PROPAGATION OF SPECIALTY BULBS BY CHIPPING

The natural propagation rate of several specialty bulbs is considered to be too low or has some disadvantages.
Some crops produce little or no seed and a very low number of daughter bulbs.
Examples of these crops are: Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Pink Giant’, Galanthus nivalis, Muscari azurea (syn. Hyacinthella azurea) and Scilla mischtschenkoana (syn. S. tubergeniana).

Eucomis bicolor and E. comosa (syn. E. punctata) can be propagated by seed.
However, the seeds regularly become frosted before they ripen and are harvested.
Propagation by seed is very well possible for Veltheimia but this results in a heterogeneous stock.

For Narcissus chipping has proved to be a good method for artificial propagation with a high propagation rate.
Chipping is cutting a bulb longitudinally into a number of segments (chips) of equal size.
By this action the main growing point is destroyed and apical dominance is broken.
The possibilities for chipping as a method for fast propagation is being examined for all the species mentioned above.

VII International Symposium on Flowerbulbs

P.J. van Leeuwen, J.A. van der Weijden

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.430.54