Cloned bulblets coming up: First photo (red background) taken Jan 19th, near the end of incubation and just before they went in the cooler. Last two photos show typical status today after being planted out around mid March. Not all are up--a couple of the biggest ones are still down. They never do come up all at once but surprize me when I least expect it.
Anyone who purchases an 'expensive' bulb this Spring (or anytime) should always clone a couple scales just in case the original is lost.
Cloning is almost aways faster than seeding. If the little bulblet is big enough, it will generally make a ladder stem the first year. Some crosses will develop faster than others, of course, so there's no predicting. Last Fall, I cloned three and all three were slow as the dickins in incubation, so by the looks of that, maybe only a couple will have a ladder--but, again--we'll just have to wait and see. Note the root system already growing in picture #1. When clones come out of the chill cycle, they're likely to have an even more extensive root system. And, any fragments of the original scale that remain are trimmed away, of course. For planting clones one of the handiest utinsils I found is the common kitchen pie spatula to make a wedge shapped hole so all the roots can be better positioned.
In all, I've got five pots of scaled bulblets growing this year.
Edit 04/21/13: rotated picture correctly
