How to preserve dug up bulbs during summer?

[GZ]

Hi All,

I'm totally newbie here, sorry if my question is too basic.

I had to dig up my narcissi and I have to store them somehow until planting them in October. I filtered through many forums suggesting that bulbs should be kept bone dry, well aerated in a cool place, but I am so much worried about the smaller bulbs, such as N. watieri, that they will just dry out and die.

Could you please mention a way more fragile bulbs can be kept during summer? Unfortunately I do not have the space for a sand plunge, or a cool cellar. Tthe coolest place I have is at about 20 °C during the hottest days.

Thanks a lot,
Zoltan   

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Zoltan,
I usually wait till the bulbs are completely dormant in mid summer before repotting my daffs and other small bulbs. I've sometimes stored the dry bulbs in paper bags in a cool place indoors, though I prefer to repot them straightaway I've usually kept a few this way to plant out when the weather cools down. I think if the bulbs have "matured" by going dormant and having had some warmth to dry them out then they can be dry stored. Do you have the room to pot the bulbs in potting mix which isn't completely dry but not sopping wet and keep them somewhere out of the rain? I think summer rain is responsible for a lot of losses of dormant bulbs,
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Since we get quite a lot of summer rain here, planted out bulbs usually are not quite dry even during high summer. It doesn't seem to bother them at all so long as the area is well drained with no stagnant water. If I do lift them, I usually pot them right away but leave them dry until the early autumn then either water the pots or tip them out and plant them in the garden. If you wish, you could put them in pots of dry sand or potting mix and they should be quite safe. Even small bulbs have enough energy in them to remain strong and healthy for that first period of dormancy. It's when I have occasionally mislaid or not noticed them in a bag on my bench and failed to pot or plant for another whole season, that they shrivel and die.

[Anthony Darby]

I seem to remember bulbs being lifted after flowering and just hung in the shed until autumn. I know Bill Dijk lifts all his bulbs and stores them dry in open plastic tubs until planting time. Isn't this what bulb sellers do?

[ChrisB]

I've had some good results from leaving to dry out, but also lost some rather special ones too.... So I think it depends on the genus really.  Certainly the big narcissus respond to this treatment but N. Cyclamineus certainly didn't, so I don't have any of those any more 

[Maggi Young]

Depends on the storage conditions, surely? Here we think that most dwarf bulbs are not so happy to be kept dry and out of the soil for too long. Even if they're in dry soil or sand the bulbs are kept at a more equable temperature  like that than they would be in air.
Larger hybrid narcissus etc may be more tolerant of dry storage but I think the Dutch growers go to some bother to keep the storage temperature/conditions very stable - not something that the amateur can readily achieve.

[ChrisB]

Yes, Maggi, I agree.  It seems the smaller bulbs dislike being in a bag than in soil.  I'm just repotting them all at the moment and they won't be above ground for long.

[GZ]

Many thanks for the advice. The soil here is quite heavy, does not drain very well. So I think I made a good decision lifting them beuties. By now they might all be rotten, since we have had plenty of summer showers. Taking the average of your recommendations, I placed all bulbs in a mix of dry peat and sand. Temperature and humidity control however is sci-fi for me... I presume this will work for fritillaria bulbs as well.

[Maggi Young]

I presume this will work for fritillaria bulbs as well.

 Yes, it will.