How to properly dig up tulips after flowering. Three ways to store tulip bulbs before planting

Advise on how to store tulip bulbs. In the spring I acquired a chic variety with terry inflorescences, the seller immediately said that it needs to be dug up. I live in a private house, there is a basement, it is dry and cool in it. Can bulbs be kept there?

Tulips are permanent residents of private plots and city flower beds. They bloom early, do not require special care, but due to selection they have many shapes and colors. In most cases, tulips are left to their own devices. Having planted bulbs, summer residents immediately forget about them, spinning in garden chores. Watering and cleaning withered leaves - that's, perhaps, all the care procedures. However, in order to maintain the size of the buds, the bulbs are recommended to be dug up for the summer. In addition, this procedure will help to avoid thickening of plantings and protect flowers from pests. They are returned to the ground in autumn or spring. How to store tulip bulbs before planting - we'll talk about this today.

When to dig bulbs?

You can start digging up the bulbs at the end of flowering, but not immediately. First you need to wait until the nutrients from the aerial part go to the roots.

When the foliage turns yellow and droops, it's time to dig (usually this happens in early summer).

How to prepare bulbs for storage?

The dug bulbs should be prepared, namely:

1. Free them from the earth.
2. Soak for 30 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This will help protect the tulips from fungi.
3. Dry well, laying them out in one layer under a canopy and leaving them like this for a week.

Dried bulbs must be sorted out. Remove old scales, select roots and remnants of leaves. Divide whole nests into individual bulbs and detach the babies.

How to store tulip bulbs

The best option for storage are wooden or plastic boxes. Paper and cardboard boxes should not be used. In them planting material can rot, and the containers themselves can get wet.

Boxes must be without lids. Tulips do not need to be "corked" because they release ethylene during storage. For adult tubers, it is harmless, but for children it is undesirable.

Bulbs are laid out in boxes in one layer. If there are a lot of tulips, but there is not enough space, you can lay them out in layers, sprinkling them with sawdust or wrapping them in a newspaper.

Tulips are the most beautiful delicate flowers belonging to the bulbous family, their cultivation on garden plots requires some rules to be followed. In order for the flowers to remain large, beautiful, they must be dug up annually, and here we will tell you how to save tulip bulbs at home after picking them.

Proper maintenance of tulip bulbs will help to fully maintain their viability until planting and get beautiful blooms for the next season.

Why dig and store tulip bulbs

Bulbs of cultivated varieties of tulips need to be dug up annually. Adult specimens begin the process of division, forming daughter bulbs, which must be separated. It also allows the flowers to propagate faster.

If the root of the plant is left in the ground, then with each growing season the tulips will become smaller, grow worse, and soon may die altogether.

In order for flower buds to be laid in the bulbs, they must be warmed up. Remaining in the ground for the winter, they will freeze or begin to rot from an excess of dampness. In addition, bulbs that are not dug for transplanting gradually deepen in the ground. It will be more difficult for new shoots to break through the layers of soil, they will be weak, small.

Gradually, the bulbs are crushed, stop multiplying, become susceptible to infections and pests. If you leave the roots of tulips in the ground for a period of 2 years, then in the 3rd year you can not wait for flowers or there will be very few of them.

Some decorative types tulips already on next year begin to lose varietal characteristics if they are not dug up and warmed up.

How to properly store tulip bulbs

Before preparing the bulbs for storage, they must be properly harvested. Remove them from the ground after the flowering period is over. Usually this period falls on the middle of June.

The fact that the bulbs are ready for digging is evidenced by the leaves that have begun to turn yellow. In ripe bulbs, the scales acquire Brown color.

For digging use any convenient tool. Remove the bulbs from the soil very carefully so as not to damage them.

Training

Collected tulip bulbs must be well inspected. If too much dirt remains on them, you can rinse them under running water. Heavily damaged, unhealthy-looking specimens are removed. If on

Daughter bulbs should be separated if they are already overgrown with outer scales.

If traces of a fungal infection are found on the planting material, it is treated with a fungicidal preparation. It is better to remove the detached too dry scales immediately.

To avoid the development of fungal or bacterial microorganisms during storage, the bulbs are soaked in a weak solution of manganese for 15-20 minutes.

