Dry season for bulb plants

[keddre]

I'm curious if anyone has artificially created a dry season for bulb plants before? specifically Crinum thainums. Long story short, my tank went to mayhem during my honeymoon and with a ton of life changes it will be four or five months before I can do it right again. Most of my plants I am just selling off because they are easily attainable (ludwigia, pearlweed, etc.) but for my crinums that I still want to flower one day, I want to try and give them a dry season. The method I've tried before with smaller crinums (unkown type) is to put the whole plant in submersed soil with emersed leaves, let the plant reclaim the leaves, then put the crinum in a bag of pool filter sand (because I have a ton) then let it sit for a couple months; while I know the actual dry season is 6 months (according to a book)...human time. Of my five test samples, two survived, so the success is iffy. But with my tank in distress, I want to move on to my two big boys. Any tips on how to do it different, or just cross my fingers and do the "known" method?

 

[Guppysnail]

I seen your post when you did it. I did not reply because I have no experience with aquatic bulb plants but I do with terrestrial.  Since I see no information I thought I would offer this…When I do them I dig them up just before the first year and place them without dirt in a brown paper bag in my garage. Interior temp in my garage stays just above freezing usually 35-36. I watch the forecast and as soon as the last heavy freeze passes I plant them..irrelevant in aquariums. After the first year I have never needed to. I know the cold plays a large part in the size and longevity of the plant. Just dry does not work from experience.  I do not know if any of this translates to aquatic but may give you ideas. Good luck please let me know how it works out for you bi may give bulbs a shot b

[keddre]

Long time, no update. I ended up planting them like regular plants outside (sorry I didn't snag pics) and letting the leaves naturally die off. The bulb stayed healthy, so I just let them sit for about 3-4 months. 3 or four weeks ago, I finally set my 55 back up when I needed to bring my fish in from the ponds and it looks like my stupid method worked. Aside from the tank re-cycling, the bulbs rotted off their outer layer, then threw up new leaves. As of today, they both appear healthy and you would never know they were out of water for months. 

I do have three other crinums (type unknown) outside being snowed on and somehow they still have green leaves. I'm guessing that specific type is a flood plant, because it's thrived 100% emerged, but merely survives submersed. 

Life is still life, so I haven't re-addressed flowering any yet