Hippeastrum culture
arnold140@verizon.net (Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:40:17 PDT)

Diana:

That's great advice.

Do you disinfect with any commercial product during your cleaning process.

Arnold
New Jersey

On 06/12/13, Diana Chapman wrote:

I have modified some of the cultural advice posted yesterday and added
some tips on specific species. I will add to this in the future.

I have had people ask me how I keep my Hippeastrums so healthy. I must
emphasize the yearly repotting and cleaning. We repot all the bulbs in
winter, clean the bulbs, removing any dead tissue, dead roots, and all
the outer dry tunics, scraping off dead material from the basal place.
Sometimes I dust with sulfur when I do this, otherwise not. The pots
are washed, and the benches washed also, and the bulbs repotted in fresh
material with the old potting mix discarded. I used to use fungicides,
but have not had to for the past two years. I keep my bulbs much drier
than most bulbs. The only problem I have had with rots is when the
medium is too moist. There are some species that like moisture (H.
blumenavium, but maybe it's not a Hippeastrum after all!). Old potting
mix gets compacted, fungal disease can build up, so the repotting is
very important. It is a very big job, and my helpers and I do it in the
winter, but my collection is very valuable to me.

blog: http://www.thebulbmaven.typepad.com/

Diana
http://www.telosrarebulbs.com/