Roosterlorn said:Tropical Isle scale bulblets, 7 weeks out of incubation. 3 scales, 9 bulblets in this pot. 3 other scales of the same batch produced no bulblets at the end of the regular incubation period. Those were put in a chill for about 4 weeks and restarted in a new incubation period. A couple tiny incisions were made across the original callous on the 3 remaining scales. Not sure it'll work, but I gave it a try anyway . I should mention the mother bulb is a clone of the original de Graaff Tropical Isle.

Well, here's the latest update/status of those 3 remaining scales THAT DID NOT PRODUCE scales the first 'go-round'. As you can see, after re- prepping and re-incubating, THEY PRODUCED a quite a few tiny bulblets. You can tell by the size of the tiny leaves the bulblets are really tiny and will need to grow a lot before seasons end. But, I was frankly quite surprised just to get what I did, to be honest ( I got lucky) Photos taken yesterday, May, 25th, 2015.

And were the scale bulblets produced at the incision cuts?

Yes! It worked. That one there had 6 tiny bulblets along that line; that particular reconditioned scale was only about the size of a dime. Actually, all were small scales at that point.

Roosterlorn said:Update on inverted stem--from previous post. As you can see, it made it's correction vertically and is beginning to leaf out. Doing nicely!

5 days ago


This Morning.

Interesting. Because of these posts, I emptied three pots this morning where the growth had not crowned above the soil where others of the same varieties had grown normally. Two of the three had grown sideways, and then downward. I manually crowned them above the soil, and then repacked the pots. The last one is sprouting, but slow, while six others of the same variety (Fusion), are growing vogorously. Interesting.





Now, my next question, since Asiatic cloning is not my primary area, what are the chances some stem bulblets might form on this unusually long stem. Or, is this plant just simply to small and too young to be thinking about that?

Larry-- somehow your comments got merged on the middle of my post you were quoting. Your comments begin: 'Interesting. Because of these posts-'. Maybe you could rewrite that as a new post to avoid anyone becoming confused. I'll TreeMail you tonight and we can go through some practice excersizes on uploading pictures and using the quote feature.

Thanks, Lorn.

Lorn's post about the traveling lilies got me think8ng. I have 6 pots of one new variety, three pots each of two other varieties....all new to me this spring. The six are Fusion. I dug down to the one that did not crown, and it is just slow. I has sprouted....and I replanted it. The other two are lankongeuse and Red Mildew Ball, all new bulbs from Hyde. They had done as Lorn suggested...grown to the end of the pot horizontally, and then grew downward, catching themselves on the bottom of the pot. I forced a top crowning for them and repacked the pots.
I would not have known to look without these posts.

Lorn:
My pot of babies from scaling per your instruction. Doing famously.

Oh, oh. Here's the image

I've got a few Tropical Isle scale clones started here, too. After scaling and replanting last Fall, the mother bulb shot up a stem with two buds. Disregard the flower to the lower left in the photo, that's another cross. The nights got too warm just before blooming to develop that nice pink edging.

A beauty! This is the most interesting thread. I want to try this, I love a good challenge! What do you use to pot them up with anything special? From a daylily addict

If it is scale propagation you want to try, that's what this thread is all about! It is a sticky so everyone can easily go back and glean information from it, and not initiate repeat threads elsewhere in the forum. I think you will find your answer starting with post #8. If there is anything else, ask away!

Here's a case that emphasizes the importance of taking a couple scales to make back up clones on those rare or high priced bulbs you might be getting this Fall. The scale clone bulbs pictured below are from an Oriental/Trumpet hybrid called Gabriel's Wings, a rather pricey bulb back in 2014 at $59.00 for which there was/is no replacement. The remainder of this hybrid crop went to Australia. The mother bulb I had bought developed basil plate rot and perished. Of the 3 or 4 scales I retrieved for cloning, I now have 7 hills growing, 2 have divided and some little stem bulblets have developed. Geez, I'm glad I did that!!!

I checked on my one small bulblet and it looks good. It has been in the crisper all summer and I will plant it out when the weather cools down. I'll probably plant it in a container. It is good to see your scale bulblets have survived from whatever it was that was bothering them earlier this year. I'm not so sure this Gabriel's Wings is a quality cultivar as far as disease resistance is concerned.

Little 'Betty Sturley' growing from a scale in a Baggie. Robust little bugger.

Your sample illustrates how some cultivars like to form one large clone on a scale. Others may form six or eight small ones, in which case, most all will survive, while still others may form a mix of a couple good size and a few small ones, in which case only the largest will survive. In the case of the later, that is because the larger ones will consume all the mother scale's resources faster and faster, the bigger they get

It looks like the mother scale is/has depleted nicely, taking on the appearance of a decomposed leaf. That's nice when it turns out that way. I've seen it happen when I've planted the scale and clone attached together where if there are enough reserves, the mother scale comes back to life and continues to nurse off the clone. I discovered this when some clones here and there, never came up and found the old mother scale, still attached, looking just like new all over again.

Note the tiny delicate hair-like roots on you clone. Aren't they cute?

Some people say to never let the clone come in contact with the plastic bag and if needed add more mix to cover---which is what I try to do when I catch it. But, believe me, with all the scale cloning I do, there have been plenty of times where I didn't catch it and I doubt it ever made any difference.

Asiatic scale clones carry the seasonal cycle of the mother bulb in memory, so clones grown from 'summer or fall' mother bulbs will require a chill cycle. Trumpets (for sure) and (I think) most OT's do not require a chill cycle.

Edited to correct some spelling

That's amazing what you've noticed about the mother scale feeding off the bulbils! I'll never plant an unexhausted scale with bulbils attached ...ever again....

There are several insightful notes in Lorn's message. A post worth starring for sure!

No, No, Della. You're moving too fast! Let me explain. The most likely time you'll first discover this is when you transplant scale clones from a pot to garden and discover one that didn't come up in the pot. Upon examination, you'll realize why. The next time you plant 6 clones with scales attached and only 4 come up, you a good idea of why. Your suspicions will be verified. Now, then, what I do is make a cut line across the mother scale (like a corner of it), keeping the clone and a very small piece of the scale together so as to not injure the clone and then plant or pot, whichever..

Every time you move a scale and clone together from incubation bag to a pot, you have to look and decide if you think the scale needs to be clipped or not. Most often they don't. Read my second paragraph again.

Edited for easier reading.

I'll have to slow down and read better. Thanks