Lily Growing Instructions
Receipt and inspection of tubers
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Proper quantity
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Packed well in peat
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Pennicillium or other storage rot.
Soil type
Use a mix that drains well with a high level of peat and perlite. Coco peat is also used often with box culture of Lilies. Orientals are often grown in crates. Asiatic and LA Hybrids are mostly grown direct in the ground. Lilies are sensitive for drainage. The soil or pot needs to drain well so medium can dry. If the medium stays too long wet it will result in die back of roots and will increase the changes of root disease. This will cause leave loss and yellowing of the plant.
Fertilizer requirements
Lilies do not need a high level of nutrients right at planting. Orientals require an EC of about 1.8 and Asiatics/LA Hybrids require an EC of about 1.3.
Advice based on sample testing conducted by the Laboratory van der Sprong in Roelofarendsveen:
pH: 5.5 to 6 -
P : 0.1
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K:1.5
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g: 1.3
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Ca: 2.0
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Fe: 48.0 to 10.0
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B: 15 to 20
Planting the bulbs
When you receive the bulbs, open the plastic bags immediately that the bulbs are packed in. That way they can slowly defrost and breathe. Keep them in a cool area at about 50°F to thaw out (Do not leave boxes in open sun!). Plant them as soon as the bulbs are defrosted. The bulbs do not need to be dipped in a fungicide, since they already received a dip before bulbs were packed). Plant them with the roots down and sprout up. Be sure that they get planted in a moist soil. The bulbs need to be planted 2 to 3 inches deep with 2 to 3 inches of soil on top of the bulbs. Use a small hand shovel if you plant them in beds. Use mesh wire as the plant density matrix. Lilies are planted between 4 to 10 bulbs per sq ft this depends strongly per variety and circumstances. Generally, you can plant 3 lily bulbs in a 6” pot or 1 lily bulb in one 6” pot. For an 8” or 9” pot, you can put five to seven bulbs. When planting be sure that the sprouts are centered during planting and also when they come up out of the pots center them. For the first two to three weeks the ideal rooting temperature is 49°F. This will help with equal rooting and developing a good portion of stem roots. The stem roots are the roots that the lily will rely on most during the growing period; these are not the roots that you see during planting that are on the bottom of the bulb. That is why it is very important that the bulbs get planted at the right depth. If planted too shallow the bulb will not be able to develop the stem roots required and therefore will stay short and will under perform.
Irrigation
Lilies need to be watered right after planting. If you plant in crates or on a plant line they get watered in at the end of the plant line. If you plant directly into the soil water them in with overhead water or by hand with a hose with shower head. You will see sprouts coming out of the ground in about one to two weeks of time. Later on in the crop you can switch to drip irrigation or drippers. Switch the irrigation after the roots are established. This is normally 3 to 4 weeks after planting. Irrigate early morning so foliage has time to dry up during the day. If you use drip or spitters it is less critical but we still prefer watering in the mornings.
Greenhouse climate
Asiatic and LA Hybrids can be grown at cooler temperatures. Orientals need a minimum of 55°F at night and day and can go up in the higher seventies or eighties. They can handle some cooler night temperatures but what you might encounter is lower leaf loss (yellowing) and deformed buds if this will continue for some time. Temperature is important but just as much is air circulation. They both need good circulation and air movement. This will prevent botrytis and other fungal diseases. It also will also prevent leave scorch in Orientals. Scorch can happen in fall when the bulbs become older and nights are cooling off more. You will see scorch as well when the gap between day and night temperatures is getting larger. Be sure that your nutrients in the soil are sufficient and keep enough airflow so the plant can continue to bring nutrients and mainly calcium to the upper part of the plants. In spring/ summer time you need to apply a shading compound. In most cases it will be end of March or early April. If that does not work in your situation you can also hang in the greenhouse black shade cloth. Generally 50% or 55% is being used. Try to keep the humidity at 80% to 90% at night. Watch lilies very well on hot days. If it is reaching the high eighties inside the greenhouse and we have outside a low humidity it is time to use overhead irrigation for a minute or two to cool down the crop. Start doing this at about 10:00AM and repeat this 3 or 4 times a day until 3:00 pm when the hottest time of the day is past. This will help the plant to keep up with evaporation and it will increase the humidity in the greenhouse. This will prevent the crop from burn damage. Heat damage can show in the blooms (browning) or also on the upper leaves.
Crop protection
If you plant in a clean disinfected soil you do not need to drench them with a fungicide. At Flamingo Holland we dip our bulbs before packing in a fungicide and a Marathon solution. Towards the end of the crop you might see some green aphids in the crop since the marathon is starting to worn out. At times we also see thrip damage. A few applications of Orthene can take care of that. Botrytis in Asiatic and LA Hybrids is mostly visible on the leaves (spotting). In Orientals it is visible on the blooms (small bumps). Best is to do a preventative program if the weather is poor. If grown in a controlled greenhouse you would not need to spray preventative.
Harvesting
Every 1 to 3 days, lilies are being harvested. Try to do in the early morning before it starts to get warm. Get the flowers into water and into the warehouse as soon as possible. Strip the leaves and bunch in 10 stem bunches. Be sure that the buckets are clean. For pots the stage, the store likes to see is the first bloom to be puffy and second and third to start showing colour. Orientals can get browning on the blooms if they are moved from a warm greenhouse into a cooler that runs between 32 to 36F. Ideal storage temp for Orientals is 40 to 44F. Asiatics and LA Hybrids do not mind cooler temperatures.
Post harvesting
Add 8 ml of Fascination per 32 Gallon. This for a 2 hour pulse. After two hours you can move the flowers into plain water. The solution can be used for 3 to 4 day’s. Another way of using is to do 1 part fascination per 500 parts of water and to do not a pulse but keep the flowers in the solution. For Pot production Fascination is being used with regular folliar spray’s. Contact us for additional information.
Flamingo Holland cannot be liable for any loss of profit, growing result or any other commercial damages resulting from use of this guide. This guide is for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy, or performance overall.
