The soil that they are in is probably crummy too....you want to do your best to encourage drainage!

Kristi

Get them out of that silty, decomposing mess called potting soil, and re-pot them into a more aerated, porous, inorganic medium that will allow for better, faster drainage, and will allow the roots to breathe!

The number one killer of potted plants is improper watering, and the biggest problem for hippeastrum bulbs is rot and fungal issues due to poor potting soil that stays too wet for too long.

If you look around the forum here, and do a bit of reading, you'll find that many of us are abandoning regular potting soils in favor of a more orchid/bonsai-like approach to mediums for our container grown plants.

This is the medium I use... I mix it myself.

It contains small pine bark pieces, perlite, and crushed granite chips... it's mainly inorganic and will not decompose quickly, which would cause collapsing of the soil and suffocating of the roots. With this type of medium, I have complete control over moisture and fertilizer levels.

A garden environment and a container environment are completely different. There is a microscopic world of living things in a garden that help aerate the soil and keep everything balanced. These same living things are not contained within a pot, so it's up to us to make sure the drainage and aeration/porosity are healthy for the plants.

I have a tendency to preach about mediums, but I have lost several bulbs and many other plants to soil collapse and suffocation of roots, to over watering and poor drainage. It has taken me quite a while and quite a bit of research, but I've finally found a medium that gives me healthy roots... and that's where healthy plants begin.

There's a wealth of excellent information on mediums here in this forum, and also over at the Container Gardening Forum, here on GardenWeb. If you do a bit of reading, you can find the information explaining why a more inorganic approach to container soils works better, recipes to mix your own mediums, all the sources you need for ingredients, and how to have happy and healthy plants.

Happy Gardening!

Who knew that reptile bedding was 100% fir bark? Or that poultry grit was actually granite chips? Not me! But my patience and persistence paid off, and I now have what is the perfect medium for my indoor potted plants!

It's true... the reptile bedding is a bit expensive, but I like it because it's ready to go right out of the bag. No screening for size or dust is necessary.

Vermiculite will hold more moisture than perlite, but what you could do is use all the mentioned ingredients in amounts that work for your environment.

You could use about 1/3 fir/pine bark, and perhaps a mix of perlite, vermiculite, and granite chips... or turface.

Turface is marketed under the name All-Sport, I believe. A John Deere dealership should be able to help you out, from what I've read.

The important thing is to keep the particles relatively the same size. You are trying to create tiny air pockets so that there will be a good exchange of oxygen and gases, to and from the roots, every time you water well. Because of the way water and soil react when you water a plant, particle size is important so you get even watering and drainage.

There are other products out there that work, too... Hydroton, which is a hydroponic product made from small balls of baked clay, I believe. A pre-mixed bonsai medium could be another option, although they tend to be rather expensive, and there's a lot of argument within the bonsai community as to what type of medium and ingredients work best... sort of like our dilemma. :-)

The hotter and more arid your climate, the more water retention you're going to want... so, in some cases, a regular high quality potting mix might be the way to go.

I don't want to tell you what to use... I just want to let you know that there are other, healthier options for growing bulbs... and since hippeastrum bulbs don't respond well to over watering or wet conditions, it makes sense to explore all these other options.

At the end of the day, you're trying to create a healthy, aerated, fast draining, well draining, inorganic medium that will not decompose quickly. Decomposing soil will collapse and cause a plant's roots to suffocate.

I think if you visit the Container Gardening Forum and do some reading, you'll see that a lot of serious gardeners are exploring better ways to grow container plants. The medium is probably the number one area where the retail gardening industry is failing its customers. But then, repeat customers are what they want, so if your plants die, you'll come back to buy more plants.

In any case... I feel it necessary to share what I have learned, in the hopes that others will be successful growing their bulbs, and can avoid some of the disappointment I went through.

Happy Gardening!