On 9 May 2013, at 0:22, Alberto Castillo wrote: > Well, the standard procedure involves using hot water and the temperature to be > reached to be effective is 46 C at the bulb core for one hour. It gave good > results but the bulbs were pretty battered by the treatment and took long to > recover. The reason is evident: to reach 46 C at the core the outer portion must > be almost boiled. Oh, Alberto, no need to boil your bulbs! I once used the same method in an attempt to clear thrips from a badly infested garden gladiolus. Brought the water up to the desired temperature, immersed the bulbs, then carefully watched the thermometer, adjusting the heat under the pan (nothing more than a big sauce pan) up and down as the temperature fell and rose. I was able to keep the water temperature within a degree or two of the target for however long the bulbs were in the water - about an hour, iirc. The key to this is an accurate thermometer. It's been a long long time, but I probably used a lab thermometer that was a souvenir of my days as a chemistry grad student. Even better would be a thermostatically controlled water bath, but hand adjustment worked fine for this one-off experiment. I never did hear from the grower whether the treatment was successful. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate