Eucomis leaf cuttings

[meanie]

Not sure if this is the right place? It is about propagation though.

Late in 2011 I started some leaf cuttings of Eucomis "Sparkling Burgundy". Here is how they looked after a couple of months...............


And after five or six months.....................


At the weekend I tipped the pot out to pot them on before they started back into growth (there were lots of thick roots coming through the drainage holes) and this is what I have....................


Ten bulbs in total from the one leaf.

[Maggi Young]

I love a good news story!

What kind of compost did you start them in?

[meanie]

I could fill the forum if I documented my failures!!

As far as the mix went, it was probably close to 60/40 grit/ordinary MPC. They were sat on the mix and topped up with a top dressing of grit.

[fixpix]

Very nice Meanie!
Love this Eucomis, but as it's not popular over here, I somehow missed on this one. (I mean all Eucomis).
I would try this experiment, alas, no leaves around here.

[meanie]

I would try this experiment, alas, no leaves around here.

I did mine late in the season as the temperature indoors is more stable at that time of the year. All that you need is a fairly mature leaf that is still growing and in top condition.

[Brian Ellis]

Oh well done, I know John Finch has done this and I really must get my finger out and do some this year.  You have inspired me!

[meanie]

Oh well done, I know John Finch has done this and I really must get my finger out and do some this year.  You have inspired me!

It's not hard but it is a bit of a pfaff maintaining moisture whilst avoiding rot. So for this reason I would only bother going down this route for a choice cultivar/hybrid/natural selection.
Apparently Eucomis are easy from seed although I fail on an annual basis!

[Brian Ellis]

Apparently Eucomis are easy from seed although I fail on an annual basis!

The bicolors happily seed around the garden but I have not seen any of the others do so (I normally have about 20 different ones in pots standing about in the summer).

[meanie]

The bicolors happily seed around the garden but I have not seen any of the others do so (I normally have about 20 different ones in pots standing about in the summer).

Just tossed some seed (E.bicolor and autumnalis) that I collected in the autumn down. Lets see if the "let 'em get on with it" approach works!

[François Lambert]

Indeed, Eucomis are very easy from seed for me.  The pic below are my seedlings of E; Bicolor now starting their second growth season.  I have sown them thinly enough last year so that I can grow them for the first two years in the same pot without having to transplant & space them.  In my experience 1 year old seedling bulbs of Eucomis are about the size of a small bean, a bit too much of a precision work for me to space them.  Besides that, I have noticed that seedlings are much more vigorous than offsets.  Right now, as you can see the seedlings are already putting up nice growth while my older bulbs are just starting to do 'something'.  But when repotting some of my older E. Bicolor bulbs last month i also noticed that seedling bulbs of previous years all had nice fleshy roots when I repotted them, while the really 'old' stock had none at all left at the end of the winter storage period.  Which is why I prefer to obtain new bulbs from seeds in order to have more vigorous genetically 'young' bulbs.

[meanie]

I did another batch five or six weeks ago and here are the the visible bulbs forming (ignore the polystyrene balls)..............................


I found these pots that I got from the 99pShop ideal (2 for 99p). Cheap, but they do have a small adjustable vent in the top and there has been no leaf rot...................