never throw away bulb

[mark smyth]

Never throw away a bulb that has been eaten by a Narcissus fly. I dread to think how many I have thrown in the bin
http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/2010/11/ahead-of-schedule.html

The proof - the remains of the bulbs with many bulbuls
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sfvS6qSSxkA/TOVoj0YL9zI/AAAAAAAABm8/t4217WzjBYw/s1600/Galanthus+%2527Natalie+Garton%2527.JPG

[steve owen]

Mark
That's a fascinating pic. Life after death!
Steve

[daveyp1970]

can i ask is that a greater multiplication rate than chipping,as i have never tried chipping has the fly got something there

[mark smyth]

Not as many as twinscaling but well done to the fly

At a lecture by Christine Skelmersdale last weekend she said simple cut in to the build base plate and put it back in the ground

[daveyp1970]

Mark I'm definately giving that a go

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I recall, many years ago, that cutting through the basal plate of hyacinths was the recommended method of propagation. Now, I never tried it - after all who needs to increase hyacinths!

Paddy

[steve owen]

Mark
I found my single bulb of G.Lulu producing a weak discoloured shoot. Fearing Stag, I lifted it and found considerable damage from a careless trowel jab sometime in the summer, but a decent root system. I cleaned off as much of the dead tissue as possible, fungicided and disinfected it, and planted it in a pot with the upper part of the bulb clear of the compost level so that the damaged tissue can dry off and hopefully callus over. Now I must wait for nature to turn its thumb up or down.
Steve

[snowdropman]

I cleaned off as much of the dead tissue as possible, fungicided and disinfected it, and planted it in a pot with the upper part of the bulb clear of the compost level so that the damaged tissue can dry off and hopefully callus over.

Steve - where I come across a damaged bulb, after soaking the bulb in fungicide and allowing the fungicide to dry, I then give the damaged part a dusting of yellow sulphur powder to aid recovery.

I would be a bit careful with leaving part of the bulb exposed to the elements as this will leave it prone to dessication or pest/bird/animal attack - after treatment, I always plant my damaged bulbs at the normal depth, but in 100% grit sand (the latter helps to reduce the chances of soil based infections), giving it some liquid feed when in active growth.

[steve owen]

Chris
Thanks for the advice which I will try. I'm planning to keep the bulb potted and in the alpine house for the rest of the growing season.
Steve

[snowdropman]

Never throw away a bulb that has been eaten by a Narcissus fly. I dread to think how many I have thrown in the bin

Mark - what John G. says, does indeed work, although I am not sure whether it is absolutely necessary to grow the bulbils on as if twin-scaled.

Back in 2007 I discovered that a choice bulb of G. plicatus 'Chequers' had been almost completely eaten away by an NF grub - all that was left was the outer scale of the bulb and the basal plate had been completely eaten away. I was about to throw this outer scale away when I noticed 2 'bumps' on the outside of the scale & decided to pot this up (in my normal mix) and see what happened. One year later, I found that I now had two small bulbs, which went on later to produce flowering bulbs.

The 'bumps' were clearly embyryo 'bulbils' and I put their development into viable bulbs down to a) the outer scale acting as their food source and b) keeping the pot (which was plunged in a warm corner of a raised bed) moist at all times.

As John G. says in his blog, this needs more careful study, but I note that a not dissimilar phenomenon has been seen to occur with twin-scaling where, instead of discarding the neck of the bulb, this has been observed to produced 'bumps'/'bulbils', which have gone on to produce flowering bulbs.

I would be interested to hear of others experiences.

[snowdropman]

Chris
Thanks for the advice which I will try. I'm planning to keep the bulb potted and in the alpine house for the rest of the growing season.
Steve

Steve - good luck with your damaged bulb & perhaps you can let us know how you get on with it.

The yellow sulphur powder certainly helps the healing process and I have had damaged bulbs treated with yellow sulphur powder that, a year on, show little or no sign of the original damage.

[KentGardener]

I found two damaged bulbs earlier this year and planted them in pots of pure sharp sand  (I think it was Phil Cornish told me to do this) - it seems to have worked and they've got little'uns coming on now.

[Alan_b]

I gave an example from my own experience here:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=209.msg5555#msg5555

The damage and the bulbil formation was all done in-situ but that particular bulb and it's descendants have never looked back since.

[Ian Y]

Mark you can check out my experience from this 2007 bulb log link.


 Bulb Log 40 2007  

[snowdropman]

I found two damaged bulbs earlier this year and planted them in pots of pure sharp sand  (I think it was Phil Cornish told me to do this) - it seems to have worked and they've got little'uns coming on now.

As well as being sterile, which helps to reduce the chances of infection, the sand seems to stimulate the bulb into strong root growth.