Rhodophiala seedlings

Bruce Schroder bruceandjill.schroder@gmail.com
Sun, 19 Nov 2017 14:03:24 PST
I also have young seedlings of both these species, about the same age.  I
also have seedlings of a number of other Rhodophiala sp.  I am still
experimenting with these and to tell you the truth, am very confused with
their growth cycle.  Mine here in Melbourne are showing no signs of
dormancy as we head into summer & in fact a number are putting on new
growth including R splendens.  My theory is that whilst the bulbs want to
remain in leaf, I will continue to water them (sparingly) to encourage the
bulbs to fatten up!

I have no idea how big the bulbs are as they have never gone completely
dormant for me and allowed me to inspect them.  The only species that has
is R laeta.  When I inspected the dormant bulbs last summer they were only
about 5mm (2015 sowing).  I think that as a genus they are naturally slow!
The possible exception to this seems to be R bakeri which flowered last
summer from seed sown in early 2015.  These have also never gone dormant.

Another one I am experimenting with is R bifida.  Mature bulbs always go
dormant about this time of the year but seedlings from various seed sources
are currently showing no signs of dormancy.  I have recently received some
seeds from a colleague in the US and have just sown them - they started
germinating within 3 days!  It will be interesting to see how they perform
as summer progresses.

Bruce Schroder, Melbourne, Australia
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