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purplestar875

Tons of bulblets, No blooms

9 years ago

Hey all, I'm having a bit of an issue with my amaryllis and not getting any blooms. So, for the sake of having as much diagnostic information as possible, let me describe the situation.

I ordered some beautiful Heirloom variety amaryllis bulbs several years ago, and they have always been nearly a third/quarter of the size of the huge bulbs I often see at Christmas for sale. I did research on hibernating the bulbs, set them up with high quality potting soil, put them in a sunny window, and let them grow. I didn't get blooms the first season, but was rewarded with two of them producing a single bloom stalk after the first hibernation. Ever since then, I've had the following problem: they put all of their energy into producing more bulblets and I can only get the largest one to bloom. No matter how much I (appropriately) fertilize and care for these bulbs, I have had some of them for 5 or 6 years and never gotten a single bloom. They don't grow in size, only produce more bulblets.

When it comes to their care, getting enough sun has been an issue for about 4 years. I've lived in apartments on the bottom floor (poor lighting), apartments with northwest facing windows, and when I took them to my office, I was in a north facing office. Now, I finally have an east facing office (who knows how long that is going to last), and my bulbs are growing the nice, healthy looking leaves that they always do. But only one is blooming - the same one that is the only one I can get to bloom. I fertilize about once a week with a miracle grow indoor plant foaming fertilizer that is 1-1-1.

This time, I think I will try not to hibernate my bulbs and see if that helps. Also, in the interest of honesty, I will admit that my bulbs have the orange/red fungal infection called stag (I think that's what it's called). From what I can tell, though, the fungal infection is only on the surface, and the bulbs are healthy regardless. I don't know much about stag though other than that it is nearly impossible to get rid of.

I only water them when they are dry (I try to feel if the pot is light and also stick my finger below the top layer of the soil to tell).

Does anyone have an ideas? I think the main issue is that my bulbs aren't getting any larger, but I'm doing everything that is usually suggested to increase their size, and they just make more bulblets instead. Thanks for your help!

Comments (8)

  • 9 years ago

    Well, if you have the infection that weakens the bulbs and they don't bloom. If your bulbs don't grow maybe you need to repot.

    I know that for me the best pots are the huge 20-30 liters (the size of a bucket) and I do use a lot of organic fertilizer. try adding some more potassium (K) from organic sources - it is sold so in the shops for tomatoes. My bulbs are very "hungry" so I feed them on every watering with a different fertilizer - I chose some fertilizers with trace elements or I just add some nice new compost in the pot somewhere in the mix, once a year.

    Direct sun will bring you blooms if you manage to repot.


  • 9 years ago

    Thank you for the advice! As far as I know, stag shouldn't affect the bulbs too much, other than having an aesthetic effect. I will try to bump up the fertilizer. Unfortunately, setting them outside isn't really an option for me as I live in an apartment on the third floor. Even if I were to set them outside, being this high up turns my northwest facing balcony into a wind tunnel which has already destroyed several plants I tried to grow there (in addition to getting very little direct light, maybe less than an hour a day as the sun is setting). My window in my office is very bright, so hopefully that and an increase in the amount of fertilizer I'm using will help. I will also try to repot them into larger pots once spring starts and it isn't so cold outside (I worry about them freezing while I transport them). Thank you again! If these steps don't help, I'll chalk it up to the fungus infection and maybe start fresh with new bulbs :(

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It might depend also on how many pups they developed. If too many are kept tied to the mother plant, the mummy will grow and feed her babies and grow less herself thus flowering less.

    If you had stag problems, you certainly are keeping them too wet and that does affect the blooms as the roots get damaged maybe on a regular basis? Change your potting soil to something that would have some organic food but allows them to dry faster - mines bloom after a period of being kept "dryish"

  • 9 years ago

    I had an Emerald (cybister) bulb growing outside. It had gotten quite large and had some offsets at the end of summer. It is one of my favorite bulbs! Part way through winter, it wasn't looking right. I did a closer inspection and found that Stagonospora curtisii fungus had caused much of the bulb to become mushy and it had a lot of offsets. I brought everything indoors, treated the bulbs with various combinations of heat and either bleach or hydrogen peroxide. I'm currently waiting to see if those treatments did any good. I wish I had taken pictures of the mushy mess that the bulb had become! It obviously wanted survivors and created offsets in an attempt to make that happen.

  • 9 years ago

    Good idea about the pups taking too much energy from the mom. Fortunately, my stag infection isn't bad, and my bulbs are still very firm and healthy looking. I also ended up getting a surprise flower shoot growing in a bulb I didn't expect it from! I usually don't water my bulbs unless the top inch or so of dirt is completely dry, so I hope I'm not overwatering them!

  • 9 years ago

    I'm assuming you water from the top?

    It may be possible that the high temperatures induce the production of bubblets.

  • PRO
    9 years ago

    In my area plants planted in heavy shade do not flower as well as plants with some sun. Often the leaves of these plants are longer than plants receiving enough sun. Hopefully your new office light is better for flowers.

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