Scale propagation of Bowiea volubilis.

I found a detailed discussion *somewhere* on the 'Net regarding the how-tos of propagating B. volubilis from detached scales. Anyone know the page I'm referring to?

I'm also wondering of anyone has temporarily covered their "bulb" with soil and had bulblets form on the edges of partial scales. I'm thinking of trying this method.

Robert.

Hi Robert,
we meet again, well, I tried with one scale but it hasn't done anything yet (it's been about 4 months). Athough, I left it on top of the soil, it did a get a callus on the side, maybe it will turn into a bulb. Don't know. I check it periodically.

Other thing is, I did not know we could cover the bulb with soil, I may try that, several people on the plantsdatabase comments say that the bulb splits into two, but I do not see that happening with mine either.

They are evergreen here, and the stalks are about 5 to 6 feet tall. Never had any seed pods form either, just alot of flowers. When one stalk dies down, another comes up.

It would be nice if mine would multiply some. I have two right now the size of softballs.


edited to say, if you get a chance, look at the ones in the ground in this garden:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.freiburg-bilder.de/Garten/gewaechshaeuser/images/kakth12.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.freiburg-bilder.de/Garten/gewaechshaeuser/kakteenhaus.html&h=201&w=300&sz=15&tbnid=hlWPpj9SfFFJ8M:&tbnh=74&tbnw=111&hl=en&start=18&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbowiea%2Bvolubilis%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2004-10,GGLD:en%26sa%3DN

This message was edited Mar 11, 2006 11:42 AM

try this link:

http://www.freiburg-bilder.de/Garten/gewaechshaeuser/kakteenhaus.html

I imagine bottom heat in a warm environment would help with the propagation.I wouldn't cover the scale too much . Plants like this are usually only inserted appoximately 3/16 " into the soil, because they are suseptible to rot. Frankford

This message was edited Mar 11, 2006 2:18 PM

I know it would take careful watering and a lightish soil to avoid rot. I'm thinking that as they grow in situ covered in soil might be one way it propagates and if done with care with warmth and good air circulation etc. it might work and not endanger the plant.

I'm going to wait on doing that because I have just discovered some new growth on ly plant. I was going to cover the "bulb" because half of a scale had dried out leaving a partial scale intact. (The scale that "dissolved" was not the outermost, but was the next one in. After the outermost scale dried to a thin skin, I removed it to expose the partial scale and then got the idea to cover the caloused edge with soil to see if bulbs would form. I had tried to get a scale to root last summer, but it just dried up.

Anyway, I noticed something going on under the partial scale and decided to cut it away and try to get them to bulb and see what was happening underneath.

Here's what I found: There are two shoots emerging at the soil line. One is a tip poking straight out and the other seems to be looped out and back in and the tip coming from that. There also appears to be a small daughter bulb at about the same place. Sort of a teardrop shaped flatish "bulb". Maybe it was both these things that caused the scale to dry out underneath the surface.......

I removed the partial scale, as I said, and have cut it into a couple pieces and have these sitting on a plate indoors. How long until it calouses? It actually seem to be drying out as it seem a little limp-feeling, softish. I hope it will stop drying and callous.

So, for now, I'm not going to hill up the soil around the bulb. I will try doing that if I ever get a partial scale situation again.

Thanks Antoinette (for the links too!)and frankford for your caveat.
I'll post any developments with the sprouts and the scales here should anything happen.

Robert.

I've put several pieces of "Ziggy" on top of some damp Peter's seed starting mix (fine vermiculite mostly) and put a baggy over it and have it in good light (but not too much).

I pushed the mix up to the scales so that all edges are in contact with it. I'll air it out now-and-again so it doesn't get too humid in there. Wondering how long it will take at normal room temps?

Robert.

Researching what to do next, I found this thread. Not B. volubilis (although I do want one someday) but lily scale is treated like this.

Scales (not left to dry) put in moistened peat moss in a zip lock bag. Sealed and left at a minimum temp of 70. Two months later ~ (I expected them to rot) I found plants growing out of the scale. Why I was researching is now what do I need to do. I think I know...

Anyway, have any of you had success with the B. volubilis scale propagation?

Pod, my scales rotted I guess, nothing developed there, but, Well, both of mine had a stem all winter inside the house and outside during summer this past year. I took them outside because they grew about 7 feet long around the window and needed support.. also, they looked like they could use some fresh air.

It must of drained one of them alot, because the smaller one got really mushy, I thought it was rotting, then I put both of them outside for a couple of months. One that was mushy firmed up, and I pulled it out to see if it was rotting or what was up, it looks like it has a bulbil on the side under the skin, just like the pregnant onions do. So, I stuck that back into the soil and reburied it some.

The second one (the larger of the two) is getting a leaf just like the prenant onion leaf... before it had a stem, and it also looks like it may split, not really sure on what it is doing. I'll take a photo later. I have been giving it some fertilizers throughout the year, it can't hurt, but they both did have stems for several months with flowers (no seeds though)..

raydio, how is yours doing??

Hi Gourd & Pod~

Glad you bumped this one out of the past. I had meant to update my results but it alsways occured when I wasn't online and when I was online, I'd have forgotten it.

I did indeed have success with getting a scale to strike!

