I have tried cutting the basal plates but the result was not very encouraging. However, Cutting the bulb in eight or sixteen slices has always been a success.

Interesting thought. I cut one of my supposed "Magic Green" during 2008-2009 season. Don't quite remember which month and actually gave up the hope initially. I buried the cut bulb (about 16 cut, or more because of my own clumsiness) in soil, watered it, tried to attend it initially, and saw it getting worse and worse the first 5-6 weeks. Then I actually gave up and let it be. Then one day, before the winter ended, I decided to recycle that ruined pot and was pleaatly surpised to see new growth came out of it. Today, I have two resonable sized young bulbs plus may be 10 smaller bulbs. I am hoping over this coming summer, fall and planned resting, the two primising ones would actually bloom.

As of encouraging new offsets from a parent bulb, it is still somewhat a mystory for me. Of the two more promising ones, one of them actually has an offset already all by itself. I have not even repotted it since I potted it up at the beggining of the 2009-10 winter.

Good Luck,

-GM

I have repotted it along with 7 others in a big pot,as they say one bird in hand is better than two in the bush.

;) Did I mention 2008-09 was when I acquired my first few bulbs ever? This operation was performed on the fourth/fifth bulb I acquired as a pair. -GM