Drying

After all have been carried out preparatory work bulbs must be thoroughly dried. They are laid out on a flat surface so that they do not touch each other. In this form, they should lie down in a warm, well-ventilated place until completely dry. Usually it takes 7-10 days. But do not leave the bulbs in the sun or near heating appliances. It is better to dry them in a natural environment and in a shady place.

In the apartment, the best place for storage is the balcony. But if it is not there, you can pick up any convenient places in the room: shelves, mezzanines, cabinets.

In a private house, you can keep the bulbs in the cellar, storerooms, and basements. The main thing is that the rooms should be warm and not too damp. The optimal level of humidity for the safety of planting material is 60-70%.

How to keep bulbs

The best solution for long-term storage of tulip bulbs are wooden boxes. Cardboard boxes are also suitable, but they are less breathable. For normal air exchange, it is recommended to make small holes in them. Plastic and other containers are not recommended.

First, the onions are sorted, separating small from large. They are stored in hotel containers. Large specimens are best preserved. There is a possibility that very small bulbs can deteriorate, so they are separated.

Planting material is laid out in one layer. From above it is desirable to lay a layer of sawdust and hygroscopic paper. There is no need to cover the boxes with anything else. Do not stack boxes on top of each other. It is important that there is free air circulation inside them.

General recommendations for storing tulip bulbs at home

So that flower bulbs can lie at home without damage all winter, follow these tips:

• Keep only high-quality copies for preservation.
• To prevent pests from curling in the bulbs, open the boxes 2 times a month and carefully inspect everything.
• If sawdust or paper gets too wet, change it.
• Try to maintain a stable temperature in the room where the bulb boxes are.
• The air in the room must always be fresh. Stuffiness often causes fungal infections.
• To prevent the bulbs from sprouting ahead of time, the storage should be dark.
• It is better to keep the collected material too late at low temperatures (+ 3-5 degrees).
• Do not keep boxes in rooms where there are rodents.

Now you know how to store tulip bulbs at home. The time of planting material in open ground depends on the region and variety of tulips. Most of the varieties are recommended to be planted at the end of October. But there are species that are best kept indoors all winter, and planted in early March.

Any grower who has been breeding bulbs for more than one year knows how to store tulip bulbs before planting. The seed material of plants of this family is not very resistant to moisture, often suffers from rot and pests, as well as temperature changes. Therefore, it is important to observe the terms of extraction, storage conditions, sorting and processing of the material before planting in open ground.

Biological expediency of excavation

Extracting tulip bulbs from the ground is the biological need of the plant. The old bulb dies off, leaving behind a family of daughter bulbs (children). Next year, the division process will be repeated, while the conditions for normal development tulips will deteriorate: the lack of nutrition and space will make itself felt. The flowers are crushed and will begin to degenerate.

The bulbs need good warming up in order for the flower buds to form. If the flowers are not dug up, the next year they may lose their decorative effect due to lack of heat.

Digging for the winter allows you to prepare the soil: fertilize, add sand and peat, improve soil fertility, remove weed rhizomes without damaging tulips. If the dug out bulbs are cleaned of the remnants of scales and the dead are removed, then the risk of infection of flowers with pest larvae and fungal diseases can be reduced. In addition, it is useful to annually treat the planting material with a solution of potassium permanganate or "Fundazol".

Bulbs that are not removed from the ground for the winter deepen over time. From there, it is difficult for the sprout to break through to the surface; there is a shortage of heat for the formation of a bud. Therefore, digging and preserving until planting tulip bulbs - good way accelerate the reproduction of valuable varieties.

With some effort and following simple rules storage, it is quite possible to save tulips at home before planting in the ground.

Tips on how to save planting material

• During extraction from the ground, the bulbs should be handled very carefully so as not to damage them. Violation of the upper protective layer will increase the possibility of infection with fungal diseases.
• For storage, it is best to use a wooden box, because in cardboard boxes it is difficult to provide good air circulation, besides, they become damp and can become a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi.
• To protect against excessive moisture, it is recommended to sprinkle the planting material with sawdust.
• It is necessary to lay the material in one layer so as not to impair ventilation.
• If the house has a basement, then the seed material can be laid out directly on a dry shelf and the air temperature can be constantly monitored.
• When breeding bulbs in an apartment, you can place them in wooden boxes and store them on the balcony, controlling the temperature inside the container with a thermometer.
• In professional flower breeding, a heat chamber is used to maintain the temperature within the required limits.
• In some cases, you can store the material in the lower compartment of the refrigerator, where the temperature ranges from 3 to 5⁰С.

