AnnArbor--

Are you meaning to do this to make the plant look...well... more "fashionable" when on display? I ask only because all-in-all, the bulb will not do well in such a situation. Sure it will look nice while it blooms but it'll need a more appropriate home sooner than later. However, you do have alternatives if you mean to grow them without soil. I personally have begun growing many of my plants without soil and rather in a medium called hydroton, which is used to grow plants hydroponically (passive, in my case).

It is really simple, free of bugs and dirt and the only thing you have to be on top of is making sure it is lightly fertilizer with every watering, because it is in a medium that has no organics and with no organics means no nutrients. For most of the time i use a balanced fertilizer at quarter strength and the plants seem to do well with it.

Let me know if you're interested in this method and I'll write more.

Ryan

Ryan, I get your point. They do look so beautiful in water and stones in White Flower Farm's current amaryllis holiday catalog. I have my tester bulb (so called because I just became interested again after many years) in Hoffman's bonsai mix that I favor for my smaller plants. Hydroponic growing appeals to me but I'm not ready yet. I appreciate very much your response and your offer to write more. I hope you post pictures of your amaryllis growing hydroponically (if such a word).
Pat

Pat, I just posted a couple pics of mine in water on Kenstar's entry about his Apple Blossoms.

I, too, prefer a more bonsai-like approach to growing, as it pertains to the medium I use.

Before I actually located all the ingredients necessary to build my current mix, I used a pre-packaged bonsai medium available at our local garden center. It's quite gritty and very porous, and though rather expensive, gives me the results I'm after.

However, at almost 8 dollars a small bag, I figured it would be too expensive to re-pot all of my bulbs and plants using it... and so, I finally located the three main ingredients I use to make my medium... pine bark pieces, perlite, and granite chips.

The bulbs grown in water with marbles look really pretty, but I wouldn't leave them like that beyond the initial blooming.

On that note, Jodi, the bulb with roots showing was invery shallow water and stones in the glass bowl all summer!! I thought there was mix in the bottom....hmmm
{{gwi:434547}}From 2009-10 Amaryllis

It looks like it did OK but not something I would do on purpose, especially in Florida's humidity. I am surprised the bulb didn't rot completely!!

I'm surprised, too, Cindee! I think I'd be worried about feeding it, too... and I think that's one reason to re-plant a bulb after enjoying its blooms in the visually appealing vase, water and stones, or marbles, way of keeping it. I always look at that way as only a temporary way to bloom a hippeastrum bulb.

It does look like it made it ok, though... have you re-potted it yet?

My brother had a redlion growing in water on his front porch for about 4-5 years. They bought one of those little kits and just took the lid off. It had some of that coir junk in the pot but usually the bulb was sitting in a pool of water. It floated off in Ike. Of course, he also had a cactus that had grown over the water tub pond and sent down roots, broke off and lived growing out of the pond for years. It also floated off in Ike. And his cactus in the yard was under 12' of water for 48 hours, blooming when we got home. I used to try and rescue the cactus and amaryllis but he & his wife would just laugh. I still don't know how any of those plants lived. He lost his 6-8 year old jalapeno plant that was in a 1 gallon pot on the porch also. He is NOT a gardener!!
Tally HO!