# Plant bulbs from petco?



## JamieL

Anyone have success with these? I just bought a pack, it says it contains 2 aponogeton, one water lily and one onion...but there's 6 things in here. Does anyone know which way is up on these? It says to bury bulb 3/4 in the substrate, but I figure they'd be better off buried right side up. Help?


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## Chachi

I saw those when I was there the other day and almost bought them but wasn't sure what to do with them either!! LOL Good luck!


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## Blue Fish

Oh, I bought some on a whim awhile back, and about three of the six grew. Two of them are actually fairly attractive...the other is just, well, ugly.  Long and stringy leaves that flatten out about sixteen inches out from the thread-like portions...it's just NOT an attractive thing, but I have no idea what it is, lol! 

I didn't plant them at all, just stuck them on top of the substrate (you may have to soak them a bit before they'll sink) and put them into a 10g holding/QT tank that I use for plants. I'd throw in some old tank water every now and again to fertilize them, and they grew without issue. 

If you start to see clear or white fuzz around them, they're no good and they're molding, just take them out and dump them. 

As an experiment they were fun, but I don't know if I'd really buy them again to actually populate a tank with plants though. 
Have fun with them, it is kind of neat to watch them sprout and grow, and some of them are rather pretty.


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## JamieL

Cool! Yeah, I have lots of plants, but i figured theses were cheap, and it would be like a experiment so why not. The smaller divided side of my 20L is empty because the fish is in QT so I just tossed the in there...at least the ones I'm sure are bulbs, the other two things look like giant hard raisins and I don't know if they're some kind of filler or something. I have a bowl on my counter with a little soil and some scrap floaters, so I tossed them in there in case they do grow. They floated, all the others sank except for one, which was a different shape than the others. Maybe if they sprout and i can actually see roots I'll plant them then.  did it take very long before they started to grow?


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## JamieL

Ok, the floating one is definitely the onion...it's got teeeeeeeeeny roots poking out at the rounded bottom of the bulb and a pointed top. Going to try to stick that down into the soil. The other ones have a fuzzy side and a smooth side. Not fuzzy like mold, but like a coconut. I'm curious to see which side is root and which side will sprout!


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## sandybottom

the "husk" covered ones are the aponogeton bulbs,the large raisin type is red tiger lotus"zenkeri" and the other is onion.keep the reciept and send the duds back. the company will replace them. these plants do best with ferts.root tabs atleast.red lotus gets huge and can flower at night.aponogeton looks best if planted all together about 1.5in apart.onion prefers med to high light.rest can grow under leds.all do better under stronger light with co2.


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## JamieL

Oh! So these are the lotus bulbs? I must have gotten extra, 2 lotus and 3 aponogeton! That was very helpful, thanks! I have soil substrate, 3wpg fluorescent and DIY co2. Hopefully these thrive.


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## babystarz

Hold on to your receipt! The issue with these bulbs is they tend to sit on the shelf for so long a lot of the bulbs are no longer good. You can send for replacements for the duds per the warranty on the box. As you may be able to tell, a lot of us have had to do this. I think maybe 1 in 4 of my bulbs ever sprouted. The lotus should be buried about halfway, maybe a bit more. I usually leave a bit of the top exposed and the leaves grow from that spot. Prune the leaves before they reach the surface of the water or you will end up with a monster plant that takes over your tank (found this out the hard way!) The plant will grow 20+ leaves that continue to grow and block out light to all other plants if you don't keep it in check. Once the plant is established you can separate at the roots and split into multiple plants that will continue to grow. I ended up with about 6 from one bulb.


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## JamieL

Ok, I planted them all. The cories seem overly interested in the onion, hopeful they don't disturb it. I'll report back with their progress!


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## JamieL

Is it bad if the bulbs float? I wedged them into the sand, but otherwise they float, I hope that doesn't mean it's a bad bulb. The aponogetons sank, but the others float.


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## babystarz

JamieL said:


> Is it bad if the bulbs float? I wedged them into the sand, but otherwise they float, I hope that doesn't mean it's a bad bulb. The aponogetons sank, but the others float.


I think the lotus bulbs do float if not wedged into the soil firmly. My onion bulbs all did float and never sprouted, so it's possible that floating means they're bad.


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## JamieL

This is pretty wild...I'm guessing red tiger lotus bulbs sprout....red? It's been less than 48 hours and I see red on one of them!


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## sandybottom

if you want the lotus to fill out prune it when it gets to be 3-4 in tall.then it will grow outward.once it finds the surface it gets hard to control.they do better with open top tanks if you want floating leaves.the condensation ruins the leaves if the tank is covered.i usually sprout them in a qt tank in case there is the possible issue of molding/rotting bulbs.my onions floated even after they grew 6 in long.goldfish kept diggin' em up.


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## fidget

babystarz said:


> Prune the leaves before they reach the surface of the water or you will end up with a monster plant that takes over your tank (found this out the hard way!) The plant will grow 20+ leaves that continue to grow and block out light to all other plants if you don't keep it in check. Once the plant is established you can separate at the roots and split into multiple plants that will continue to grow. I ended up with about 6 from one bulb.


Thanks for the info! I had no idea. It's growing faaaaast! :-D
Mine are actually all growing like crazy. I liked them so much I bought another package. I guess I got lucky- only one from the first bunch didn't sprout.


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## babystarz

JamieL said:


> This is pretty wild...I'm guessing red tiger lotus bulbs sprout....red? It's been less than 48 hours and I see red on one of them!


Yep! They are a lovely red/purple color. Because you're dosing with CO2 they will be especially vibrant.


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## JamieL

It's been about 10 days...2/3 aponogeton bulbs sprouted, one is so tall already! The onion sprouted, and so far no change on the lily bulbs.


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