Hello Paul, Welcome to the PBS! Your questions are absolutely appropriate and I will try to answer them as good as I can. But let me first say that the way you ask and what you ask shows that you are a good observer and I am sure you will end up with a successful collection of bulbs. We all make mistakes! You live in one of the best climates to grow winter growing bulbs (and much more) For the labels I recommed the old fashioned lead pencil on thick plastic labels or aluminium if you can get it. Fading labels are a pain, if you use them longer you will find that brittle labels are a pain, too. Your pictures show plants in the process of going dormant but most are not yet dormant so I recommend watering them until the foliage has died down completely. For sure they are not dead! The longer you can keep the remaining green leaves green the better for the young bulb. Once they have really dried up you should stop watering. I noticed that there is a Lilium with the other bulbs, this needs a different treatment as it is summer growing. It happened to me that I did not notice an evergreen or summer growing pot in the trays of winter growing seedlings and I killed it with the standard winter grower's regime. Never force a plant into dormancy if it does not "obey" . It may be wrongly named and thus be something else or, more likely many first year seedlings skip the first dormancy and remain green especially in a mild summer climate like yours. Each pot needs an individual treatment at this time of the year. My recommendation for your climate is to sow winter growing bulbs outside, in the open, exposed to the weather, the rain and fluctuating temperatures. You seem to be in a frost free location, so no problem. Why did you put your seedlings into a cold frame? I use an old hotbed window above some of the pots which I consider too fragile for the open air treatment but even that produces so much warmth that I remove it during dry spells. Warmth or even heat always signals the onset of dormancy. That is why I think you live in a great climate, you should be able to keep your bulbs green well into May or even June because it will not be hot. The Dutch bulb fields are in a similar climate, not for nothing. Just a few days of warm weather will not matter if you keep your plants shaded (removable shade cloth) and well watered. Full sun during the winter months is fine but as soon as the sun gets stronger partial shade/shade cloth or diffuse bright light like on the north side of a wall is better. Re-potting seedlings: I absolutely agree with Jane in all what she wrote, never prick out bulb seedlings in growth. But turning a crowded seedling pot upside down and have the entire root ball on the other hand is fine, then repot into a larger pot, the bulbs will use the available space, as Jane said, you can gently loosen the root ball without taking it apart. I often do that in the second season when I realize that a seedling pot is too full, immediate watering, shade for a few days, I never had any losses this way. If you use a soft plastic pot the pot may bulge which is always a sign of overcrowding, if there is no bulging there is still enough space underground. All the pots I see on your pictures are not overcrowded. Fertilizer: Why do you say that slow release fertilizer is a bad idea? Personally I do not use it for seed but did you have problems with it? Fertilizing seedlings is very important, especially at the end of the growing season before dormancy sets in. It is this period where the bulbs increase most in size and fertilizing with a high potash and phosphorus and low nitrogen product is very beneficial, type tomato fertilizer. Slow release fertilizer release the nutrients temperature dependent and I had a disaster once in my greenhouse. It became very hot and all those plants fertilized with SL fertilzer had burnt roots because of a sudden release. I now use a water soluble balanced one. First dormancy is the most critical time. once you are sure the leaves have fully died down stop watering and move the pots to a place where they do not get wet uncontrolled. As your summers are not as hot as mine in Portugal, I would think that once every four weeks a small amount of water is enough. Most young bulbs do not want to remain brutally dry for months on end, I have lost seedling bulbs this way. And for heavens sake, keep the bulbs in their compost in their pots! Too much water is not good either. This sounds more complicated than it really is and you will soon get the experience. Most bulbs are forgiving but the odd one may teach you a lesson..... You mention pot size. The bigger the seedling pot is the more stable the conditions are in it. I use square 8 x 8 x 8,5cm pots as standard but for some seeds I use up to 6 liter pots. The big pots are good for Ranunculaceae and those which resent transplanting. Transplanting: I do not recommend transplanting bulb seedlings during their first dormancy. As Jane said, there may be many seeds left which will still germinate in the second season (or even later) which you would lose and I would also worry about missing very small bulbs in the process. You will have to find your compost which remains stable and well draining/moisture retentive for more than one season. I find especially South African Gladiolus species are better kept in their initial pots for at least two seasons. Obviously big seedling bulbs like Freesia can of course be transplanted once dormant. In case of doubt, if I toss out a pot and find only very tiny bulbs I put everything back into the pot. Potting needs some discipline and organisation in order not to mix up things, personally I do not reuse compost. You ask about Amaryllid seedling. They very often skip the first dormancy so watch them and keep watering and fertilizing them as long as they remain green. The length of the dormancy is depending on the individual plant species. Many will show new shoots even without watering, this always is a sign that dormancy is over for this particular bulb. This is triggered by soil temperature in some plants, so dormancy will be much shorter in a mild climate compared to a hot one. Some have an internal clock and will sprout whatever the conditions are and some will be started by the first watering. This should not be later than the beginning of October. Those which show no sign of growth by then should be watered once and then left alone. One drench in October supplies enough moisture to wake up a dormant bulb and the moisture remains for quite a time. If such a late riser is overwatered it may rot because it cannot handle so much water at this moment. I have looked again at your pictures: Your bulbs are in good condition. I noticed that you have sown them very early in the season, which is absolutely fine, they will germinate when the time has come, probably much earlier with your climate than with mine. This means you are on the winning side time wise, even if you stopped them by frying them accidentally this spring. You are using different sizes and types of pots. I think the ideal model is the tall square one. Most bulbs have deep roots and/or bulbs. Bulging would be visible as most pots are soft, I don't see any. The size of your seedlings is VERY good! I will send you my contribution the the Bulb Garden about growing seeds privately. Here is a picture of my seed pots in the open garden, some are under the mentioned old hotbed window. Bye for now, Uli -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: IMG_1054.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 519449 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>