Expert: Kenneth Joergensen - 12/6/2003

Question
I live in Sacramento, California.  A few months ago I ordered some Asiatic and oriental lily bulbs.  Unfortunately, I put off planting the bulbs, and now I'm noticing that they are moldy.  What should I do?  Should I go ahead and plant them or should I treat them with anything to get rid of the mold.  I hope they are still good!  This is my first time planting bulbs.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  

Answer
If the mold is blue-green then this is probably penicillin mold, which does not harm lily bulbs (can be fatal to hyacinths and tulips). Lilies are very high in sugar content (their stored food for the next season's growth) and during storage penicillin growth often appears where there might have been a small harvesting bruise. If you wish, you can remove the affected outer scales. The mold dies upon planting and will not "contaminate" your soil.

If the mold is white/gray and the bulbs are soft and "oozing" then remove any outer scales and plant the rest. A bulb can still grow and flower even with several of the outer scales removed.

In future store bulbs cool and dry with plenty of ventilation (on the bed of dry peatmoss spaghnum or wooden shavings - such as rabit bedding). Do not leave the bulbs at room temperature or in plastic bags.

While you  are in the process of maybe removing some outer scales here is a tip for you:

- you can remove the scales by gently pealing back the scales and break them off at the basal plate (where the scales are all attached). A lily bulb looks somewhat like an artichoke.

If you break off 1-2 good scales you can put them in a plastic bag with some moist (not soaking wet) peatmoss spaghnum. Keep the bag on the water heater for 2-3 months. Small bulblets (baby bulbs) should form at the base of the scale where it used to be attached to the basal plate. Check the bag every month and mist the bag to ensure the spaghnum does not dry out. Eventually small green sprouts will grow from the baby bulbs.

When this happens take the scales out and plant them (bulblets, scales and all) either in a pot indoor in a sunny window or outdoor in a flowerbed if the temperatures have warmed up.

Initially you will see single long leaves which next year will be replaced by a long thin flower stem (but most likely no flowers). The 3rd year they should flower. This is a way to propagate (multiply) your stock of lily bulbs for free. You can easily get 5-10 flowering lilies from each scale. If you remove 2-3 scales you may end up with a garden full of flowering lilies in a few years.

A bit long term project, but lots of fun.

Don't forget to plant the mother bulbs (the bulbs you took the scales from). I sometime scale my bulbs only to forget to plant the main bulbs themselves. Plant them 6-8 inches deep in well draining soil. I prefer to mix in a few handfulls of compost (or good quality putting soil) in the planting hole.

For instructions on how to scale bulbs take a look at this link:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kdjoergensen/album?.tok=bcf3gSABn2eLttwr&.dir=/...(star+gazer)&.src=ph

(You may have to copy/paste the entire url above into your browser. If it is on two lines you still need to copy and past each line into the browser one after the other.. I hope it works).