packing bulbs for shipping
contact (Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:46:57 PST)

Dear all,
I find this a most interesting topic as I am faced with the problem every day. Under our packing
tables we have the choice of nets, paperbags, plastic bags, and filling (or protection) material;
saw dust, woodchippings, peat, potting soil, sphagnum, polystyrene.
I try to be systematic, in general we have the following rules:
Dry dormant bulbs: paper bags or nets, no filling material)
Freshly lifted bulbs with fleshy roots (amaryllidacea), cyclamen, alstroemeria, agapanthus:
thin plastic bag in paperbag filled with slightly humid peat or sphagnum
Delicate tubers etc (Glorisosa, Bletilla, Dahlia) paperbag with dry woodchippings
The use of plastic bags must be controlled carefully; as a period too long or bulbs too humid
may lead to rotting.
An excellent example of packing were the Crinums sent to us by Tony Avent. The bulbs with
fresh roots were wrapped in sphagnum and damp newspaper. Roots remained intact and are
still there three months after planting. (In many cases the fleshy roots disappear during the
months after planting)

The choice depends invariably on the genus, time of lifting prior to shipping, length of
shipping period. Many times it is intuition which guides.
Kind greetings
Lauw de Jager, France
http://www.bulbargence.com/

I find that almost invariably where I err in the storage of bulbs is
in keeping them too moist. Woodland corydalis, for example -- which
usually arrive from overseas packed in a moistened medium -- actually
do better for me packed in a dry medium in plastic bags, which keeps
them plump but discourages rooting. The same with most frits and
erythroniums. On the other hand, as long as green tissue is not an
issue, most bare-root geophytes will keep quite well even if moist
and in root. I have separated masses of erythroniums that have
formed veritable rootballs within their plastic packing, all the
while fearing that I was doing near-lethal harm. But they just
shrugged it off