Amaryllis Basics III - Vase Culture
James Waddick (Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:15:23 PST)

Dear PBS, This is the third/final article. Can this be done
with any other bulbs? Jim W.

Garden Amaryllis - Hippeastrum Basics

3. Vase culture: Breeder's vase techniques for Amaryllis
(Hippeastrum) and others. by Bill Warren of the
Amaryllis Study Group

You can culture Amaryllis (Hippeastrum)and other similar
plants to produce seed from cut flower scapes.

Works with hollow scapes only. Cut the scape (with a clean
knife) so that it is as long as possible. Place into a vase with
only enough clean, plain, fresh water to immerse 1-2 inches above of
the cut end of the scape. It does not need sugar or anything else.
Change the water every third day. This keeps the "micro moat
monsters' from incubating and invading the scape to eat it from the
inside. Just use plain water and change it every one to three days. I
will test chamomile tea as a water treatment to prevent "micro moat
monster" growth in vases shortly.

A proper controlled test of chemicals to control the mmm
(micro moat monsters) was conducted by UNC & U of F and found that
the basic ingredients needed were an antifungal, an anti bacterial,
and an antivirus. Vitamin C and aspirin crushed will do the trick.
However If you keep it simple FRESH WATER, no sugar (what about the
carbs etc, in the plant juices coming out of the scape - yes,
changing the water in 3 days or less interrupts the incubation
period), amazingly scapes will last longer in the vase than on the
bulb.

One very interesting line of inquiry when you are pollinating
(especially) and growing your seeds in a vase is to use very dilute
solutions of the chemicals used for tissue culture and creating
polyploidism. Well here we have a simple system that should use
exceedingly low concentrations of these dangerous chemicals (possibly
a hundredth or a thousandth of dilution for external drenches) to go
right up the scape directly to the ovary (seed pod) to change the
seeds before or during pollination. It is 1931 again and you have a
choice of tissue or vase culture. Which is more dangerous ?
Which needs more sterile conditions. Cut the scape for the vase
before the bud capsule has opened. Yes; it will go all the way
through bloom and seed formation if the water is not contaminated
with bacteria, molds, or viruses.

So far all of my investigation techniques are minimalist and
can be done by any interested individual in their garden or
greenhouse. Understanding why they work will allow them to be very
easily scaled up for commercial facilities so we are on a level field
with the Dutch and South African companies in finding new varieties
or starting a wide ranging breeding program with new Hippeastrum
cultivars. It isn't tissue culture, but who knows what magic lurks in
the genes of Hippeastrum (Apologies Shadow).

Go for it with some of the other amaryllids you have in your
collections. I have used it with the fast blooming rain lilies-taking
flowers or just pollen for my flowers from bulbs by the road
side. Even if you stick to species and are not interested in hybrids
using dilute PGRs, plant growth regulators, in a vase may give you a
whole new approach for changing and improving. How about that = Vase
Culture.

Good Fortune to you,
Bill Warren = Amaryllis Study Group
<mailto:amstgrp@yahoo.com>amstgrp@yahoo.com
Questions welcome. Answers praised.

--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +