Bulb Depth - Droppers and Risers
James Waddick (Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:25:32 PST)

Dear Friends,

The recent discussion on bulb depth reminded me a situation
that I was presented with earlier this year.

First, we have had a good discussion of contractile roots,
but this is not the situation here.

Jim McK (I think) mentioned 'droppers' in discussing crocus.
Just what is a dropper? First what it look like. If some bulbs are
planted too shallowly they will form something that looks like a
stolon from the base of the corm and drop straight down or at an
angle to develop a new bulb or corm at a lower depth. The structure
of the dropper itself isn't much discussed, but I assume it is some
extension of the basal plate and this extension responds to gravity
and 'drops' until an optimum depth occurs.
Over the years of PBS we have had a number of droppers mentioned.

This fall I was sent pix of what appeared to be "risers" in
Lycoris radiata. It appeared that the bulb was planted much too deep
and it had made a hefty stalk straight up from the basal plate,
through the center of the bulb , then up about 5 inches to form an
'identical bulb at a higher level. Both upper and lower bulbs had a
similar size and shape, roots and foliage just emerging.

I was asked if this was a dropper or what was happening.
Although it had some of the features of a dropper, it didn't look
right. In my experience a dropper will come from the side or bottom
of the top bulb, go down and turn up to form a new bulb at a lower
depth. This was two bulbs right on top of each other, there was no up
turn of a dropper.

I suspected that the original bulb was just planted way too
deep since I knew that Lycoris prefer to grow very shallowly. I later
learned that these bulbs were dug from a spot that had been altered
by adding new soil and in fact were buried way too deep.

This is the first time I had seen an actual 'riser'.

Anyone else have experience with droppers or risers?
Best Jim
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
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