The instructions for germinating these seeds is all over the place. Many say scarify and soak for days, frequently changing the water and keeping it warm for as many as 21 days. I don’t have that kind of patience or space. I tried soaking the scarified seeds in tap water, in dechlorinated water, and in cold and warm water. I watched the seeds do noting for days and days. By the way, scarifying hard, dry seed coats on American lotus sucks. The lazy way is to soak the seeds for 48 hours, then slice the end of the seed coat off (try not to cut through the meat of the seed). I also found that slicing the blunt end, rather than the pointy end is easier, and works better. Slice off the “inny” not the “outy”
As a Wildlife Biologist, my first instinct is to poke around on my own, and also see what nature is doing, then mimic that. American Lotus is found in deep slow moving to still water. This tells me that a collection of nutrients in the mucky bottom of a body of water has to have an impact on germination rate and speed. So, I gave it a try. I left my seeds soaking in clean water, and got a second set of seeds.
For this set, I soaked them in tap water for 48 hours, and sliced either the pointed end or the end with a concave dimple in the center (this is the end that sits at the bottom of the cup in the lotus seed pod. The end with a little point faces the sun when sitting in the pod). I then went and dipped some water out of our pond, and placed the selection of seeds in an 8oz mason jar of pond water. All seeds with the dimpled end sliced off sprouted within three days. I went ahead and sliced the dimpled end off of the rest of the seeds, and they sprouted the following day. As of now, the seeds in plain tap water have not sprouted at all. The secret seems to be nutrient rich (or maybe beneficial bacteria-rich water, or maybe a combination of both).
Note that this group was simply placed in a windowsill that does not get much light. No supplemental light or heat was provided. Just pond water in a glass jar, inside the house. I also let the jar sit with water in it, without changing or adding more pond water to it. The tannins in the seed coat did make the water dark in color, but the seeds are happily growing. Sometimes we as humans have a tendency to overly sterilize everything, and in this case, that is to the detriment of the baby lotus.
These likely will need to be pressed into the muck of one of our ponds to continue to grow, but in my experience, we need to be better at looking at wild things and where and how they are thriving and centering our actions around that, rather than trying to force things into what humans perceive to be better or more comfortable. Good luck with your lotus seeds and happy growing!
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