Try googling Stagonospora Curtisii and see if the symptoms match yours. Without a picture it is difficult for me to say. They form canker sores.

The choice is yours whether or not you wish to try and treat this but if it's a bulb you can easily replace, life may be too short.

I dealt with this several years ago and a cured a few bulbs by dipping them in a weak bleach solution. I don't know how much bleach but it was weak. It did burn the outside of the bulb but after a long rest they did send up leaves and one actually bloomed for me. (These were just Orange Sovereign selfed seedlings).

Here are a picture of the canker sores on my seedlings:

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I had a bunch of these that we threw away but I had second thoughts and retrieved a few from the trash and tried my experiment.

Good luck and maybe someone else will have another suggestion for you...

Donna

This post was edited by dondeldux on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 11:22

Hi,

That's it, or it looks like. It's like rust painted on the shell.

And it's on all my bulb ;( it almost made me cry today. I tried removing the sick layers, washing them and now they are drying. Hope it helps.

The sad thing is every bulb has it in bigger or lesser scale, like it started with one and jumped on the rest. Even my precious Picotee which is a few days groom blooming. Also Minerva which has a huge flower steam coming out. Ah well, first lesson learnt. It might be better for the future that I don't dig the bulbs deep in the soil but have it shallow. Do you think it might help?

Rob,

The infection on mine came from overwatering. It was my only bulb at the time so I just selfed it and ended up with hundreds of seeds. Not good. I planted them all in Styrofoam coffee cups with just one drainage hole each and they smothered and rotted as I just kept on watering them! I knew nothing in the beginning, hopefully I've learned as I go along.

Now, I always plant my bulbs high just a little bit under the soil.. and, if it is a new bulb, I sit it on top of the soil as you can easily check to see if it has rooted and add more soil as needed.

Too much water is the main culprit. Hippies would rather be dry for periods of time than rather than constantly wet.

Now occasionally I might see a spot of red on my bulbs and I scrape it away and use Captan (don't know if that is availible over there) I think sulfur might work as well as cinnamon. (certainly smells better.)

Also plastic pots don't breath (nor does styrofoam) so you should water less frequently when using plastic. I use clay pots which dry out much faster and let air in for the roots. But clay pots can get quite heavy when lugging them around.

Lots of people sucessfully use plastic so don't think you have to change, just keep them a bit dryer.

This is all just my opinion so hopefully someone else will give you their thoughts as well.

Good Luck.

Donna

Thank you Donna, that's very very helpful indeed.
I think I got a bit to naive thinking it's just pot, water and wait for amazing blooms!
I read online that systematic spraying with insecticide and fungicide will allow to control to some extent the rust problem, which I just learnt is the most common plant problem in UK... how can you not love the constant rains...

Hopefully everything now will be better, though I had a few moments of drama when I saw the rust on my Picotee, and the other very big bulbs, and then more when I took of the first dry layer and another, and another...

Red Lion took on the word hit, I'm guessing it might not bloom this year as it had a already forming flower steam on the side which was very infected and I had to break it off. But with good care and lot of patience everything should be fine in time.

I hope ;)

Robert

And also I decided to use the cinnamon trick and sprinkle it on the soil. I did sprinkle it also a bit on the infected roots and areas.

We will see how it goes. I'll tell after a few days.

Rob,

When using cinnamon, don't waste it on the soil, put it directly on the scraped out lesions on your bulb. You can sprinkle it on when the bulb is wet and let the bulb throughly dry with the cinnamon on it. Your just wasting it on the soil..even if it does smell good!

Donna

Did do that, that but I asked my grandad to drive me to nearest garden centre and I got some insecticide and fungicide control spray. The bulbs are responding well, I spried them twice. The second time brought more result, as the red dots just melted away... I hope it's going to help.

Robert

Great! keep us up to date on their progress and good luck!

Thank you for all the informations Donna.

The final news is that the therapy works well. First of all I powdered the sick places with cinnamon and left for a while and then got the fungicide spray (also went to buy chocolate eggs for Easter) and used the spray three times, leaving at least 30 minutes between each spraying. I'm leaving the bulbs to rest over the night and dry a bit and will put them on soil in the morning.

The good news is that most if not all of the rust and red spots are gone. All mould and decay too. I do hope the bulbs will grow back, and the stress won't influence the blooming period.

Robert

Last weekend I discovered that my Full House bulb was red and rotting. Despite all the funky stuff going on with the bulb, it had a big healthy looking root system. I pared the bulb down, removing as much as I could stand to... I got rid of all the mushy spots and then treated the bulb with a bleach solution. Later I treated it with hydrogen peroxide and repotted it (I potted it so just a little more than the basal plate was in the soil... keeping most of the bulb dry). This week, it has two leaves that are 1" to 1 1/2"... no red streaks. We'll see what happens long term!

All of the bulbs look alright now, now. I'm a bit smarter with the watering, to remember about the insecticide and fungicide for the plants. All of the bulbs show a grateful sign of green leaves appearing. My Picotee takes his time though to start blooming, I'm a bit impatient as the steam was growing for the last four weeks and I can't see the end of it! Uhhh come on precious!

Aaaand I'm back at the beginning, after all efforts with cinnamon, fungicides and insecticides, peeling of the sick layers of and drying the bulbs after for a day I'm getting back these awful red spots, which appear on places which look like something eats them away. I have no idea what to do. It really gets to me because I'm just expecting my first ever blooms.

Rob,

I think you may not have let the bulb dry out long enough before replanting it. It should have had several days of being totally dry in order to form calluses over where you scraped it and applied the cinnamon or what ever you used.

You may have to sacrifice this years blooms in order to save the bulb, I know that not what you want to hear but without some pictures of your bulb's maladies I can't even be sure that I've given you the correct advice!

Donna

Good morning,

Please see the attached pictures Donna.
I took them yesterday evening as I was worried and going to email the Garden Centre soon with a complaint.

The bulbs that show most infection seem to be Matternhorn and the Picotee which is opening flowers.

And the second one

Rob! I don't see anything wrong with those bulbs! Bruises will turn reddish brown and where there are scrapes, they will turn darker also. Eventually the whole outer skin will turn brown and it goes though shades of red before it reaches it's brown color.

Your photos don't look like my photos so just keep an eye on them, keep the bulbs dry and don't give up the ship. If there are flower buds in them I feel pretty confident that you will see them! Keep us posted..

If anyone wants to jump in with some advice for Rob, please do...

Donna

Rob, I agree with Donna... everything is looking good with those bulbs. I don't think you have anything to worry about. I wish I had taken pictures of the big, rotten, squishy red mess that my Full House bulb had become... you would have felt MUCH better about your bulbs! LOL -Tina