Kristi, this is such a balancing act! If you're temps are high enough so that the pot can dry out and you can put it in a place where it doesn't get rained on - I would say wait until it flowers before repotting. That being said, if its still pretty cool where you are and you don't think the pot will dry out, then (as you know) you risk rot and you might have to take the chance of breaking some scapes (eek) when you repot to protect them from rotting. I have repotted when bulbs had scapes without losing flowers to the stress of repotting just to my clumsiness..

Jody, scapes are still small, just starting to emerge. I'm starting to see red and there are offsets really smashed against the sides. I think I could unpot, dust with Captan, let dry... and repot all within a week. Fresh soil and some cleaning would be much easier without leaves!!

K

Love Spring, it brings flowers and a lot of work lol Now to find places for all the newly potted bulbs.

Would it be possible to pull the whole root ball from the pot, and scrape off the top few inches of soil so as to expose more of the bulbs themselves and to help them dry out a bit more. I think you could safely pop it back in the pot and after it finishes blooming and perhaps you could then separate the bulbs which I assume would be your ultimate goal.

How far along are the scapes, if they are only up a few inches than you may want to separate and re-pot now, hard to tell without actually seeing it.

Donna

OMG... Scapes were up just not even an inch or two so I decided to go for it. There was no way this mass of bulbs was going to dry out. I have no idea how long they've been growing together. First top layers of nearly every bulb was red or brown mush. I ended up carefully separating, peeling, soaking in a systemic fungicide, rinsing, draining, and then dusting with Captan. I have six huge bulbs with two scapes each, and close to 30 or more bulbs that were growing as offsets or even underneath the whole mess. I sat the big bulbs on top of fresh soil in half a whiskey barrel and will let them dry for several days. Everything's been dusted with Captan and will be drying. It looks like I'll have my chance to try that basal plate propagation!

Of all the big pots of bulbs, this is the only one that had any red, other than where a leaf had broken, which seems ok to me...typical bruising. This pot had something far more serious going on. :-(

This wasn't your pot of Giraffes was it?

Yep, it was totally rootbound and not draining at all!! Most of the scapes look great. I have given these bulbs a clean start and they'll be fine!! Just glad I took action now. Since there were lots of leaves sitting on top of the soil, it was hiding this problem. Luckily, every other pot is healthy and fine. Of course it has to hit my favorite bulbs!!

I've had pots like that where there were layers of bulbs that you can't see from the top. Like Donna said, and like what you did, the only option is to take it out and look at it. Sounds like you caught the problem just in time.
When you said, 'far more serious', Kristi, what did you mean?

The red was more than the red from a broken leaf!! These pots are kept out back when the weather is ok...Laka tend to brush by them and since they are so big, some leaves get broken. The raw broken edges can turn red. Does that make sense?? Dang it...the bulbs I was most looking forward to blooming would be the ones with a problem. They are looking good...my fingers are crossed.