How to keep tiger lotus "bushy"

[Mel]

I recently brought a big beautiful tiger lotus that is lovely and bushy, but I have 3 new leaves that have gone to the surface, although i would like to have afew at the surface i would like to keep it bushy.

So my question is how to maintain the bushyness.

Thanks.

[supasi]

Hi Mel

Long time no see

You can train it to stay low by cutting the surface leaves off as they shoot for the surface.

The brighter the light the lower it will grow.

HTH

[Mel]

Thanks for the reply Simon.

Ok so where do i cut? just the leaf off or cut down the bottom of stem? can i still leave afew at the surface.

The person i got this plant from has obviously train it to stay short, so does that mean it's already half trained .. lol

[Adrienne]

Chop them at the bottom and yes you can leave some to go to the surface. I just wait until mine get to the height I don't want and then cut the shoots back down.

[Moya]

Hey mel!

Unfortunately its an ongoing prune. Whenever you see a new leaf reaching for the surface you need to pinch it off. This is done right down at the node (the point where the leaf stem separates from the rest of the plant). If you leave a few at the surface this indicates to the rest of the plant that this is a feasible direction of future growth. So you can if you want to but it will mean more stems reaching in this direction, and thus more pruning.

As a side note, blue light promotes low bushy growth too. So if your not averse to having a blue light in your tank, then this can help. It will affect all your plants though.

[phoenix44]

Just cut the stalks off. It learns not to grow all the way up then.

Mine doesn't even bother any more!

[Mel]

Awesome thanks everyone, very helpful