Joyce you just answered a lotus question I have asked here several times.... :)

[tinkster]

  I was/am in love with them but decided to get rid of most of them because they are harder for me to take care of.  Constanly having to fill with water which I have to age and carry  and I went so overboard with them and had so many.. but the question I asked here a few times and never really got an answer to was  " are lotus suppose to bloom all season or do they have a short bloom time like lots of other flowers" .  I remember several others posting to my questions wanting to know the answer to  so in case yall missed it in Lisa's post about container gardens, lotus can bloom over a long period of time.   

Maybe I should have been more patient with mine, I never let one go a year without deviding and sharing.  They bloomed  maybe 2 or at best 3 flowers a year and just were not worth all the trouble.  Now that I Know the answer, maybe I will leave the remaining two without deviding and see what they do.

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[Joyce]

Huh? How did I do that?
I never said NOT to repot every year.
But I did say that I use BIG pots, like 24" wide per lotus.

[tinkster]

 sorry I was confusing.... You said in your post in lisas that you like your lotus to bloom daily from june to september.  That is what I was wondering.  The few I have talked to here seem to get the same thing I do.. One or two blooms at best all season so I thought they had a short bloom period.  now I know they dont so I am doing somethin wrong by either devidin to quick or something

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[Joyce]

Like I said, the 'something' is most likely not enough soil/nutrients, usually corresponding to a pot too small.

When you say you constantly have to refill the pots with water, that leads me to believe they were way too small also.
I use half barrel liners and other big pots about the same size.
I top them off once a week, maybe twice if we don't get much rain.

Yes, they are heavy and big, but we use a handtruck to move them around.

Another 'something' that I believe some people do is stunt the growth with too much fertilizer,
especially the type like pond tabs or broken up tree spikes, or tomato spikes.
(and also, when using my recipe, by NOT following directions and using fresh manure instead of composted)   
This are NOT slow release fertilizers, and if you use too much, too often, you will stunt, if not kill your lotus.
Too much fertilizer will cause the leaves to look funky, curly, brown, and no blooms.
The roots and tubers get burned by excess fertilizer, and lose the ability to absorb nutrients and/or water.
Root/tuber burn often is so bad, it causes root/tuber rot and then the death of the lotus.

This happens with water lilies too.
(which I also believe in HUGE wide pots for multiple daily blooms all summer)

I use Osmcote and COMPOSTED manure. I do not use any monthly (or weekly, or bi-weekly or tri-weekly) fertilizer after potting them up every spring.
The bigger, wider pot, slow release Osmocote and the compost is sufficient to give the lotus enough nutrients to have multiple daily blooms all summer.
One year I did not repot a couple lotus, they bloomed for about a month and then stopped.
They did not bloom multiple daily blooms either, just sporadically for a month.

This year I did not repot most of them due to the fact I am moving in 2 weeks.
I doubt I will have many blooms this year.

[Lisa816]

Lowe's sells composted manure in a bag.  Is this stuff ok to use straight out of the bag?   

Also, the Osmocote, I think I read somewhere to use 1 cup of it in the bottom of the pot, but then I read 1/2 cup.  Joyce, how much would you use for a lotus in a 20g barrel liner?  Which is better - regular or vegetable Osmocote? 
How much Osmocote for a lily planted in a dishpan?

[Joyce]

Please use common sense:
If you open the bag and it smells like poop, dont use it. 
If it smells like plain old dirt like it is supposed to, it's OK. 

I use anywhere between a 1/2 to a full cup on the bottom of my lotus pots.
Depends on the lotus.
The bigger the size of the lotus, the more I put in.
But remember, I fill my 20g liners up with soil within 4" from the rim.
So one cup of Osmocote in that much soil is not a lot.
But if you don't use that much soil, use common sense again and cut back on the Osmocote.
Read the chart on the side of the Osmocote Container to answer your other question.
(there is a chart for dosage per diameter of pot)

DO NOT MIX THE OSMOCOTE INTO THE SOIL.
Leave it at the bottom.
This makes it seeps up through the soil slowly.
Also keeps it away from the top half of the container which make warm up too much and cause it to release too fast.

I use Veggie formula.