I don't' mean to throw a spanner in the works, but how is it possible to ever have a healthy soil if a field has been sterilized? Once you wipe out all of the beneficial micro-organisms, it always seems that it's the pathogenic ones that come back first, making it necessary to get on the chemical treadmill to have a saleable crop. As an old organic grower, I've found that if you maintain a healthy soil, the incidence of disease is much less or non-existent. Merrill Palo Alto, CA zone 9/10 -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Pacific Rim Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 10:08 PM To: zonneveld@RULBIM.Leidenuniv.nl; Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] Fertilization Ben Zonneveld, with great respect: other reasons that bulbs in the Netherlands rapidly increase in size and number are the same elsewhere in the world: -- sometimes the growing fields are healthy soil -- sometimes the growing fields are sterilized -- sometimes plants are minutely observed and selected for traits such as rapid production of offsets. Paige Woodward paige@hillkeep.ca http://www.hillkeep.ca/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "zonneveld" <zonneveld@RULBIM.Leidenuniv.nl> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 12:48 AM Subject: [pbs] Fertilization > All bulb fields in Holland are heavely fertilized each year before the > bulbs ( tulips narcissi hyacinths) go in That is why they increase in > size an number > Ben J.M.Zonneveld > Institute of Biology,Leiden University, Clusius lab > Wassenaarse weg 64, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands > Zonneveld@rulbim.Leidenuniv.NL > Fax: +31-71-5274999. min temp -10C (15F) > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php