refrigerate hardy Lycoris sprengeri seedling pots?
Kelly Irvin (Sun, 05 Jan 2014 10:00:45 PST)
Gastil:
The larger bulb spring foliage species such as /L. sprengeri/ grow and
flower well in 2 gallon tree pots which allow for deep root growth.
Since these species generally take a season or two to recover from
transplanting, you would need to have available refrigerator space for
the whole pot (I suspect), though dormant bulbs can be removed from
these pots with minimal root damage, so there could be room for
experimentation with removing from the pot and refrigerating with
minimal sphagnum or vermiculite in baggies.
An exposed pot will dry out in a refrigerator, so, as long as you
don't put it in the fridge waterlogged, it might be best to cover the
top of the pot with a baggie secured with a rubber band.
I've never had good flowering success of larger, spring foliage
Lycoris, in standard pots, but a standard 7-gallon will be about as
deep as a 2-gallon tree pot. Would need more bulbs in it, it would be
very heavy, and would take up much more of your refrigerator space.
Oh, and, to anybody in the naturally hardy zones, don't grow them in
pots unless you are willing to store them in a cool place away from
natural winter conditions. The bulbs will freeze unless you do this or
plunge the pots (or reverse plunge, adding significant amounts of
mulch to come up and around the entire pot).
Mr. Kelly M. Irvin
10850 Hodge Ln
Gravette, AR 72736
USA
479-787-9958
USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6a/b
On 1/5/14, 10:49 AM, M. Gastil-Buhl wrote:
Should I refrigerate pots of L. sprengeri seedlings to simulate the
cold winter they expect?
After reading the 'Garden Lycoris and More' pdf from the pbs wiki
Lycoris page I realize the Lycoris sprengeri I have been anxiously
watching and waiting to re-emerge are not due to leaf out until spring
and expect a cold winter, hardy to zone 5. Here in my mild climate the
6 inch plastic pots have sat on a shelf on the porch without leaves.
They had leaves their first year but not the second year. I did not
give them an artificially cold winter last year. I am guessing perhaps
I should have put the pots into the refrigerator for a couple months.
I may try this now.
These are from PBS BX 297-4, germinated December 2011. By July 2012
they had produced bulblets 2 cm long by 0.5 cm wide. They had leaves
that year from July through at least November. Here is a photo record:
http://flickr.com/photos/gastils_garden/…
Have others grown this species from seed in a mild climate without
artificial cold?
- Gastil
Santa Barbara, CA
approximately usda zone 9b and a colder microclimate than the official
map showing climate of zone 10a.
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