Santos crosses

I have some Santos crosses,both some of my own and some from Gordo.I notice that many of these have a nice stripe down the middle of the leaf.I'm going to take a wild guess that Santos has some Reticulatum in it's lineage.I havn't seen this on any crosses except those with Santos as a parent.

And here is a young Reticulatum.The stripe is much more pronounced.

JT...within the next three years, you're going to be dazzled!
They're all going to bloom at once, and you're not going to believe your eyes!
Good work! :-)

I did get just a wee bit carried away.

Actually, Santos is a cybister. The A. reticulatum sets diferent kinds of seeds too. Here's a look at the reticulatum's seed pods.

...and the ripened seed. They look like beads as opposed to the flat, papery seed from regular amaryllis.

This message was edited Nov 8, 2008 4:24 PM

Thanks.Another addition to the notebook.

...also - you really should self-pollinate the reticulatum. It really hard to cross them with standard amaryllis pollen. Not impossible, but rarely successful.

Gone2seed, what is the soil mix you're using if I may ask?

Santos is a cybister?

I tried to cross Santos with Johnsonii last year without much success, so I figured that perhaps it is a Tetraploid.

Your labels indicate that the crosses are with Clown and Clown is defniitely Tet.

I ordered a new Santos this year because I adore the bloom and would like to do more trials.

Gordo, please send me an dmail as to how I can find out what you have for sale. I still have funds remaining to spend, and you tend to have bulbs that are not readily available. Besides, I would prefer to help out the smaller companies.

Ann

Hi Ann...right now, I'm trying to categorize all of our bulbs. A daunting task...
I really won't know what I have until about 2 weeks from now.
I am also working on an on-site shopping cart...also a daunting task...so I'm a bit behind this year.
A basic list of what we have is on the website. The crossed bulbs are not listed as yet.
So, the best way to know what we have (on a limited basis, of course) is to check the website regularly.
Sorry i didn't answer by Dmail, but there are a lot of bulbs I would have to list.

Sounds good to me.

I will check in two weeks and look at your website in the meantime!

Thanks!

Ann

Nice looking seedlings JT! Good growing! You guys in FL are so lucky!!!

Ludwig &Co has Santos in their "Cybister" page. If it does have "cybister" in it, I have no idea. Some Tets also accept Santos pollens.

Santos does have that slight variegation in it's leaves that really shows off in cooler temps. It does not show out so much though during the warmer months. Here was my Santos last May when it woke up. Temps. then here in VA would be in the 50s-60s. Even the bulblets are showing off their variegation.

Gordo...I will be checking your website too maybe next spring. My mother will be coming to US and she is in love with flowering vines which she has a good collection of in the Philippines.

Tommyr....I use Fafard 52 mix as the base.It is very similar to Walmart's "Expert" in that it contains a lot of bark with a little peat and some vermiculite and perlite.To that I add 1/3 by volume of extra perlite,then some alfalfa pellets for fertilizer.This pretty much takes care of everything in the nursery,from seed starting to potting the stock plants.The only exception are the adeniums which get some crushed granite(poultry grit) for even more drainage.Older plants need to be re-potted every couple of years as the bark decomposes.

Maria....the seed I got from you had excellent germination and are doing well.They were started much later than the ones in the picture and are still in their starter trays.

Liz...so the reticulatum does not take other pollen well.How about crossing the other way?
HSt...I also have Santos crossed to Rilona(Rylona?) plus some other Santos crosses I got from Gordo.I would have to look those up to see which they are.So we know that Santos easily crosses to tets.
Now I have to go to the gh and see if my two Santos have that stripe.I know they are not as dark as those on Marias.

