Potting soil question.

[Chevy Girl]

what soil is best for potting lillies?
there all kinds of bagged soils at the pond place.
Wouldn't have asked but the pond sharks decided to yank up my "pearl of the pond" So it needs repotting.
They have also decided the tropicals are very yummy!
The sharks will have thier own pond next season. and the lillies will keep the smaller pond......
thanks for any help.

[Julles]

there have been several threads about this, C. Girl, so you might scroll around, here and on the lily or water plant forums.  But mostly, people say they plant their lilies in clay - just the mucky stuff you dig out of yur yard.  Or like I get at the various new home construction sites around my Houston neighborhood.

[CT]

Yeah, clay, coarse sand and large size gravel to keep the fish from rooting about in them.

[HOWELL]

i use clay too, but on top i put acuatic plant soil it keeps the clay down

[landey1230]

I use topsoil and fertilize with tomato spikes.  You must use pea size and large size gravel.  It can get messy if they are tipped over. 

[LeeAnne151]

Clay garden soil is better than anything in a bag.

[PondmaninAL]

I use my own mixture without clay. One bag of composted manure, four bags of topsoil, and a large nursery tree pot of yard dirt. I don't even use gravel anymore as the plants don't go into a ponds with any fish except gambusia.

If your "sharks" are koi, then you best hurry and get them their own pond. Once my koi got big enough, they played havoc with my water lilies. I finally separated them and then the China marks moth attacked and was backed up by the snails. I finally got rid of the moth and the snails went back to eating algae. The moth tried to come back this year, twice, and I reintroduced the larvae to Mr. BT.

Happy ponding,
Scott

[Desertponder]

I've tried a number of different things over the years and I always go back to topsoil that I buy at Home Depot. Its cheap, $1.99 a bag and its just plain clean dirt. Top off with pea gravel. You many need to use some larger rocks to keep the fish from digging the plants up.

[bunny56lbc]

I use good lod red clay from the back of my yard .
I tryed the top soil but it smelled ( badly) when I pulled the pot's out of the pond to fertlize them .

bonnie

[LeeAnne151]

I bought a bag of topsoil from Home Depot and it was composted bark, not garden soil. 

[Chevy Girl]

Thank you all for the replys.
I guess I'll mix up this , that , and the other and top off with pea gravel and larger rock.
To keep the sharks outta them.

[Desertponder]

Not all bags of top soil are the same or what I would even call soil. If I buy a bag at Lowes I get really black loamy stuff that doesn't even look like dirt and it smells funky. The one I buy at our Lowes is just plain dirt. It might have a small piece of bark here or there but its just dirt.