Albuca conundrum

[TimN]

I bought a couple of Aalbuca spiralis at the Inter City sale and I'm a little confused.

It has nice healthy leaves on it, all curly and nice. My confusion stems from my understanding that at this time of year these things are essentially hibernating and don't have leaves. My other Albuca have no leaves at all.

Is it true that they should be leaf-less in mid-summer?

If it is, how should I deal with these? They are potted in tiny 2" round pots with what looks like peat and pearlite.

Should I repot now or wait until the leaves fall off?

[greenknight]

Apparently not all of them lose their leaves. See:

https://thebikinggardener.com/2014/06/2 ... -spiralis/

I'd be inclined to go ahead and repot, or maybe repot one and see how it responds.

[Aiko]

Some are summer active. At least I treat my Albuca shawii as a summer active bulb. And I suspect my Albuca 'Aughrabies Hills' species does not mind summer watering too. Otherwise it would have rotted away already. Instead, it plumped up nicely.

Basically I would follow one rule for bulbs: when it is in leave, give it a splash of water every now and then. Even when out of season. Once it is ready to go dormant, you will notice the wilthering leaves. That is your key to stop watering. Sometimes bulbs skip a growing season and don't produce leaves for a year. But occasionally it will stay in leaves for much longer than you might have expected. Just follow the leaves.

In this case, you might have a summer active one. So give it a splash every now and then and see what it does throughout the winter. Or see what it does in spring when the days are heating up again.

[TimN]

OK, a few months later. I haven't done anything to these except give them a splash of water now and again. Most of the leaves turned brown and I trimmed them. Now they are starting to grow new leaves. They are in such tiny pots with peat I"m itching to repot them.

I'm concerned that disturbing them now will cause them to retard growth. I don't know if that's a reasonable concern; either that it won't happen or short term disturbance now will be better in the long run.

The culprits...

Albuca sm.jpg (118.09 KiB) Viewed 1213 times

The picture makes them look better than they do in person as far as soil, etc is concerned.

[Aiko]

I would not hesitate to repot them if the current soil is making you and the bulb unhappy. I would not anticipate on problems. The only bulb I have bad experience repotting is Bulbine bruynsii. But that could be a tricky bulb no matter what.

[TimN]

Perfect, thanks Aiko. I'm going to do it tomorrow.