- 1). Make a tool for scooping by sharpening an old teaspoon with a file so you can cut into a bulb by pressing the front edge of the spoon down into the bulb. You can also use a curved knife or a sharp grapefruit spoon for scooping.
- 2). Hold the bulb upside down with the broad, flat side up and the pointed tip down. Scoop out the center bottom area of the bulb, called the basal plate. Don't cut into the outer edge. Scoop a shallow indentation in the center area only. Dust the cut area with a fungicide powder.
- 3). Place the scooped bulbs in a tray of moist sand with the bottom sides upward and showing on the surface of the sand. Set the tray in a dark place that's room temperature or a little warmer and keep the sand slightly damp by sprinkling more water over it if it dries out. Leave the bulbs for 12 to 14 weeks, when small bulblets should have formed on the bottom of the scooped surface.
- 4). Remove each bulb from the sand and plant it in a pot of well-drained potting soil with the scooped bottom upward, deep enough so the tops of the new bulblets are just beneath the surface of the soil. You can also plant the bulb outside in the same way. Treat the bulb as you would a typical bulb of the variety you're propagating for the next few months, keeping the soil slightly moist and putting the pot in full sunlight, taking it outdoors in summer if you want. Let the new plants produce leaves and die down at the end of summer.
- 5). Remove the bulb from the pot after the leaves have died down and carefully separate the new bulbs from the parent bulb. Plant each one outdoors in the fall and care for them as you would typical bulbs of their type. They should produce leaves each summer, but may take two to five years before they'll be mature enough to produce blooms.
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