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This is the first time I am growing bulbs but I am not sure if dried cow dung cakes, ground into fine powder would work as a good rooting medium for the bulbs to sprout.

A friend of mine gave me a lot of different bulbs and she said that a few were tulip bulbs.

I live in Calcutta (India), where growing tulips naturally is a bit difficult.

So my question is:

Would the cow dung cake powder work as a good rooting medium for the bulbs? I am especially concerned about the tulip bulbs

user 33690
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  • Why not use potting soil instead? By the way, most tulip bulbs need a cold period before they will grow. I have never been to Calcutta but it sounds like a place where it is warm and hot... – benn Jan 05 '19 at 17:44

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The potting medium is somewhat irrelevant - when a bulb is planted, it already has all it needs to grow in terms of nutrients for spring flowering, so the planting medium just needs to be free draining soil into which they can root and access moisture. Probably cow dung is a little too rich for the bulbs, but I'm not sure what other forms of potting soil you can get where you are. The biggest problem with growing tulips in your area is temperature - tulips need a period of cold weather to trigger growth and flowering in spring. Some parts of India are able to grow tulips, usually the cooler, hillier parts, see this article here https://www.agrifarming.in/tulip-cultivation/

Bamboo
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