The annual Herculean task

[Alex]

The ongoing battle - spent today repotting (again) and one side of the greenhouse looks like this (top picture) while the other side still looks like this (bottom). It's a big struggle every year, which children and work militate against...but worth it in the Spring.

[Maggi Young]

As you will know if you read Ian's Bulb Log, we find this task to be one that seems to be getting the better of us with every passing year. 

 For a lot of pots we are reduced to simply knocking out the top layes of soil, checking on the plants ( usually bulbs, chez nous!) and topdressing with fresh compost and hoping for the best. There just are not enough hours in the day.... or perhaps we are growing too many plants?? No, that can't possibly be the reason, can it?
 It is terribly satisfying when a whole bench in the glasshouse is all neat and beautifully set out, though, isn't it? That's a fine  looking house with good sturdy vents you have there, Alex.... a far cry from our rather battered old things! 

[daveyp1970]

That's a fine  looking house with good sturdy vents you have there, Alex.... a far cry from our rather battered old things! 

I agree that's one superb greenhouse,is it modelled on a Victorian glasshouse Alex.

[Lesley Cox]

I am looking with absolute dread at the apprx 1,200 small pots of bulb seedlings, 1 - 3 years old - some older! - that await de-seed-potting and either potting on, dividing into nursery pots or planting out. The large majority should be done this coming summer but if I get a small fraction done I'll be lucky. Since I add to them every year (about 600 pots of seed and newish seedlings are also waiting) when I die there will be plenty of intersting things for Roger to plant out on whatever grave I end up with. It will need to have a large area around it.

The trouble is that I am a compulsive seed sower. A genuine addiction to seeds.

[David Nicholson]

.........when I die there will be plenty of intersting things for Roger to plant out on whatever grave I end up with. It will need to have a large area around it.

You certain you're going first Lesley??

[tonyg]

Oh Alex - work and children - I know exactly what you mean   Mind you, as has already been pointed out, you have an immaculate greenhouse compared to mine   .... there is no emoticon for jealous!

[Gerry Webster]

I'm not convinced that this annual ritual is necessary unless bulbs get overcrowded, which can happen with some crocus. I repot frits about every 3 years and some narcissus at about the same interval. In between times I top-dress the pots with Vitax Q4 & give the plants a regular, dilute liquid feed when in growth. They seem to do reasonably well under this regime. I wonder if anyone has ever made any systematic observations on the supposed benefits of annual repotting?

[Ezeiza]

Well, I have made extensive research of the futility of annual repotting for some 8 years now. This applies to large containers. In case of Mediterranean, South African and Mexican bulbs the "deterioration" of mix in pots seems to have no ill effect on the plants' performance year after year. This meaning flowering, seed setting and offsetting. In fact, they seem to do better than with annual repotting in richer mix.

But, I insist, this applies to large (20 litre) containers. Most probably in small pots where root run is severely restricted, things will be different.

Alberto Castillo

[annew]

Though perhaps not strictly necessary, I'm unable to resist the temptation to find out what is beneath the compost, especially where seedlings are involved. I suppose that pots which show signs of disease or dieback when in growth should be marked for investigation later, but in practice I find that even healthy looking pots can result in loss of some or even all the bulbs, for some unknown reason. If there is a partial loss, I would always like to repot into fresh compost and a clean pot to give the best chance of saving the rest.

[TC]

With me it is not so much re-potting but seeing what is still alive !!  I have spent about 3 hours a day for the past 4 days marvelling at the wonderfull growth of moss and oxalis on nearly all of my pots - most of them without labels - as our resident Blackbirds seem to think that a label spoils the aesthetics of a plastic pot.
I have been tipping the contents out to discover in many cases that there is absolutely nothing there although the label ( which the Blackbirds missed) states that there are 15 crocus, narcissus, etc.  My collection of cyclamen seemed to be well down until I discovered that I had planted the bulk of them out in hidden parts of the garden with no recollection of doing so.  The joys of advancing years.!!

[Ezeiza]

Well, Anne, that temptation is irresistible. And of course the point of changing the suspect mix is a good one. We have almost no cases of fungus/rot since we started using a large proportion of sharp coarse sand in mixes.

And Tom, haven't you tried the method of using duplicate labels? The first one is placed at the bottom of the pot and the second one is the normal one that birds ALWAYS remove".

[PeterT]

And Tom, haven't you tried the method of using duplicate labels? The first one is placed at the bottom of the pot and the second one is the normal one that birds ALWAYS remove".

last year I started writing a second lable for everything I repot, the old one is pushed well down the pot, there are many mysteries being sorted out already because of this!
I find Maggies tecnique of top dressing very usefull as root growth commences in the qued pots, but as I rarely manage regular feeding, crocus and bulbous Iris go backwards very quickly if the compost is not replaced every year, snowdrops and narcissus every two years. some  reticulate iris, colchicums and tulips clump up better left undisturbed though.

[tonyg]

I'm not convinced that this annual ritual is necessary unless bulbs get overcrowded, which can happen with some crocus. I repot frits about every 3 years and some narcissus at about the same interval. In between times I top-dress the pots with Vitax Q4 & give the plants a regular, dilute liquid feed when in growth. They seem to do reasonably well under this regime. I wonder if anyone has ever made any systematic observations on the supposed benefits of annual repotting?

My problem is that work/children/life means I struggle to do anything systematically!  Whan lecturing I try to stress that there are many ways to grow bulbs successfully.  Many different routines will work if you evaluate your results and adapt to correct things that go wrong.  Plastic/clay pots; repot annually/not; watering regime; under cover/in garden.  All these variables can be overcome with the right approach, although some bulbs (do we call them 'difficult') will only succeed within a narrow range of variables others will succeed in a wide range.
Gerry, your systematic approach is clearly successful, if I could get the liquid feeding right I might copy you but its a big 'if'   I also like to check for health problems, sadly a neccessity here although things are very much improved since I too increased the gritty sand level in my compost.

[Gerry Webster]

Tony - I'm not sure that my approach is all that systematic and I keep quiet about my failures. Despite  the fact that I suspect it is unnecessary, I do repot all my crocus every year. 

[annew]

Hurray!!!  I just finished repotting all my bulbs!!! Now to start on the twin-scales.....