I put mine on top of the fridge. I just tried my hands on scaling using Kenneth's method last month. They are doing great. They started to grow bulblets in 2 weeks. Even the Martagon scales are showing tiny bulblets. :-)

It really is a lot of fun. I used to put scales in a mixture of soil and sand and left them outdoors. The results were not as spectacular.

I have found that moderately warmth is best. Why not put the ziplock bag inside a brown paper bag, or wrapped in black plastic and then put on the water heather ? I like the darkness which is how the bulblets/roots are used to. That being said, our water heater is next to the storage room and light gets turned on and off regularily with no damage to the lilies.

I put my filled ziplocks on top of the fluorescent light fixtures of my light stand. Moderate warmth and no direct light but not complete darkness either...works for me.

Every now and again, I will turn the bags over in order to let the peat moss absorb the moisture which condenses on the inside of the bag.

There is mold (mould?) on some of the scales. I am quite sure there is NOT too much moisture in the vermiculite. I had them in a cool dark place and the mold developed. I have them in a slightly warmer, not so dark place now and there is only slight condensation on the bags.

It looks like that kind of mold that one sometimes finds on bulbs that arrive in the mail - botrytis?

Should I remove those scales? Just leave them? Start over with the scales that are still okay?

cnid

cnid,

Should be plenty of opinions here.

If there is mould on the scales then the entire mix in the bag likely has the 'spores' or other bio-mechanism in place. If these were my scales, and they have been, first check for rot, and toss any that look beyond salvage.

I have in the past, cut small rotten sections off a scale as long as there is a piece of the basel plate still attached after the operation.

Then I would give all the scales in the bag a short soak in a fungicide to deal with the mould. Then start the baggie thing all over again but with a fresh mix of peat/vermiculite.

This has worked for me in the past.

Also, the moisture I add to the mix is actually a fungicide dilution. I'm not sure if it helps, but it is not detrimental and since starting this, mould is rare.

Interesting to see what others would suggest.

KDJ - I just re-read your last post and your helpful, detailed advice. I'm mildly embarassed to say that what I did in response was nothing. I got busy with outdoor gardening around then, and scaling began to seem fussy. So I just left the bags where they were. I rediscovered them today and there are tons of babies in the bags, some about 1.5 inches long. I will be potting them up today! I can't see any mould in the bags either. Weird but wonderful.

The bulbs I used were speciosum rubrum and Nippon (oriental). Can't have too many of either of those lilies!

cnid

Hi guys,
If you are still here... Did your last year baby bulbs bloom this year?