Repotting
M. Gastil-Buhl (Mon, 07 Oct 2013 07:10:20 PDT)

John Wickham writes
"Is it perfectly fine to pot up seedlings, for example, as they are
growing?"

and I look forward to answers from those more experienced. But I
cannot resist paraphrasing Ian Young from his latest bulb log where he
says there are two ideal times of year to replant bulbs: when they are
dormant and when the gardener has time and enthusiasm. It was a good
laugh since I currently face a daunting backlog of re-potting and am
trying to get this year's in-ground re-planting done before our first
rain storm.

I will venture a guess to John's question: when the seedlings seem to
be suffering poor growth due to crowding then maybe it is better to
pot them up one size but otherwise stick to the 2 years growth before
unpotting seedlings. I base that solely on advice read here at pbs,
not experience. I myself will be glad if last year's seed pots re-
emerge after their too-long dormancy. I only just re-hydrated my seed
pots yesterday, about 2 months late.

This question also relates to my experiment of growing bulb seeds
directly in soil, in raised beds. Those beds have done well, in some
cases unbelievably well, as with the Dichelostemma which produced 12
healthy small bulbs from 13 seeds and the Moraea polystachya which in
one small pocket produced 3 bloom-sized corms from 3 planted sprouts.
The latter were planted in a pocket the area of a 4-inch pot but
effectively infinitely deep. The corms I found growing well below the
depth of a 4-inch pot so they could not have done as well if grown
contained. My guess is that in-soil, re-potting is not as critical and
can skip a year or two.

- Gastil