Germinating bulblets of Pyrolirion

norton cuba melly nortonc26@hotmail.com
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 06:11:31 PST
Greetings everyone,

Thank you, for all the comments about Stenomesson, I have already sow and germinate a couple of seeds in a deeper pot last week and already have seedlings, I use the seeds I collected last year, so it's good to know they still have 100% germination rate after a year, probably due to its adaption to the desert.


Changing the subject, now I have an enquiry about Pyrolirion tubiflorum ( you can find a short link below to see the picture on PBS wiki or just look it up under Pyrolirion, pictures  of the flower are from a friend that helped me find the species)


A little information about the species: So this is species endemic to Peru, it used to be described as being of Peru and Chile but to my understanding ( from literature reviewed) the Chilean species was then re- clasified to Rodophiala. This species is not from lomas ecosystem, it can be find in the valleys of the coast of Lima right next to crops, apparently they have been seen also in Cusco, but I'm pretty sure the original distribution (according to historians) is Lima. If you want to know more, there is an article of Jill Cowley that I like that contains a compilation of the plant classification and cultivation. They propagate easily by bulblets, nowadays farmers clean them out of the fields and put herbicide on them, this actions summed with the fact that their original distribution is now under Lima city, has led to the reduce of the population to very far areas, I confirmed this myself by asking farmers.


Information about how I grow them: So I started with 4 bulblets then continue with a couple more collected from a different area to promote genetic diversity; you can see a picture I took (a couple of weeks ago) of them in the link. I put them in a black plastic bag  with premix soil, humus and a very small amount of guano. Now, after a month they have 4 leaves each, leaves are 10 inches long (25 cm). I didnĀ“t know bulblets grew so big, being a size of a bean and all, so I put only 3 on the next black plastic bag.


Question: Im worried that leaves are so long, the plant is wasting energy on keeping them and not enough developing a bulb. So should I let the soil dry a bit more? Maybe they are getting to much water. The thing is I prefer they develop the bulb. Also, since when I have to start to apply fertilizer on them? Being an environmentalist I rather use organic ones, so probably seaweed extract of some of the sort.


Short link:

https://goo.gl/19ejsu/

Thank you for any information you can provide

Best regards

Norton



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