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How do you orient the bulb?

21 years ago

I purchased some begonias bulbs from home depot. The planting instructions show the shape of a tulip bulb not a begonia bulb.

How do you orient the bulb in the ground? The bulb looks like the top of a mushroom with the stem broken off. ON the round part there were many small, what looked like dried roots. The opposite side has nothing but I could see some eyes popping up.

Do you orient so these eyes would grow out of the soil or are these eyes the roots and therefore should be oriented to grow down into the soil?

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Comments (3)

softballmom
21 years ago
There should be a little indentation on the tuber. You want to plant it with the indentation facing up.
mora
21 years ago
Plant the mushroom cap upside down. The sprouts are your plant, not your root, hope they will be georgeous for you , M
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kdjoergensen
21 years ago
Plant it with the concave side (rounded side) down and the hollow side up. The begonia tuber must sprout before you plant it, or you risk rot.

Try to soak it in warm water for 5 minutes and then put on a bed of moist, not wet, seed starting mixture or potting soil. Put somewhere warm. Once it sprouts, you can cover it with about 1-1.5" of potting soil.

Some people place the tuber in the pot on an angle, so water does not collect in the hollow portion when watering.

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