I've tried it without success, JT, but there's nothing wrong with a random dabble when the spirit moves. :-)

I have never grown an amaryllis,but my husband wanted one so I got it for him. have already set the bulb what do I need to do with it now ? do you have to keep them watered like any other plant. Any help would be appreciated

My Santos do have the stripe but it is much lighter than The stripe on Maria's plant.It is more like the seedlings in the first picture.

flowerfantasy
Others here are far more experienced with amaryllis but for what it's worth....I plant my new bulbs and water them well.Then I leave them alone until the soil is dry,then water very sparingly until they put out leaves.
.

Well this one had a little stub of leaf starting out when I set it and seems like it had grown some but can't say for sure. How long does it take for it to actually do anything? I know absolutely nothng about these at all. I have been reading on here a little about them and still really haven't learned much.

A friend of mine gave me a soil recipe which he got from ...I can't remember (someone who is supposed to be "in the know" about hippeastrums, but that's all I can remember). >,<

Here's the recipe:

2 parts "regular" Miracle Grow potting soil (and my friend hates anything "Miracle Grow", but he's sold on this recipe)
1 part perlite
1 part horticultural charcoal
1/2 part sand

If the soil is stll a little too "heavy", toss in a little more sand.

I've used it, and am happy so far with the results. I like the "feel" of the mix. I've used Miracle Grow garden soil mix, though, just because that's what I had on hand (I use that as a base in a lot of my mixes. I've used it for some of my other bulbs as well.

Hi JT! I'm very glad the seeds germinated well. Good thing they were sent to FL. If they stayed here, they would still be in the fridge...lol! Germination has slowed down a bit here due to the cooler temps. The 2008 harvest has taught me a lot of things. I am so ready for the 2009 season. I might be putting in some Japanese hybrids in my program this coming season. I am crossing all my fingers and toes on this. Something different and new.

Carter,
I like that idea of adding the charcoal.Charcoal seems to work wonders in my vegetable garden.That is an addition I will have to try.The current experiment is using crushed oyster shell in some of my mixes.That is for added calcium and minerals.Now if it just doesn't carry the ph too far to the alkaline side.Time will tell on that.
Maria,does storing the seed in the fridge extend their viable life?Olsd seed,stored unrefrigerated,has not germinated for me.Fresh comes up with an excellent percentage.

Stored seed should ALWAYS be kept in a Mason Jar with a few packs of silica gel in the fridge.

JT... Freshly harvested seeds should always give you the best germination results. This is of course always dependent on the variety of the parents. Storing them in the fridge extends their freshness somewhat but not forever...lol. The embryo inside the seeds will dry out and die in time. That's what could have happened to your unrefrigerated seeds.

I don't use Mason Jars as Gordo does. I don't have that much space in my fridge. I use "ziploc on ziploc"...seeds on tiny ziploc bags or small DIY paper/papertowel envelopes, then these tiny ziploc bags goes in a bigger ziploc bag. Then they can be piled one on top of the other in the vegetable compartment of the fridge. If I come across on some silica gels in some of the shoe boxes or inside my children's bags, I try to put them inside those ziploc bags too.

This storing method has worked good for me for several seasons now. Take note though: Some seeds store better than others. Some can stay viable even if stored for almost a year. Some lose their viability in just a few months. I think maybe parentage could be one of the factors here too. Strong parents have a better chance of producing strong seeds. Some fertile bulbs even of a "finicky" variety can produce good seeds too. I have Papilio seeds still germinating after almost a year of storing. I have Chico seeds that lost viability in a few months but also have Chico seeds (crossed with a strong parent) that are still viable after so many months of storage.

Hope that helps girlfriend!

You all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On old seed.... I had a few seed pods that I had pulled and forgotten about. They were probably 3 to 5 months old at least, and had been in my garden "box" (lidded container where I keep all my gardening crap) - which had been kept inside, outside, all over the place in that time period (temps ranging from 75F to 100F). Just for kicks, I potted the seeds up just like I normally do hipp. seeds. It took probably three weeks for any to sprout, but then many did at once, and I ended up having just as good of germination as I normally do with fresh seeds. These were seedling cross seeds, I can't remember the parents off the top of my head.