Hi Diane
I will be interested to hear what advice you get as I have a few that are not making roots. I have potted them in sharp sand and if they stay firm but grow no roots I will try chipping them (my first ever attempt).
Hope you don't mind me adding a few pics here on your thread as well - didn't want to put them in the Feb snowdrops thread.
I have placed them next to a £1 coin.
1. Witchwood after one year - don't know how to keep it alive. It has one white root and a shoot and the bulb is fairly firm. Any advice gratefully received.
2. Erway - badly eaten by something - no shoot, no roots. I suspect Swift Moth? Could also try chipping to save this I suppose. It does have a basal plate.
Diane/Jennie
Diane, I think I see disease at the neck of the bulb. Jennie, ditto with your first pic. I have had bulbs as compromised as this in the past and saved them through the following treatment;
1. Using a really sharp knife, cut out the browned diseased tissue. Be ruthless. In the case of your Erway bulb Jennie, that means coring the bulb like an apple. Keep as much of the basal plate as you can.
2. Soak them for 12 hours in a strong disinfectant/fungicide mixture.
3. Plant in small pots in almost a pure grit compost with maybe 20% of John Innes No.2 mixed, buried less deeply in the pot than you would a healthy bulb.
4. Plunge the pot in the soil in a cool, dampish (if available) place and wait...... certainly for 12 months and possibly 24.
5. Whenever you see new growth, water sparingly in situ with something good like Tomorite or a seaweed-based liquid feed.
6. At the end of the first season of new growth, disinterr in say May and replant in straight John Innes No.2. Keep just slightly damp through the summer.
Others may suggest twinscaling. Odds against it when the bulbs are damaged or so small to start with. Too little viable tissue to start cutting it.
Hope this helps.
Steve
