[pbs] Bulbs blooming
Adam Fikso
adam14113 at ameritech.net
Thu Oct 11 12:59:56 EDT 2007
All who've noticed the occasional sudden bloom after a rain.. Given that
the bulb is big enough (a critical issue) and that fertilizer has been
adequate the year before to grow flowers instead of leaves (lots of
phosphorus and potassium) and given that other necessities are in place,
e.g., sufficient elapsed time since the last blooming, or since dormancy
where this is a factor. I suspect that the major factor is the acidity in
the rain releasing nutrients that have been bound up by local alkalinity.
Around the root system. I note that this also coincides with an increase in
or a shift in mycorrhizal activity, e.g., a surge of fungi of various sorts
in the rest of the yard. Not just in spring which is normative, for many
plants but at other times. This is a multifactorial matter that varies
for each species and genus, but many genera fortunately have common needs
(having evolved under similar conditions), otherwise we'd have a harder
time than we do, trying to grow plants that have not been researched and
standardized for commercial purposes.
Some plants don't care, as it were, given that they've completed a necessary
dormancy, and been cooled and primed to bloom-and their genetics unhinged
by decades of breeding -- get triggered by warmth and water. The Narcissi,
and Hyacinths with sufficient predictability of bloom to lead glass and
pottery manufacturers to mass produce hyacinth vases for just this purpose.
One can still find them (some made nearly a hundred years ago --on eBay.)
I'm sure that some of our European members can comment here. Mr. De Jager?
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