A home gardener should have a thorough knowledge of planting materials other than seeds which are used for propagation. Bulbs are the propagating material for all the bulbous crops although these crops can also be planted by seeds. Bulbs are underground organs of plant that after digging are dried and used as a propagating material for next year’s planting.

As the bulbs are modified forms of stem and have the ability to store food and nutrients for the plants to enable them to survive under harsh conditions, certain bulbs are fit for human consumption while the reserved nutrients of some of the bulbs are utilized by plants only. In other words, these are not fit for human consumption. The examples of edible bulbs are onion, garlic, elephant garlic, shallot, welsh onion, kohlrabi, Blue camas and Dahlias. The bulbs which are not edible to be consumed as food include Saffron, Cyclamen, Gladiolus, Glory Lily, Hyacinth, Daffodil and Tulips.

Common Bulbous Plants for Home Gardens

Common bulbous flowering plants which can easily be grown in a home garden are Gladiolus, Ornamental Onions, Daffodils, Lilies, Amaryllis, Dahlias, Hyacinth, Tulips, Crocus, Iris, Tuberose, Agapanthus, Zephyranthes and Glory of the Snow. Many of the home gardeners are already growing these crops in order to beautify their garden and to create a contrast and picturesque effect in their gardens. These flowers are easy to grow and maintained however a sequenced and latest cultivation practices will help the gardeners to manage their flower crops effectively.

Types of Bulb Plants

On the basis of arrangement and dryness of scales, the bulbs are divided into two types: Tunicate Bulbs and Non-tunicate bulbs

Tunicate Bulbs: The outer membranous scale of tunicate bulb is dry or paper like covering. There is a continuous lamina of fleshy scales which is protected by this dry scale.

Non-Tunicate bulbs: There is no dry membranous scale or protective layer in non- tunicate bulbs and the arrangement of the scale is also discontinuous.

Method of Propagation of Bulbs Tunicate Bulbs

Some of the tunicate bulbs are mostly propagated by an offset which normally develops at the base of the parent bulb. These offsets are detached from the bulbs and planted on a nursery bed before planting. While some of the tunicate bulbs which are not propagated by offsets, mechanical of manual methods are used to propagate the bulbs. These are cuttage, scooping, scoring and sectioning

Cuttage: Re-sectioning is another name for Cuttage. The fully grown and matured bulbs are given vertical cuts starting from top up to the root portion. Care should be taken to leave a portion of basal part which should be attached to the bottom of each cut section. These cuts are then placed in the soil but the tip of the cut segment should always be above the soil. Mostly vermiculite soil is used for plantation.

Scooping: The basal portion of the bulb in completely removed in order to expose the leaf bases which are the sources of development of bulblets. Care should be taken to remove all the shoots and flowers buds while removing the basal portion. It is said that the method enables the bulb to produce 25 to 30 bulblets.

Before planting of scooped bulbs, dipping these in a fungicidal solution is highly recommended to prevent attack of pests in the exposed portion. To make them dry, the treated bulbs are then kept in a dark room for about 15 days. These scooped bulbs are able to produce roots after these start to swell. It is advised to increase the temperature of the room to 30 degree Celsius and relative humidity between 80 to 90 percent.

Scoring: In Scoring, some of the upper portions of the bulbs are cut deep enough in the shape of “V” with the purpose of cutting the growing points from the bulb. These cut bulbs are then placed in dark and warm rooms. The humidity inside the room should be high and these bulbs are kept inside the room for 2 to 3 months. Approximately 20 to 25 bulblets can be produced from each incised mother plant. Bulbs of Hyacinths are generally scored for production of flowers.

Sectioning: The bulbs are cut into pie shaped sections of 5 to 10 in numbers and kept inside the dark warm room with high temperature and humidity for few months. It is important to have the basal plate attached with each of the cut portion of the bulb. This basal plate forms the bulblets.

Non- Tunicate Bulbs

As already discussed, non-tunicate bulbs have discontinuous arrangements of scales; these bulbs can be propagated by offsets as similar to propagation of tunicate bulbs. This method though good but not much used either by gardeners of commercial growers due to slow growth. Another method to propagate non-tunicate bulbs is scaling. In Scaling, the scales are cut to the basal plate closely and fungicidal dust is applied to all the cut pieces. These pieces are then kept in a plastic bags containing soil such as Vermiculite.

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