Minerva splits.

In late spring-early summer, I saw the first sign that my bulb would split. After blooming in April, new foliage began to emerge. In looking at what was coming, I noticed that there was a leaf with its back to the back of an adjacent leaf. That was the sign.

Over the summer more leaves grew in each crown, and now they're pretty much the same size, but still bound together by the leaf bases.

As you can see by the "crusty" rough-looking bulb, this bulb was troubled by fungal infection and bulb mites.

R.

Hey, Robert!

I am not sure if your definition of 'split' is the same as mine, but I had a Blossom Peacock split this past spring. It was one that I had marked for Donna in Jacksonville. It had already bloomed, and it wasn't until I was unpotting it to prepare for shipping that I noticed that the outer scales had split. It was the mother bulb of all my smaller ones.

Since I had promised Donna the mother bulb, I let her know about the split. The bulb was otherwise healthy, so I had no reason to think that the split would hurt.

I was so very pleased when Donna let me know that it bloomed another time for her.

This was my first and only time to see a bulb split because of so much leaf growth and buds forming inside.

Is this what you are saying?

Robert, if you can't find the Cleary product, Captan works really well for the fungal diseases. I rarely have to use it, but if it is treasure bulb, I will. I only wish that the Cleary product was available locally in small quantities.

Good Luck and a belated Happy Birthday. I have been snowed under at school...

HST~ (tee-hee)

The splitting I am referring is an actual division of the bulb into two seperate plants attached to one basal plate.

In the pic, you can see that the bulb scales are continuous all around, as in a single-crowned plant, but now it has two crowns. As the outer scales dry and fall away, eventually the two seperate portions will be revealed.

Both halves will be sharing a single basal plate which can be easily split, leaving each half with a full set of roots.

It doesn't happen an awful lot with Hippeastrums, but it will happen now and then, usually just after flowering. I think V. Read names a species or hybrid which tends to do that, just don't recall it at the mo'.

EDITED TO ADD: Read says that 'Germa' and 'Jewel' have a tendency to split in her experience.

Here's a pic of a bulb I received new which had already split before I got it, sending up three scapes--all from a bulb barely 3" across! It was supposed to be 'Salmon Pearl' (which I am still *dead* to find), but turned out to be 'Baby Star', which I love, anywho.


This message was edited Sep 28, 2007 10:07 PM

Here's The Baby sending up scapes:

This bulb arrived with only a couple tiny very short roots and was very late to set root. I think it was June before it started. I was afraid it wouldn't ever get going, but it finally did.

An example of why one is cautioned to avoid choosing a bulb devoid of roots!

EDITED: Wrong, Robert! I misremembered this and I guess you can see, *clearly* in the pic, that the bulb indeed had roots on arrival. Guess y'all though I was lying, LOL
I think what I remembered as "no roots", was that over time, the short roots that were there rotted away. So, after awhile, I was stuck with a bulb with no roots and was stubbornly refusing to grow any new ones.
As you can see in the pic, it was raring to go with scapes and leaves coming. Because the roots were pruned prior to shipping and whatever went on in storage, they were useless to support the foliage which eventually died away.
Anywho, I still stand by NOT choosing a rootless bulb, and avoid those with heavily pruned roots without and branching to them.


Don't have a pic of it as of today, but here's a bloom from late January. The green throat *glows* in the midst of the red and white.

R.

This message was edited Sep 29, 2007 5:39 PM

Here is the 'Baby Star' that I received with two crowns. It's in a 5.5-inch pot with the longest foliage about 18". The motherbulb has 10 leaves and the split-offset is holding 3.

Closer:

HST~

You can see that the righthand bulb has split in the way you are talking about due to the outer scales not growing as the inner ones expanded. This happens when scapes come busting out too, and I agree, it isn't a problem in any way.

R.