So your hypothesis, Alberto, is not that the plants benefit from crowding so to speak, but from minimal root disturbance? Very interesting....I wonder whether there is any research to confirm one way or another. It would certainly be enlightening! Nan On Oct 7, 2006, at 11:32 AM, Alberto Castillo wrote: > Hi Jim: > Most often stories about potbound plants refer to > amaryllids and a few other bulbs woth perennial roots. A potbound > bulb means a plant which roots are not disturbed in any way > (normally during repotting. Repotting is essential in small pot > cultivation) for long. The deduction has been that these bulbs > flower better (or just flower!) when potbound when the truth is > that they flower better because their perennial roots have not been > damaged during all the period it has become potbound.. Even today, > one hear of people trimming the roots of their Hippeastrums or > Hymenocallises with the comment "without any harm", so you see, > there is a lot of wrong information around. What worries me is that > this kind of information be available to newbies meaning lots of > failures and false starts. > > Best > Alberto > > > >> Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 11:58:37 -0400> To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> >> From: jshields@indy.net> Subject: Re: [pbs] Pots vs. In Ground >> Culture> > Hi All,> > I could not agree more with what Alberto >> says. In my climate, anyone with > my sorts of interests in >> tender bulbs has to use pots and has to bring them > indoors for >> the winter. We're just today moving more of our pots into the > >> heated storage shed and the greenhouses for the winter.> > Bigger >> pots make bigger plants, which are often more resistant to > >> environmental stresses, which may produce more or bigger flowers, >> and which > more nearly approximate what you would see in the >> wild.> > The garden stories about bulbs that need to be pot-bound >> probably come from > the tendency of amateur gardeners to over- >> water plants from arid climates.> > Dutch hybrid Hippeastrum, the >> so-called "amaryllis" of the supermarket and > garden shop, grow >> wonderfully outdoors in the ground during warm > weather. If you >> can take the extra work of digging them in the autumn, > they are >> much nicer that way than when kept in a pot all the time.> > Jim >> Shields> in central Indiana (USA), where winter is a-coming in the >> next couple of months> > > At 02:51 PM 10/7/2006 +0000, you >> wrote:> >........ BUT, what the post was all about from the >> beginning is that what > >makes pot culture insatisfactory is the >> bonsai effect produced by small > >pots. And that by using really >> big containers you can mimick free range > >conditions a lot.> >> >> >Best> >Alberto> > >> *************************************************> Jim >> Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.> >> P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/> >> Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA> Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or >> toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA> > > >> _______________________________________________> pbs mailing list> >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > _________________________________________________________________ > Descubre Live.com - tu propia página de inicio, personalizada para > ver rápidamente todo lo que te interesa en un mismo sitio. > http://www.live.com/getstarted/ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php