But your right, Joe. The primary objective should always be to get the biggest bulblet one can. Stick to it!. Except in rare circumstances that is the gospel. One exception would be when somebody offers you the opportunity to 'rob' a few scales from a rare plant in mid summer you just can't live without, or another is when someone in the southern hemisphere sends you some valuable scales from their spring bulbs ready to grow but it's August here and vice-versa if we send some down into the southern hemisphere.
Then you have surprises like Cat, who just learned the thrill of scaling (in the off season) and an over zealous scaler like myself who thinks he knows how to navigate through both the procedure and the calendar to make things work out in the end. Such is the case here. In reality, Joe and Cat, both procedures would work, except if we let the bulblets grow on the scales longer, we may have to extend the growing season a bit under lights. But, to give you both an idea of where we would be at on or about Sept 10th to the 15th if potted now, check the last two pictures. Two sets of scales, 4 each, were put into incubation June 5th.
Potted on July 1st
Here they are on July 15th
Here they are on August 4th
As you can see, even tiny bulblets really take off when dual nurturing is involved. It'll surprise ya! These were given their first feeding of dilute 4-10-3 on July 15th to speed root development.
