12 



BULLETIN 28, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PLANTING MOTHER BULBS. 



In planting, care must be taken not to break off the baby bulblets. 

 The scooped and scored mother bulbs with bulblets attached are 

 planted in the field in beds about 36 inches wide and of any desired 

 length, probably in the majority of instances with their bases up. 

 Excellent results have been obtained at the United States Bulb Gar- 

 den by planting them base down. In fact, the limited experiments 

 and observations there lead to the belief that the best results will 

 follow this practice. Additional observations and experiments will 

 be required, however, before this practice of planting the mother 

 bulbs can be unqualifiedly recommended. 



The bulbs should be placed about 4 inches apart in rows 6 to 8 

 inches apart across the beds and covered with from 3 to 4 inches of 

 soil. The bulbs in one end of the bed shown in figure 10 have been 

 covered with soil. Later, when all the bulbs have been covered, the 

 soil will be raked smooth and the bed mulched with 3 or 4 inches of 

 litter (straw or grass) for winter protection. At harvest time the 



Fig. 11. — Colonies of bulblets of 



mother bulbs (on the left) and fi)om 

 harvested in July, 1911. 



hyacinths of the Gertrude variety from scored 

 scooped mother bulbs (on the right), both 



mother bulbs will have practically disappeared and clustered close 

 together where each mother bulb was will be found a colony of baby 

 bulbs. The bulblets of each colony vary greatly in size and number. 

 The difference in the size and number of the bulblets secured by 

 means of the two methods is plainly noticeable. (Fig. 11.) 



When harvested in June or early July the bulblets are placed 1 or 

 2 inches thick on shelves or in trays in the bulb house to cure. When 

 they are sufficiently dried out, which requires four to six weeks, the 

 dry roots, dirt, and remains of the mother bulbs are removed and 

 the bulblets sorted. The largest and strongest ones make up the first 

 grade and the smaller ones the second grade. As previously stated, 

 larger but very many less bulblets are secured by means of scoring 

 than by scooping. 



Table II shows the comparative results obtained from the scoop- 

 ing and scoring methods of propagating hyacinths employed at the 

 United States Bulb Garden. 



