How to force paperwhites using alcohol
By Rachel Dutton
The winter months for gardeners can be a time of restless waiting for Spring when we are able to see and smell our Spring flowers. One way to bring Spring early into our homes is by forcing Spring bulbs. For Christmas and the New Year, consider Paperwhites for fragrant flower blooms within 2-3 weeks of planting, and almost instant gratification!
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) are popular bulbs for forcing since they do not require a chilling period like other Narcissus and other types of bulbs. Most of the bulbs forced for early blooms develop long stems resulting in top heavy bulbs (with flowers) and the bulb tipping over. This can be preventing by watering with a dilute solution of alcohol. This will result in stems that will be 1/3 to ½ shorter with the flowers remaining normal size.
With the following steps you can get the same results:
1.Plant your paperwhite bulbs in a container with pebbles, as you normally would and add water to just cover the roots but not the bulb.
2. Once the roots begin growing and the green shoots on top reach 1-2”, pour off the water in the container.
3. Replace the water with a solution or 4–6% alcohol. Instructions for making the alcohol water solution are described below.
4. Continue to use the alcohol solution for future watering to the paperwhites.
Alcohol Watering Solution
The alcohol content needs to be less than 10%, or your plants will overdose, and severe growth problems will occur. You can use any hard liquor (vodka, tequila, gin, whiskey …) or rubbing alcohol.
Do not use wine or beer because they are too high in sugar.
Many types of liquor are only labeled as “proof”, not percentage. Check the bottle to see if percentage of alcohol is listed on the label. If not, you can determine what the percentage is.Do not confuse “proof” and percentage.
To determine what percentage of alcohol you have, divide the proof in half, so 86 proof bourbon is 43% alcohol.
You need to do some simple math to get to the different concentrations of alcohol down to 4-6%.
To convert your alcohol to 5%, divide the percentage of alcohol by 5 and subtract 1. That will tell you how many parts of water to mix with the 1-part alcohol. Ex. 40 divided by 5 =8: 8 minus 1 = 7 … 7 parts of water to 1-part alcohol.
Once forced Paperwhites bulbs can be discarded, they will not perform a second time. They will bring you beauty for several weeks but have used all their energy in bloom early.
The author of this article, Rachel Dutton, is a Paulding County Master Gardener Extension Volunteer. For more information on gardening in Paulding, contact a Master Gardener or the County Extension Agent at the Paulding County Cooperative Extension Office at 770-443-7616 or check us out online at www.ugaextension.org/paulding.
