Various cutting methods for the propagation of hippeastrum bulbs

One of the major problems of Hippeastrum is the large amount of labor involved in its production. There are three common methods for the propagation of the Hippeastrum: Seeds, offset bulblets and twin scaling. Study on various cutting methods for the propagation of Hippeastrum was conducted in the Northern Israeli Negev Desert during two consecutive years. Fewer bulblets were developed when the mother bulb was divided into un-separated sections, compared to twin scales. Increasing the number of sections into which the bulb was divided resulted in larger number of bulblets. No correlation between the number of sections and the average weight of bulblets was found. The total weight of all the bulblets derived from one bulb, doubled after one growing year. Propagation coefficient, defined as the ratio between the bulblets number to the number of section into which the bulb was divided, was larger than one unit when the bulbs were cut into un-separated sections and smaller than one unit when the twin scaling method was used. Higher economic profit was found when the bulbs were divided into un-separated sections. By using the un-separated section method, it was possible to receive bulbs ready for marketing one year sooner, when compared to the twin scaling method. The greatest economical profit is expected when the mother bulb was divided into eight un-separated sections.