Might get a Lily bloom. Conflicted.

[John58Ford]

It took me too long to get around to messing with the lights today and the lily was already closing up. I do know from the lakes that they close up every night and open in the morning, usually right at bass casting time. Here's a full tank shot:

 

[sir_keith]

Super cool. I gather that this is a rare event in aquaria? How long is the flower likely to last?

 

[John58Ford]

Super cool. I gather that this is a rare event in aquaria? How long is the flower likely to last?

Not common indoors at all, even less common with a non-fertilized system. This may be because it takes several years rooting in most cases and a synthetic sun, allot of people over groom, rescape frequently and run lower light. It hasn't been very well documented in public forum what to expect during this process with different light cycles and husbandry for various lily, but you can find a good bit more info on tiger lotus.

Most lily I have seen in nature bloom for 3-5 days, closing each night, I'm going to hope to get the same out of this one.


Later update/edit: it is apparently confused and opened back up shortly after lights out so I hit it with the lamp for a second for a quick snap.

 

[John58Ford]

Got some good shots this morning. Oddly I think it happens to be a night blooming species, possibly a close relative of Nymphaea 'Texas Shell Pink'. The flower isn't big enough yet at only 6" but it's the closest I could find, and most of the opening has happened with the light off, the flower was already closing back up in these pictures. Hopefully tonight we get the bloom at full extension, the petals still have a few wrinkles.

Used an old towel to cover the light bar reflections so I could try for a few full tank shots. The floor/flex lamp is at various positions throughout these shots but I think I'm getting a decently even color temperature now.

 

[John58Ford]

Last night/this mornings fullest bloom so far, as soon as the lights come on it'll start closing up again:



The petals are much smoother now but it looks like it needs one more cycle to get there. I'm worried it won't; as it's been blooming it's been getting taller, too tall for the rack space. I have put a slit piece of airline tubing on the edge of the lid slider to prevent a cut and looped a rubber band around the stem to pull it down and out but I think it may damage the stem too much. If I let it crash into the rack/tank above it, it won't be able to to close properly and the petals will be bruised.

 

[fishguy1978]

Any updates on Bloomington?

 

[sir_keith]

Any updates on Bloomington?

​

 

[John58Ford]

No good news today, it looked just like yesterday's bloom in the morning so I didn't snap a picture, it's all closed up for the day now. It's been crazy having a night bloomer vs a normal lily. I am concerned about a kink that's developing from winching it down so it doesn't hit the rack but I'm still going we get a full bloom and the pistols open up for us. Maybe tonight.

 

[John58Ford]

This may be as bloomed as it's going to get; there are still some wrinkles on the petals but they may have been damaged. You can see the bruises on the outer shell petals from bruising against the stand the few times as it has bent and twisted itself throughout the process. We can finally see the stamen relaxing, I don't have good enough gear to get it to photograph due to lighting, but to the naked eye you can see some pollen in there too.

 

[lloyd378]

Still super cool that it bloomed! I have heard in the aquaponics industry that some plants / food grown in aquaponics have a hard time blooming as they end up needing different nutrients from the water so the farmers have to add different supplements.
Of course, you aren’t running an aquaponics setup nor are you growing any vegetables, but just kind of reminded me of this topic from an ex member on here that used to run an elaborate aquaponics setup. ( I think his user name was fishpimp or something silly like that).

 

[John58Ford]

The last picture worthy morning was yesterday but I didn't have time to post.

This is as close as I could get a solid focus, untouched/no color balance work.

Thanks all for riding along with me. All I want for Christmas is to cut this monster out of the tank and do my overdue tank chores after presents tomorrow lol.

 

[John58Ford]

Part two, found a new bud today.

I've decided to take a different track this time, I cut half the pads off so I could get some light in the tank. I was losing ludwigia quickly with what was basically a black out. Anyhow here's the fun part.


Here's the lighting issue:

I cut the old bloom after reading; since it's reproductive, it wouldn't cannibalize. I read that I could pollinate but that it would use a ton of energy and nutrient to try to develop a seed pod/bulb.

You can see the nub where I cut it in front and to the right of the new one.

Then I detangled al the pads, I cut the longest ones out, some if these were more than 36" long to my surprise.

The pads average 6x7 with some a little bigger.



And now we wait. I am not going to let the pads over run the tank again this time though, I've always kept the lily pads at 40% cover or less, I'm going to keep the pads in check this time and compare the growth rate. The first bloom was a cool oddity, the second one will not be as much of an inconvenient to tank maintenance and appearance, or I'll just cut it off.

 

[lloyd378]

Part two, found a new bud today.

I've decided to take a different track this time, I cut half the pads off so I could get some light in the tank. I was losing ludwigia quickly with what was basically a black out. Anyhow here's the fun part.

View attachment 10910
Here's the lighting issue:
View attachment 10916
I cut the old bloom after reading; since it's reproductive, it wouldn't cannibalize. I read that I could pollinate but that it would use a ton of energy and nutrient to try to develop a seed pod/bulb.
View attachment 10913
You can see the nub where I cut it in front and to the right of the new one.
View attachment 10914
Then I detangled al the pads, I cut the longest ones out, some if these were more than 36" long to my surprise.
View attachment 10911
The pads average 6x7 with some a little bigger.
View attachment 10915
View attachment 10909

And now we wait. I am not going to let the pads over run the tank again this time though, I've always kept the lily pads at 40% cover or less, I'm going to keep the pads in check this time and compare the growth rate. The first bloom was a cool oddity, the second one will not be as much of an inconvenient to tank maintenance and appearance, or I'll just cut it off.

I have a type of Lully pad in my tank…. I have have to prune mine as my angelfish enjoys pecking at them and after a few days, it’s successful in breaking the pad off of the stock.

 

[John58Ford]

Some progress of the second bloom.
12/31/2021

01/01/2022

01/02/2022 A.M.


01/02/2022 P.M.


There was some very rapid growth in about 9 hours today so I built the LITRACTOR (lily trajectory control orfice).



Ok, so it's just some split airline tubing, but I can control the diameter and aim the lily out of the tank without adding much friction so I felt fancy building it.

 

[John58Ford]

It's been in it's slumped phase since the 4th, it has gained some size and today it shot up vertical again. I'm using a different method to light it this time, and am hoping that combined with the cutting edge high tech LiTraCtOr device I can get it to lean far enough out as the bloom hits it's largest point.

I tightened the ring on 01/04/2022 to keep the slump straightened.


01/07/2022, it popped up straight


You can see the alignment issue in a side profile; I think with the lighting this way it will continue to stretch vertical, but keep the slight s-bend. Hopefully when the petals try to brush the stand I can tighten the ring one last time moving it forward enough to finish it's last days bloom.

 

[John58Ford]

It took a day longer to build up and open than I expected, it also tried to grow taller, so it's a combination of the LiTraCtOr and the rubberband winch technique in the long run. I'm 90% certain it didn't hit the stand this time but the petals still ended up a bit wrinkled.

It opened just before midnight 01/08/2022:
Lit by just the Christmas tree (all white LEDs) it looks a bit washed out

Lit by the 9w led full spectrum (for just a few seconds as to not completely anger the whole rack), I found this to be very dramatic lighting with the rest of the fish room blacked out.


No photos taken yesterday. Today, 01/11/2022, I went for a couple full tank shots after leaving the lamp off to keep it open longer through the morning. I used a red towel to block the light bar scatter this time. I'll be looking for a nice black towel if this blooms again before I dig it up.