next year you should have some beautiful flowers! Keep us posted on how its growing! Happy gardening :)
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