I grow a number of Winter-rainfall, Summer-dormant bulbs outdoors during the Winter. This includes genera like Albuca, Freesia, Gladiolus, Lapeirousia, Moraea and Oxalis. They are often forced into dormancy in Spring when the pots get too hot from solar heating. Sometimes this happens during an early warm spell, whereas they might otherwise have grown for many weeks more.
I now grow them in white foam drinking cups rather than standard pots. The foam insulates the soil from the sun extremely well, and the interior doesn't rise above air temperature. I buy them in sleeves at a restaurant supply store.
Other benefits of foam cups are:
- They are much less expensive than most plastic pots;
- They are narrow and deep, which is better for most terrestrials. A 20-ounce (600ml) foam cup is about 3 1/2" / 9cm wide and 7" tall. They are also better for fitting more plants into a limited space;
- It is easy to make holes in them with a chopstick, a knife, or anything else - or not make holes at all for wet growers;
- They come in many different capacities;
- If written on with a black ball point pen and the writing is turned away from the sun, it lasts multiple years, and the indentation from writing can still be read for even more years;
- They last at least 7-8 years outside in the sun before degrading and becoming very fragile.
Hybrid Mode
