Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 29, 2025
The original bulbs were large when planted, and although they wither and die as the new bulbs grow and mature, they still retain a considerable portion of their size. The new bulbs are formed close above the old ones, and the bulblets appear around the line of contact, sometimes between the two, so that they do not all become detached at the time of digging.
Bulblets thus treated will produce bulbs from three-fourths of an inch to an inch or more in diameter. They will also yield a goodly number of bulblets the first year, and the second year the increase will be still greater. Soaking the bulblets, as mentioned elsewhere, is next best to peeling, and is available for large quantities, while the latter is profitable only in special cases.
The bulbs are then put into flats, an inch or two deep, and allowed to dry. Sometimes they are dried with the tops on, and kept in that condition till planting time, but most growers prefer to take them off when green. Growing from Bulblets. Success with the gladiolus depends more upon the use and management of bulblets than upon any other one thing.
I recall an instance of a barrel of bulblets that stood in a shed through two winters and one summer, and when the second spring came they were poured out on the ground, and probably twenty per cent of them sprouted. Peeling Bulblets. It is sometimes desirable to increase a stock of bulbs faster than it can be done in the ordinary course of nature, even with the best of care and skill in growing.
Place the newly peeled bulblets in the drills, about an inch apart, and cover at once with sifted sand, about two inches deep, and then press it down level with the surface.
On account of the necessary dampness to which they are exposed through the winter, they should be planted early, four or five weeks before corn planting time, if weather and condition of soil permit. The bulblets of some varieties sprout early and at a low temperature, and an active effort should be made to get them into the ground before this comes to pass.
The soil may be too cold to start the majority into growth, but the shells will still be softening and getting ready to grow as soon as there is sufficient warmth. The growing of bulbs from bulblets is such an important part of the business that it seems best to describe the process in detail, even at the risk of some repetition.
A bed of bulblets should receive the most thorough and careful cultivation from the time the little shoots appear until the crop is ready to be harvested. The surface should be stirred often to keep down the weeds and encourage a steady and vigorous growth. Inasmuch as the product is a valuable one, it pays to give it every advantage.
In digging larger bulbs, they are simply loosened up with the fork, lifted out by the tops, which are clipped off close to the bulbs, and are dropped into a coarse sieve, number two, placed over a bushel basket. Through this the earth and most of the bulblets are sifted into the basket. The bulbs are then spread in shallow crates to dry.
Third, the small crates can be easily and entirely emptied, while the large ones retain bulblets or very small bulbs in the spaces between the lath, and when varieties are to be kept separate these must be carefully picked out.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking