Re: Pot Culture (no, it's not what you think!)
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Pot Culture (no, it's not what you think!)
- From: S* M* <7*@compuserve.com>
- Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:28:43 -0700 (MST)
Donald wrote:
> what ARE the signs of breaking dormancy?
Let's start with the signs of domancy....
Fully dormant rhizomes have no leaves left. =
Even the growing point looks pretty well
callused over. Arils may have some dried
up roots, but a lot of arilbreds drop their
roots entirely. You can end up with something
that looks more like a bulb than a rhizome.
You can catch the earliest signs of breaking
dormancy on ones stored in paper bags
because there's no soil to hide the growing
points. First, a white tip breaks through the
callused skin then new leaves break forth.
On established clumps, just watch for the
new leaves to break ground.
> The arilbreds I bought looked very similar to the TBs, just somewhat
> smaller than most and with some less foliage. =
Arilbred rhizomes are "supposed" to be
smaller than TB rhizomes because they
don't store as much water. But in my =
climate some of them outgrow the TBs.
If there's any foliage, I'd deem the rhizome
only partially dormant.
> I planted the 3rd week in
> August and 1st part of September expecting cooler temps, which didn't
> happen in '97. Frankly, after shipping, by my reckoning and amateur
> assessment, they were all pretty dormant looking based on my experienc=
e
> with TBs. What I've always referred to as dormancy in bearded irises
has
> been a lack of new growth and yellowish faded foliage, but not dormanc=
y
as
> in bulbs. They seem to be about as dormant after extended dry summer
heat
> as they do after long spells of freezing weather. =
Sounds like what we usually call
green dormancy. =
> Since I am trying
> arilbreds and intend to try more, should I be looking for something
> different?
It's pretty safe to judge the rhizomes
of quarterbreds by TB standards, and
most of today's halfbreds go only
partially dormant. It's when you get =
into the predominantly aril ones that
you need to be aware of the amount
and type of aril content -- and whether
you need to make allowances for
full dormancy.
Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com
