Lots of amaryllis containers (34) with lots of bulbs, thinking I may need to change out some of the soil, some have been 10-15 years in the same mix. Any thoughts on how best to do it, and what mix of soil works best for you. I have use a mix of compost, potting mix and pea gravel.
Thx

I use a mix of regular soil that you buy in the nurseries, and horse/cow manure, my plants love it.

Change soil is a little bit tricky with my amaryllis, because even after 2 years of growing in the pot, there is no more soil in the pot, only very packed root system. You can only add more soil by increasing the pot size.

What I do is adding granules of urea (as nitrogen fertilizer) and a water it with manure extract.

Living up north, I have to bring mine indoors every winter. Once dormant, I pull them out of the pot and put them in the fridge. I take the soil, put it in a bag, then add some coffee grounds, eggs shells and banana peels. Then close the bag. Come spring, the organic material has composted inside the bag. I add a little organic bulb fertilizer and replant my bulbs. If I keep my bulbs in the pot, I will dump out the soil around the sides of the bulb into my compost bin, and then refill the dumped area with new compost. I think adding some composted organic material is probably the best thing you can do for them, however you plan to do it.

Christie,

Do you put them in the fridge because you do not have an unheated area of the house? I leave mine in the pots and keep them in my unfinished basement, it stays cool down there 40-50 in the winter.

I have tried leaving them in the basement in their pots but it seems like the soil get to dried out (do have a dehumidifier down there), the size of the bulb decreases and they don't bloom. So I went back to putting them in the crisper drawer of the fridge. Which means that I can't put citrus in the fridge then for most of the winter. If I had a garage, I think I would try setting them there, in their pots. But I guess the upside to do how I do it is that the soil gets refreshed with organic matter every year.

I've had good luck adding a small amount of water every month to the containers and the bulbs do not dry out

This is an interesting discussion. I like the idea of composting the old soil.

Here what I mean that container has no more soil inside, only roots, and this is after I planted 5 month ago, new bulb in a new soil. As you can see bulb is a big enough to produce first bud (bulb was planted at about 12-13 cm in circumference, after 5-6 month (winter month) is now over 19cm in circumference and will bloom.

After bloom I can only transfer it to a bigger container.

crawgarden said:I've had good luck adding a small amount of water every month to the containers and the bulbs do not dry out

That might do the trick. It would be much easier than taking them all out of their pots.

@sangel - mine do the same thing. When they go dormant, the roots dry up and some of them break off. I put them back in the same pot, with added compost to replace what was lost during the previous year. Not sure how you do it if they stay green all year though.