Saving DD

17 years ago

This year's new bulb is not off to the best of starts.

It arrived pre-potted shortly after Thanksgiving. It was large and firm. Even though I have received a pre-potted bulb as a gift for several years now, I never gave much thought to how it was potted. This time I noticed that the bulb was buried up to the neck. I would have left some shoulder showing. I figured that WFF knew what they were doing. They do send huge bulbs. They must do something right.

After the holidays I brought the potted bulb into my office and watered thoroughly. About a week later, the bloom stalks started poking their heads out. There are two.

Two days after that, I removed the decorative moss to check if the plant still felt OK. IT DID NOT. The soil around the neck was more than slightly damp and the bulb felt slightly soft.

I immediately dug out about 3/4 inch of soil to expose the shoulder. I pulled off any obviously squishy pieces and left the decorative moss off.

Then, last Tuesday, I thought that I have better take a look at the entire bulb. I had removed most of the squishy part, but how deep did it go? Impossible to tell without removing all the soil.

I had flashbacks to Nymph, last year's gift. It seemed fine until it had finished blooming. Upon inspection, a lot of the bulb had rotted. It needed major surgery. I started wondering if the same thing would happen to DD. You never know what is going on under the soil.

Therefore, I carefully extracted the bulb from the soil and removed any traces of damage.

Here is what the bulb looks like now.

I think that I have managed to remove the damaged parts.

My thought is to let it dry for a few days, then dust it with sulfur and repot it. I will use a mixture of orchid soil and the current soil. I will include a water wick. I will leave at least 1/3 of the bulb exposed. After that any more water will be from the bottom only. Hopefully, that will save the plant.

It seems to me that either 'water thoroughly' does not mean what I thought it did, i.e. until water drains through the drainage holes, or the bulb was not properly pre-potted. By that I mean the the soil held too much water and/or the bulb was too deep in the soil. I only watered it once.

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Comments (4)

Noni Morrison
17 years ago
I think your bulb will do fine now. I see healthy root starts and it looks like you have the bulb cleaned up nicely.
I wonder if your bulb got a touch of frost flying over the mountains to you? I was in the Bay area about a week before Christmas and it was un-naturally cold with snow coming down the mountains. My bulbs from WFF arrived filled with ice crystles and are turning into fizzing messes today. I was hoping their might be a tiny bit alive somewhere in them that I Could nurture back into full bulbs, maybe a peice of basal plate? It looks like I will not have any chance.
jodik_gw
17 years ago
You've definitely done the right thing! That could have ended up bad, but the bulb looks good now! I would dust it with an anti-fungal, dust a bit of rooting hormone powder on the basal plate, and re-pot.

My preference is to leave about half the bulb above soil level. I also prefer unglazed clay pots. If you've been following my quest for a good bulb medium, then you know that I've abandoned bagged potting soils completely, and I use a very free-draining, gritty, bonsai-type of mix. It's mainly inorganic, and the particles are all large enough to allow for oxygen to reach the roots.

Using this very porous medium, I now can water from the top, taking care to water the medium and not the bulb. The medium drains so well that water almost immediately begins to fill the saucer. I allow a bit of it to soak back up, and then dump the rest. Since I've been using this medium, I've got extremely healthy root systems and great top growth. I can completely control feeding and watering, and the bulb is never too moist for too long.

"Water thoroughly" means to water until the soil is evenly wet and it comes out the drainage holes, but how long the roots remain wet depends on the soil. With a peat based organic soil, there's a lot of decomposition going on which causes the soil to collapse. This actually causes the roots to suffocate.

If you're interested in learning about container mediums and all that, you should visit the Container Gardening Forum. There's a lot of great information on building your own soils, and that's where I got my recipe. The discussions are good and I've learned a lot!

I think your bulb will be lovely, and now it'll be healthy, too!
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larschar
17 years ago
Very nicely done! Beautiful bulb. I actually said out loud, "beautiful" when I scrolled down to the picture. lol That's no joke. I wish my clean-up jobs were half that good. lol
java_j
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you all for you encouraging prognoses and helpful hints. I too think that I got the bulb out of the wet soil in time to save it.

While I agree that a clay pot would be best, I always use a plastic pot in the beginning. That is because I take the potted bulb to my office so that I can better enjoy the bloom. Not only do I have more window space and temperature control there, but I spend a lot of time in my office also. :)

The big thing, however, is that I take the train to work and have to walk a bit. One potted plant in a plastic pot is heavy enough. I could never manage to carry a clay pot full of soil. I can, however, use a better draining type of soil.