Hippeastrum report

[lblanchard]

Do you remember last year, when one of my favorites failed to root so I chopped the bulb (a practice called "chipping") in little bits and put them in moistened vermiculite in a dark cabinet?

Seems to have worked. I have three bulbs the size of shooter marbles. I removed them from their plastic cups yesterday and potted them up. They have LOTS of roots!

Outdoors, all the hippeastrum have greened up deliciously. They looked a bit pallid and wan when I first took them out -- the shock of the sunlight, I think. A couple weeks of lovely rain water and they're looking quite perky, as opposed to peaky. I did serious triage on the batch of seedlings known as Babymax because they share a birthday with our great-grandson. I kept eight: one for Sara, one for Margaret (daughter-in-law), one for Pam (Sara's mother) -- assuming any of them want them -- and the rest for me. The rest of them will get potted up and placed in a shady place this weekend, since the temps are supposed to go up to the high 80s.

The hippeastrum our son Roy brought us in March appears to be diseased with the dreaded Hippeastrum mosaic virus. I have it quarantined in the living room and will attempt a heat-treatment later this summer. Also, I will disinfect that entire part of the living room before re-introducing any plants. That virus is supposed to be highly contagious, fatal, and incurable, but some folks think a heat-treatment will work, and it worked for some other hippeastrums when I tried it around 2011. We'll see...

Sharing windowsill space with 2006-3 (that being the name of the chipped bulbs) are sprouting seeds of 2006-2 x Striatum. When the sprouts show a leaf I move them to a shallow container to grow their first roots. They'll get planted on in plastic pots this fall and so it goes...

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Three for the price of one! Go you!

I now have a porch full of newly replanted seedlings. Some did not like the change of location but most seem to be soldiering on. I will duly instruct my daughter on their watering needs so they survive our 6 weeks away.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you have a bazillion more than you'll ultimately want. You might want to try planting a couple in the ground and see whether they overwinter.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I will do that in the Fall when the temperatures lessen but will have to prepare a place and amend our rock hard clay to do so. I do have a good place for that, though.