When to start watering/blooming now
Peter Taggart (Sat, 19 Oct 2013 11:10:02 PDT)
I believe that the important thing is not to water until the weather cools
down - or at least until the temperatures fluctuate between day and night.
Hot and wet = rot in many winter growing 'bulbs'. In cool Summers this
problem may not apply and so watering early will simply start off early
growth.
I do believe in damping down pots in very dry Summer conditions, It is very
important to remember that this is not the same as wetting the bulbs with
an autumnal soak.
Peter (UK)
On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 4:39 PM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote:
Many years ago on this list we had a discussion about when to start
watering winter growing bulbs. In California it usually doesn't start
to rain as early as it does in other Mediterranean areas and often
the fall months are warm and sunny. For those of us who live in
coastal climates these days may be even warmer than in summer when we
often have wind or fog. It seemed reasonable to wait to start
watering the native bulbs until it started to rain, but what about
those from other countries where it would have rained earlier in the
season. If they started into growth early, how would they do if it
got really warm.
winter growers are well up or appearing. So for me I think it is
probably wise to water early so that fall bloomers have a chance to
grow big enough and bloom before the weather gets cold and wet. This
might not hold true for areas of California with warmer temperatures.