Re: dormancy (was Re: Pot Culture ....)

Sharon,
What is the aril content of Arabian Midnight?  It seems to do 'green
dormancy', by your description, but for me it seems to respond best to
being completely ignored in the summer.  That is left dry even though it
gets full sun.

Lucinda


on  Fri, 20 Feb 1998 21:24:16 -0500
 Sharon McAllister wrote:
>
>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


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Lucinda Ebert          tebert@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
Poway CA               Sunset zone 21/22   usual winter lows 36 F - 23 F
                        summer highs 80 F - 105 F
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