Dwarf lily pruning/propagation

[doktor zhivago]

Hi all

I have a dwarf lily getting huge. How does one propagate or prune it properly? It's not crazy big yet but I'd like to get ahead of if

 

[FLFishChik]

Dwarf Lily will usually propagate itself when it’s happy (it’s a heavy, heavy root feeder), by making little planlets. Once you see some good root growth on the little plantlets, you can snip the “runner” from the mother plant and carefully plant it in the substrate. 
 

you can prune a lily by snipping the stem of the leaf/pad you want to remove as close to the base as possible. 

Edited March 15 by FLFishChik

[JoeQ]

Im not sure how to propagate another bulb but for trimming (to keep it short) I usually snip the tallest leaf out of 3, leaving the plant with 2 submerged leaves. Once a 3rd emerges again I repeat the process.

If you have lilly pads  which you want to get rid of I have had success with snipping all but one.  Once another shoot emerges i then snip the last lilly pad. Sadly this procedure did not succeed with a tiger lotus

[Tony s]

I have had luck trimming back down to the bulb with both types of lilies. although is less stress on the bulb to get it trimmed way before it starts to shoot for the surface. robs less energy from it.

even had the tiger lily start new bulb-lets for me. have 4 or 5 where i used to have 2. although one is growing in some dwarf sag. rootlets have descended down 1.5 inches to the substrate. ah, well scratch that. either my skunk corys or my bolivian rams have knocked it loose. I now have a floating tiger lily

[JoeQ]

On 3/15/2024 at 6:55 PM, Tony s said:

I have had luck trimming back down to the bulb with both types of lilies. although is less stress on the bulb to get it trimmed way before it starts to shoot for the surface. robs less energy from it.

even had the tiger lily start new bulb-lets for me. have 4 or 5 where i used to have 2. although one is growing in some dwarf sag. rootlets have descended down 1.5 inches to the substrate. ah, well scratch that. either my skunk corys or my bolivian rams have knocked it loose. I now have a floating tiger lily

Sprouted plants should be seperated from the bulb and then planted. The bulb will (usually) produce more plants. Ive actually never heard of a lone plant reproducing from runners, but many plants can reproduce from a single bulb. 

 

As for the tiger lotus bulb floating,  it may not be 'good' any more.  If its squishy and floating its most likely dead.

[Tony s]

na, it's still firm. and healthy. it was just growing suspended. and somebody got under the roots. the current at that spot has it floating. I was watching it to see how it responded to suspended growth. the roots went down to the substrate and the bulb started increasing in size. so, it was actually doing good, surprisingly. That one was actually a coop plant that i apparently didn't get down far enough. i may have to invest in some plant weights.  for the mini bulbs. not sure where they came from. but all of a sudden i have 2-3 mini bulbs around the tank. total of 5. 2 big, 3 littles