Most of my pieces rotted too. Looking at the time of year, March may have been the wrong time or my treatment may not have worked, but I had two pieces that seemed to be starting to take. I had tried different positionings of the pieces, standing up with one edge (oriented ad it was on the bulb) in the medium, or with the whole thing cut edge down against the medium.

I tried so many things and I didn't keep any records. I don't think I ever tried dry medium under a greenhouse type covering (Saran Wrap covering), so I'm just not sure what made it work. I'm thinking that the warmth of approaching summer helped. I don't know that having the medium moist did anything bu promote rot. I may have misted plump pieces somewhere in there, when I noticed some of the pieces drying out. I may have had them in too much light. I plan to do this again in summer and keep the pieces out of direct light, dry and maybe have the pot covered with Saran. I'll try strictly dry with no plastic covering too, with the pieces lightly covered in dry sand. That might be best as would be close to their natural habitat.

Anyway, last summer, one large piece began to develop three "thickenings" close together on one edge and another piece already had a good sized "bump" on the edge. The one with the three swellings eventually succumbed but the small single piece that was further along eventually made this:

This message was edited Oct 2, 2007 4:19 PM

The bulb is just over an inch across. There are two leaves: one is 1 1/4" aand the other maybe 3/16". The leaves that have been there before were even longer and looked like blades of grass. I was surprised at their length as I had never seen the leaves as long, even on ly largest mature bulb. I don't recall them being much over 1/4" inch and they disappeared as the viney blooming stem emerged.

The baby bulb never produce the vining part, but would have several long leaves at one time.

I recently transplanted this one. It had lost all leaves. Soon enough, it responded to waterings, and produced the short leaf and now the longer one, which seems to be still lengthening.

So--it can be done!

Wish I hadn't been so hit and miss and could tell you exactly what produced the result, but that was so long ago, and again, as is my habit, when something doesn't seem to work, I make changes on the fly, trying to get it right.

R.

Ouch I didn't see the date and realize how old this thread was. Glad you were both still out there.

Raydio, I think you might have something on the heat. The months of Aug and Sept are killers here, with temps are increased in the plant shelter. A sealed enviornment would prevent it from drying out completely I guess. I really didn't know what to expect on these as they tend to prefer dry, gravely conditions.

Gourd, your comment

Hi there Pod,
No, I only took a small scale, but the bulbs bloomed, and bloommed all winter. Here is a photo. They used to be the same size.. lol. one is sending out a shoot and a leaf (the big one), the smaller one is the one that has a bubil on the inside, but it is in the soil.. .

yes, we are still around..lol.., hopefully our onions will hang in there..

Cool comparison ~ Gourd. Brings something else to mind. Some plants reproduce and then die. Is it possible the bubil is draining it?

It could be... I was kinda hoping it was like the pregnant onion and just keep on producing.., but I've had them for a couple of years already and this will be the first baby...

I am not that familiar with this one but didn't think they reproduced in that manner do they?

I didn't think so either, but it is doing that, I think that it is growing one on the side, and that is how they split.
A.

Makes sense, the split was what I was familiar with.

I'm not sure they actually split, but it does look like that.

Not sure I can explain this clearly, but here goes:

I think what actually happens is that an offset starts to form under several layers of scale. It eventually gets large enough to break or split the scales where it is, on one side.

The large outer scales have dried up and fallen by that time, and the main bulb is smaller due to not having as many scales. The offset has grown large enough to fill in the space that was once just the main bulb.

What I noticed was that near the top, between the scale layers, a new bloom vine grows out while the main bulb is whole and complete. It is attached to the same basal plate, under one or two scales. Sometimes the offset forms when there aren't any scales covering it, so they look more like regular offsets.

I don't think there is any difference in the way they form. The difference is that sometimes there are live scales covering them and sometimes not.

Here's a few pix from last year of the first offset mine made. First my plant in early March. I had removed the outer scale to use in the propagation attempt discussed in this thread:

I think I had seen a curious bulge on the side before removing the scale, but in any case, this is what was there in March:

In the above pic, it looks like more than one stem was present, but later I discovered it was only one which looped out then ran back under the bulb. A few days later the loop was freed:

I'll get a couple pix of the plant as it is today with the offset seen here having grown a good bit.

R.

In this previous post, you can see a pointed bit of growth to the right of the bloom stem. It enlarged since last year, but never produced foliage or bloom.

A second offset appeared as well.

The main bulb is about 4.5 inches across.

Here's the same section of the bulb today (a little spotty ;-) ) There were three bloom stems coming from the main bulb. I cut two away. The right most growth of the three offsets is the one that never produce anything. I'm not sure it isn't just an scale or is an actual offset.

oooh, I like that... that means there is hope for mine.. I'll dig a little on the side where i thought I felt a bulb.

That is really great. Have you ever seen seeds on these, mine bloomed 100's of flowers and not one produced a seedpod.

I did get a few seeds once when my plant was "summering" outdoors as it usually is, where the pollinators did their thing. Indoors-never.

There was only a pod or two that time. Nothing this year.

I didn't save the seed but crumbled the pod next to the mama bulb. Never saw anything come from it though the seed may have started then died.

Good luck with yours!

R.

Thanks to you both for the interesting and valuable info! pod