Give me a few minutes. I just took pics of some leaf sheath material being removed from a couple catts. Have to download them to PC. Ok, here is a little series on removing leaf sheaths and why. All it takes is a pair of tweezers and nimble fingers with one good finger nail. I start at the bottom and pick off the sheath one layer at a time. Then go up and take off all of the material that I can without injuring the pbulb. In one pic you can see the inner material that you can leave as it will come off in a few weeks as it dries. See photos. One of the biggest reasons I take the sheaths off are molds and fungus' (see pic of blackened new bud). Also the material can harbor bugs like mealies and scales. Also In one of the pics is an illustration of how roots grow and when they start growing. The pbulb matures, sometime flowers first, and then the roots start growing from the matured pbulb. When the pbulbs first start growing they are being sustained by the previous season's pbulbs all the way back to the oldest. These older pbulbs will not grow new roots or flowers and usually will not grow new buds. But as explained in a previous thread, can be induced to grow new buds if the rizome between pbulbs is cut halfway through. I always heal the cut with cinnamon. Never had a problem with the procedure and have induced reluctant 3 and 4 season old pbulbs to produce new buds thereby increasing the size of the plant. This procedure does not limit or lessen the pbulbs ability to provide starches and water to flow to the newest pbulbs. It does not reduce the plants vigor nor reduce the size or number of flowers on the new growth. In one of the pics you can see a black new bud growth. This happened because the leaf sheath material didn't allow moisture to evaportae quickly enough causing a perfect environment for fungus to take hold. There is a chance it will make it but that is "if" I work some magic and keep it dry. Remember that the buds are built from layers like an onion and what you see on the outside is just the outer layer. On the other side of this pbulb are two very healthy new buds. So it has the potential to grow three good pbulbs (flowers) from this one pbulb. The last pic is the whole plant. There are two plants here that I took pics of. I hope the moderators will leave this up awhile so the novices can see it. Helps to actually see how to do it.
Last edited by james mickelso; 04-06-2014 at 12:33 AM..
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