Should I stop watering my South African bulbs?

Xephre · March 04, 2025, 07:54:47 PM

Boophone disticha, Brunsvigia orientalis, B. marginata, B. pulchra

B. disticha didn't have root when I received the bulb but it had some green leaves back then.
Now it's all gone brown. Brunsvigia have root.
I live in South Korea and now they don't have any leaves, should I stop watering?
Please let me know when to start watering again.
These bulbs are still firm but I think they got stressed while repotting them and the temperature has been like 10°C.

Arnold · March 05, 2025, 08:01:32 AM

HI Xephre

I would not water at all if there is no leaf growth. You didn't mention if the bulbs were being switched to northern hemisphere time frame.

I received a bulb from SA during a time when the bulb should have been dormant for the northern hemisphere. I kept it cool, under lights and watered very little. It was brought up into the greenhouse when our temperatures dropped outside.

Watering a dormant bulb can lead to root rot.

Xephre · March 05, 2025, 08:56:04 AM

To Arnold T.

Hello! I think B. disticha is imported and neglected like that for few months. Rooting powder was applied on the bulb disk when I got that bulb from an online shopping mall. It seems it needs a good root system desperately but the leaves withered. So I was confused what to do.

Brunsvigia all grew in South Korea for at least a few months to years and all had green leaves when I received them. It's been almost 2 months since then.

It's all very confusing to apply for northern hemisphere life cycle to those beauties...
I know excess water is no good and heard established root system is also very important... but I guess it's just not the right time as they lost all the leaves and I have to wait until they are ready.

But... normally, they should be growing more in northern hemisphere by now, right?

Another pot of Boophone disticha and B. haemanthoides seem living well(they grew in South Korea for a few years) and I also uploaded pictures of them below.

Picture 3 to 4 are when I first received the B. disticha
Picture 5 is Brunsvigia orientalis when it had leaves. I was worried when it started to wither from the center. It just didn't seem normal... Does it???

CG100 · March 05, 2025, 11:29:23 AM

Boophone disticha is a summer-grower. I have not checked the other species and cannot remember.

Species, such as Boophone, which have perenial roots which are removed for international trade, need to be encouraged to make new roots as soon as possible. The root-plate should be inserted into very gritty compost and then half of the proper bulb needs to be buried in 10-15mm gravel, which keeps the bulb steady, in the same position. A clay pot is also a good idea.
Use something like a wooden/bamboo kebab skewer pushed well down into the pot to judge how damp the compost is - pull it out and touch to your lips. Keep the compost just, and only just, damp. Good light is required, but not full sun.

Bulbs with perenial roots need to be encouraged to make roots, no matter when they arrive, in or out of season.

Boophone disticha is actually reasonably easy to get back into growth from import, as are all summer-growers - they WANT to grow, and they will often change season within one year.

Winter-growers........................not so easy to get them to change seasons N v S. They can take 2-3 years.

Do not worry about the leaves, just let them dry. The plants "wants" to lose them and that can't be stopped.

CG100 · March 06, 2025, 02:34:51 AM

I should also say thatthe base of the B. d. does not look right. It looks hollow, but it should protrude.

Reading your post again, perhaps you are using mostly artificial lighting? If so, it is probably far too little. It may look OK, but the human eye compensates for absolutely huge variations by opening and closing the iris.

If you are trying to grow any of them out of season with the season in Korea, don't. It is exceedingly difficult. The plants must adjust to the Korean seasons.

If using artificial lighting, buy a cheap lux meter. This one is on Amazon UK, but it will be available all over the world. It is the one that I use but it cost a lot less a year or two ago. There are now far cheaper meters available, but I have not used them.

UNI-T UT383BT Mini Light Meters with Certificates: CE, UKCA 200,000 LUX Digital Luxmeter Luminance Lux Fc Test Max Min Illuminometers Photometer(UT383BT with Bluetooth function) : Amazon.co.uk: Garden

Xephre · March 07, 2025, 05:49:42 AM

To CG100.

The surface of the base is kind of hard but I'm not sure it'd make roots.

As far as I understand, you said I should let them be and not water them till it's growing season again.
But for B. disticha, since it doesn't have root, I should water it sometimes to trigger root growth but not too often.

I rely on artificial lights and it indeed is far from ideal environment like under the full sun.
I was thinking I need to add more lights there as I'm planning to grow more of them.
I wish I had space for them out there...

Robert_Parks · March 07, 2025, 07:50:21 AM

Quote from: Xephre on March 07, 2025, 05:49:42 AMI rely on artificial lights and it indeed is far from ideal environment like under the full sun.
I was thinking I need to add more lights there as I'm planning to grow more of them.
I wish I had space for them out there...

The amount of light they want is impressive, the ones in the sunny front are vastly more vigorous than the ones in the back with only part sun...and presumably they would be even happier without all the SF overcast and fog. I'm lucky that most of my indoor plants are small forest floor and edge denizens, so I can avoid eye watering lights. There is a chance Pachypodium which at least is dwarf so it can be raised to almost touch the LED panel.

Robert
in San Francisco, where the inside plants can't handle the outside temperature and moisture...but remain irresistible.

Arnold · March 07, 2025, 10:17:59 AM

I've augmented my indoor greenhouse SA plants with an array of LED's and it's made a large difference. The light levels here in the northern hemisphere are so much less than what the light levels are in native habitat.

You can check here: https://www.gaisma.com/en/ for light level comparisons.

CG100 · March 07, 2025, 11:45:29 AM

Quote from: Xephre on March 07, 2025, 05:49:42 AMAs far as I understand, you said I should let them be and not water them till it's growing season again.

They need to be kept just, and only just, damp to encourage root growth. Once growing season comes around, very slightly increase water. If they make leaves, you can water more. B. disticha is a summer-grower and reasonably easy to get to make roots and change season. B. haemanthioides................................. very different - a winter-grower - they will usually take at least 2 years to change.

Like you I am not convinced that the B. disticha will regrow roots - it looks "wrong". I have 6 B. d. imported from RSA, imported as various sizes from 15mm to 100mm, all nursery-raised, all minus roots and all OK now.

Something to consider - growing without natural light, commercial crops (and cannabis) have carefully designed LED lighting that runs at around 600W per square metre and it is very close or amongst the plants.............................. This is a LONG way short of what plants in RSA would receive in habitat. (Even using LEDs this produces a huge amount of heat, in fact almost 600W of heat - LEDs are far more efficient (10 times more - roughly 100 lumens per watt v. 10 lumens per watt) than tradtional GLS lighting, but GLS lighting is something like 0.0001% efficient in producing light.

Anyone trying to augment natural light needs to get a cheap meter - your eyes are useless at judging effects because of your iris.
A couple of years ago, I set up some 2700K golfball LED lamps in reflectors around 30cm above my plants. My eyes said that the light level (lux) was greatly increased. The meter said that the shade cast from the reflector cut more natural light than the LEDs lamps added. I believe(d) the meter.