Nerine sarniensis

Brian Whyer brian.whyer@btinternet.com
Sun, 06 Nov 2005 02:59:13 PST
Jim

I can only refer you back to the Hamish Sloan TOW April 28 2003, in the
pbs archives.

"During the growing season, I water with a liquid fertilizer on every 
occasion, when the pots dry out from the previous watering. Overwatering
is 
death to the roots and the bulb will regress. I hold no truck with those

who have advised in the past that nerines do well on a starvation diet."

In addition Hamish has the fertiliser in his soil based compost. Again
see the TOW introduction.

I personally rely more on the compost base fertiliser, as I only use
liquid fertiliser sporadically as and when I remember, particularly in
winter, but if you use a largely inert sand based compost in pots I
cannot see how you can expect them to prosper without at least an
occasional feed. A quick count of my small collection of nominally
flowering sized pots just now, gave me 50% with 1 -3 flower stems this
autumn, so I will stick with feeding, and a soil based compost. I
suspect in the sand compost you are less at risk of overwatering and may
get a more extensive root system. Like Hamish I grow mostly in tall form
2 litre square plastic pots, and I overwinter the tender bulbs above
43F/7C, with the hardier non sarniensis forms surviving mostly in a
south facing cold frame. A pot of this dimensions (12cm/5"square) will
take 2-4 flowering sized normal forms, or just 1 of the larger nerines
such as Zeal Giant.

Brian Whyer, Buckinghamshire, England, zone ~8.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On
> Behalf Of J.E. Shields
> Sent: 06 November 2005 00:39
> To: Pacific Bulb Society
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Nerine sarniensis
> 
> Mark and Arnold,
> 
> Arnold, we heard it from Sir Peter Smithers in the old [BULB] list.
Sir
> Peter has said that he is convinced that feeding any of the broad-leaf
> Nerine varieties releases latent viruses, which can decimate a
collection.
> 
> I'm not willing to test it by actually fertilizing some of mine.
Anyone
> else want to volunteer to test Sir Peter's hypothesis?
> 
> Regards,
> Jim Shields
> in summery central Indiana


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