Tulip bulbs - how to store
Content:
How to store tulip bulbs after digging up, and why certain conditions are needed, every grower should know. Digging the bulbs for the summer will help preserve them, and ensure abundant flowering next season. Tubers should be stored in a suitable environment, in compliance with the rules, otherwise it makes no sense to dig them out, it will only hurt.
How to store
Tulip bulbs how to store at home before planting, every professional in the cultivation of this culture knows. In order to subsequently grow beautiful flowers, you need to fulfill the extraction time (not earlier than July), the requirements for storage, sorting, processing before planting in open ground in the fall.
Tuber maintenance in winter
How to preserve after digging before planting
The process of extraction and subsequent preservation is biologically necessary. The maternal mature bulb begins to die off, preserving the young growth (babies) in the future. This course of things resumes in the new season, respectively, the issues of growth and development are getting worse: there is not enough food and the volume of the seat. Flowers begin to fade, thin out, lose their elegance.
Box saving process
It is also necessary to dig up tubers for the winter time in order to prepare the soil:
- Add fertilizers, peat and sand to it,
- Increase its fertility,
- Remove weed roots without damaging the flowers.
Digging also contributes to the reproduction of valuable crop varieties. If you plant the onion, do not remove it for the winter, then it will begin to go deeper into the ground, from where it will be more difficult for the sprout to break through.
The bulbs are dug up
How to store correctly:
- At the time of extraction, the bulbs need careful maintenance. If the upper protective layer is damaged, then a fungal disease can occur.
- Store optimally in a wooden box. Cardboard often becomes damp and does not allow air to circulate well, so fungal or bacterial damage can occur.
- If desired, planting tubers are placed along with wood chips to remove excess moisture.
- The bulbs are laid in one layer.
- If there is a basement, it makes sense to put the bulbs directly on a dry shelf, while it is imperative to control temperature drops.
- Professionals store bulbs in special heat chambers, where the optimal temperature regime is maintained.
- In rare cases, the bulbs are stored in the lower section of refrigerators, where the temperature is kept around 3-5 degrees.
After all the tulips in the garden have been cut, the bulbs take about a month to ripen. The stems and leaves die off at this moment, the bulbs begin to acquire a brown color. They can be taken out at the moment when two or three green leaves have turned yellow and wilted. As a rule, this period occurs in the third decade of July.
Processing the bulbs after digging
The processing process after digging has an important function - to prevent bulbs from rotting and to protect against bacteria and fungus. First, the bulbs are dried, then processed.
Processing process
If the tubers were not processed before drying, then after a week they should be treated with sodium permanganate or contact fungicide.
How to dry bulbs
When the bulbs have been removed, do not peel them either from the scales or from the soil. Place the tubers in baskets or well-ventilated containers in a dry, warm place for about a week.
Places that are suitable:
- Veranda,
- Canopy,
- Alcove,
- Shed with good ventilation.
Drying of planting material
After a week, the tubers are cleared of the integumentary plates and roots, the decayed and affected ones are removed, the rest are sorted by size. If there are small damages, they can be cut off, removed with a sharpened knife, and then washed. Then the planting material should be processed.
Forcing tulips
Forcing tulips is a set of activities that contribute to the active growth of culture in an unusual time of the year. In winter, tulips go through a dormant period. At this moment, the organs of the future plant are laid inside the bulb.
If you act on the bulbs in certain ways, then you can make the plant bloom even in winter. So, in the process of the required temperature during storage and subsequent distillation, the culture begins to bloom several months ahead of schedule. Thus, beautiful tulips are obtained for spring and International Women's Day on March 8, New Year and Christmas.
Forcing on hydroponics
Forcing stages:
- Storage after digging,
- Rooting process - lower temperatures are required,
- The very moment of forcing is the cultivation of crops in warm rooms before the onset of budding.
The plant is prepared for distillation even when it blooms in the open field. It is carefully looked after, looked after so that the bulbs accumulate the maximum amount of nutrients. Agrotechnical measures and mandatory decapitation (removal of the growth point) are carried out.
During storage before forcing, temperature is important. The temperature can be changed, thereby pushing back or approaching the moment of flowering.
During storage processes, the impact occurs:
- High temperatures
- Low.
First, after the digging stage, the tubers are stored at temperatures of 20-23 degrees for a month. This is optimal for the formation of flower buds. After, in August, the whole month the bulbs are in conditions of 20 degrees, in September - 16-17 degrees.
For the New Year, forcing is considered one of the most difficult, because by the time the bulb should be cooled, all parts of the future tulip should have already been formed in it. To speed up the laying of flower parts, agrotechnical and physicochemical methods are used.At the first, tulips are covered with a film during the growing process, and decapitation is carried out, in the second, the digging is carried out ahead of schedule, after the bulbs are kept for about a week at a temperature of 34 degrees.
Growing tulips at home by March 8
For distillation by March, the following varieties are suitable:
- Kiss Nelis,
- Oxford,
- Eric Hofsue,
- London,
- Vivex,
- Diplomat.
Bulbs must be of high quality, purchased from trusted sellers. The highest quality will be those brought from Holland, marked "Giant". As a rule, before selling them, they are pre-treated with special solutions that contribute to favorable storage and good growth of the flower in the future. You can also make a blank from your tulips growing in the garden. However, remember that not all of them will be able to survive the dormant period and subsequently germinate.
Forcing for the spring holiday
In order to grow beautiful flowers by March 8, the soil, the container for planting and the creation of favorable growing conditions are first prepared.
The container must necessarily have drainage holes - this way the roots will not start to rot if they are too wet.
It is imperative to have a lamp that will illuminate young shoots and contribute to their active growth and development, since the whole process will take place in winter.
The soil should be loose, easily permeable to air and water. Such soil is purchased in a store, you can do it yourself:
- Land from the site,
- Humus,
- The sand of the river in equal proportions, mix thoroughly.
It is allowed to add Glyocladin tablets to the soil, which will prevent purulent processes of the roots.
Before germination, the bulbs are kept in cold rooms or a refrigerator to protect them as well as possible until planting. An important point is that the temperature should be reduced progressively, from August to October, from 20 to 16 degrees.
Before planting, the bulbs are prepared: they are completely peeled, each tuber is carefully examined, and the presence of rot, parasites, and damage is detected. Only healthy specimens are planted. After inspection, the tubers are soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate, disinfected, then sorted by varieties and sizes.
The final stage is disembarkation. With it, the tubers are slightly pressed into the ground. The space between the tubers is 1-2 cm. After that, the substrate is poured, so that the tips are visible at the top. It is very important that the bulbs are not close to each other.
After the soil is watered with water. The container is sent to a cold place or refrigerator. It is worth getting the box a month before the culture should bloom.
What to do after forcing
Forcing is carried out in greenhouses or at home on a windowsill in suitable boxes. After the forcing process, the planting tubers can be saved for later planting in open ground.
- At the time of forcing, there is an active development and growth of culture. After the peduncles have been removed or cut, it is worth giving the culture time to complete the development cycle. During the month, tulips are watered and kept at 20 degrees.
- Then the bulbs are removed from the soil and dried. After a month and a half of keeping them in a cool room, the tubers are allowed to be planted again or to wait for the moment of the onset of autumn and planting in open ground. It all depends on the type of tulip: if it is late blooming, then the shelf life must be extended.
With proper storage of tulip bulbs, you can later enjoy their beauty and colorful bloom. Their buds begin to bloom earlier than all cultures and give a spring mood to summer residents.A variety of varieties allows you to make the garden plot original and effective.
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