South African gladiolus seedling leaves

Leo A. Martin leo@possi.org
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:30:14 PDT
My experience with glad seedlings, almost all from Silverhill, is that
they don't grow much without fertilizer. Actually, they don't seem to
increase at all without it.

I sowed a number of species 2001-2003 and the ones that returned year on
year didn't increase in size at all. In winter 2007-8 I used dilute
high-phosphate fertilizer on my bulbs 3 or 4 times. They grew much better.
This year a few species bloomed: watermeyeri, among others. I have my
plants in my local sandy granite-based soil.

As for dalenii, the times I've sprouted it, it grew very fast and
vigorously, even without fertilizer. Much faster than the winter-growers.
You realize dalenii is a summer grower, right?

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA


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