Your disappointing observations are founded on good light supply but a poor fertilizer administering regimen.
Fertilize whenever you water with 0.4 grams per liter from a solid preparation with well suitable formula like 14-10-17. Or use liquid fertilzer as I detailed previously - 6-3-6 at 1.5 mL/L and this fomulation and concentratuion alternately with 8-8-6 at 0.75 mL/L respectively, as I do practise presently)

Hi Hans,

Thanks for your input there. I'm puzzled because when I was fertilizing last winter (under the lights) I was doing so at every watering. I cannot acquire the analysis you mentioned BUT I could alternate with 20-20-20 which should closely arrive at the proportions you've suggested. The HPS lights by the way are 400W and they are on from 6 in the morning until 6 at night.

Looking at one of the other threads about Papilio and seeing the one picture of the VERY root bound plant, THAT is what I want my babies to look like eventually. My thinking would be to use a high Phosphorous fertilizer but I've seen information to the contrary.

Regards,

Gerard.

WHat if your bulb is small kind with lot of leaves. La Paz for instance does not grow a big bulb for me, yet it has dozens of leaves. The same stands for most of the Hadeco (South African) varieties. These are my observations. Striped Panther is the same. Relatively small bulb, but so many leaves that just the leaves themselves look excitingly pretty. :o)

Hey Soultan:

Thanks for the information. That is good to know that there are some varieties out there like that. I guess as long as they still bloom and perform then it's no big deal. However, I don't have any of those varieties that you've listed. The two or three varieties that I've got that performed like this were regular Dutch hybrids. I guess time will tell to see what happens.

This time around barring any fungus gnat issues, I'll keep the bulbs in the pots throughout the season including the dormant period etc so that there'll be less disturbance to the roots.

I really love La Paz and Striped Panther. They shoot up a lot of scapes and love to bloom. Their bulb looks like an onion with tight neck, but when they are planted, they really shoot up a lot of leaves. I consider them keeping evergreen, just for the look of the leaves. They look like some palm leaf coming out of the pot... A lot of people don't really like Striped Panther, because it does not have such an impressive bloom. It is a white trumpet with burgundy stripes. It is not the most beautiful, but when you have three scapes blooming at the same time, it is nice. I really like it. The scapes are very high, so they are different from the other trumpet varieties. It is hard to get. I read somewhere, that when they came out with it, it did not sell that well, so they decided not to push it anymore, so they are winding this variety down. Maybe one more year, and they are not producing it anymore... I don't know if it is true, but I am glad I bought it two years ago.

Hi Cuddlyotter. As Soultan has explained to you different varieties maintain different bulb sizes, so are the root development and bulblet production. Papilio in particular loves to grow roots. My 2 Picotee on the other hand has not produced enough roots to fill up a 4"pot. It helps a lot if you can avoid disturbing their roots. Totally drying them out can slow down their development. The Papilio you saw in the other thread was continously grown for almost 2 years now since it was purchased. Everytime it is repotted to the next size pot, the roots are not disturbed at all.

Hi Mariava:

That is good to know i.e. it being cultivar specific. I definitely plan on keeping all of them in their pots through the next dormant period so as to not disturb the root.

One thing in my experience though: one year I took my Red Lion out of it's pot in May and potted it in a very large planter full of potting mix. It grew a fair number of leaves and by the end of August when it came time to take it out, the bulb had grown to a massive size and I had a beautiful root system. I put it through dormancy in a dry, bare root state and when I potted it back up in October, It graced me with two scapes each with 4 blooms.

Cuddlyotter...Again, liking to be rootbound is cultivar specific :-) and Papilio is one of them. I have a very strong feeling that Exotic Star is also one of them being a decendant of Papilio.
Red Lion is one of the varieties that likes a lot of space for it's roots. So does Appleblossom. I think MOST large flowering older varieties are like this. That's why your Red Lion flourished in the large planter: good leaf growth, increase in bulb size and good root development all leading to it giving you 2 scapes after forcing. It is not the 'dry bareroot state' that produced those scapes. It is usually the health and maturity of the plant before dormancy that determines the scape production.

I expect my Red Nymph to produce a lot of scapes for me. It has grown to so big with two babies that it is pushing the two other bulbs planted next to it... I am continuously amazed by how much the bulbs like to be planted out and not cared for at all. They are fine with 5 minutes drip watering per night, and the Sun and warmth does the rest. I did not fertilize this year, due to the fact that I purchased fresh sod for the flower bed, and I did not want to overdo with nutriens this year. I will do fertilizing next year. It seems like they did not need it anyway.

Mariava:

That makes sense re: cultivar specific. I guess I mistakenly assumed all Amaryllis were like this and treated them all accordingly after that experience with the Red Lion. I definitely agree that it's not the dry bareroot state that gave me the scapes but the environment the bulb was in prior to that. I DO know that of course the more leaves you get, the more scapes you have the potential for getting and that to get those scapes, the trick is to put the bulbs in to dormancy at the right time. If the bulbs are put through the dormant stage before the immature scapes inside the bulb have not developed to a certain stage, they will abort, which is why some people report only getting leaves and no buds when they bring their bulbs out of dormancy and into growth.