On how accurately they will be performed these recommendations, will depend on health and further development flowers after planting in the ground.

When to Remove Bulbs

The bulb ripens within one month after the flowering of tulips. The aerial parts of the plant at this time begin to die off, from which there is an outflow of useful substances. Bulb scales darken, acquiring a brownish tint.

Tulips can be removed when ⅔ of their leaves have withered, and the stem itself has softened and turned yellow. For middle lane RF this period corresponds to the last decade of July. Tulips can be considered ready to be taken out of the ground if their stem can be wrapped around a finger.

Do not dig up tulips ahead of time. In this case, the replacement bulbs will not have time to form a protective shell and fully mature, as a result of which they become smaller and subject to fungal diseases. Most of this inferior material will not survive to be planted in the ground, and those that survive should not be expected to bloom well.

It is also undesirable to delay the extraction of the bulbs until the aerial part of the plant has completely dried. In this case, it is sometimes impossible to determine their exact location, and the nests of the bulbs are destroyed, which leads to the loss of a large number material.

Preparing bulbs for storage

The removed nests of bulbs, without clearing the earth and scales, are placed in baskets or other ventilated containers and dried in a dry and warm place for a week. For these purposes, a veranda, a gazebo, a canopy, a ventilated barn will do. In this case, damage to the material by direct sunlight should be avoided.

After a week, the tulip bulbs are cleaned of roots and integumentary scales, rotten or damaged ones are removed, and the remaining ones are sorted by size. Minor damage is removed with a sharp knife and washed. Then the planting material is treated with a solution of sodium permanganate or contact fungicides in order to protect against rot and fungus.

Storage conditions

The most important storage conditions for the material are a stable temperature, good ventilation, low humidity and lack of light. It is best to store tulips in natural wicker baskets, wooden boxes or on shelves, in paper containers or nets suspended from the ceiling.

The sorted material is laid out in a container in one or two layers. Over the next two months, the processes of bud and leaf formation take place in the bulbs, so the planting material should be provided with optimal conditions.

• Humidity should be in the range of 60-70%. Dry air can lead to wrinkling of the fleshy shells of the bulbs, and excess moisture contributes to the early germination and reproduction of putrefactive microorganisms. If the material is wrinkled, the air in the storage should be slightly moistened.
• Ensuring the correct temperature regime is the main condition for saving the material. The first three weeks of storage should be maintained at a temperature of 25-30⁰ C. The rest of the time - no higher than 15-20⁰ C.
• One of the main storage conditions is to ensure ventilation in the storage. Do not store bulbs in plastic containers with high sides and plastic bags. In such conditions, the material will not survive to disembarkation.

In conditions high humidity and unstable temperatures, inspection of the bulbs should be carried out regularly. Rotted material should be discarded. The refrigerator is not the best place to store bulbs. Low temperature inhibits the laying of the kidney. The bulb will keep well, but the plant will not produce flowers.

Adult bulbs shrink from year to year and degenerate, so children should be given maximum attention. They must be stored at a temperature of 20 degrees, inspected and ventilated.

If there is a risk of damage to tulip bulbs by rodents, then it is best to save them in nets or stockings suspended from the ceiling.

When is the best time to plant

Unlike other types ornamental plants planting tulips better in autumn. The optimal time for this event is the second and third decade of September or the first week of November. During this period, the soil at a depth of 15 cm has a temperature of 10 to 13⁰ C.

Cooling during this period stimulates the plant to sprout and bud. Plants of the bulbous family cannot bloom without prior cooling. Timely planted material has time to take root and tolerates frost well. If tulips are planted in the ground after freezing of the topsoil, then the planting should be well covered with brushwood, peat or other insulation.

Existing methods of storing bulbs

If the material is not planted on time, then you can use one of the proposed storage options for the bulbs. The most important condition winter storage is stratification, otherwise the plant will not produce flowers after planting.

• Wet germination

An excellent storage option would be wet germination of tulip bulbs. To do this, wet sawdust or high-moor peat is placed in a plastic perforated container. Bulbs are installed on it with the bottom down and lightly sprinkled with a substrate. Keep containers with tulips in the cellar. Plants germinated in this way begin to bloom at the usual time.

• dry storage

With a small number of tulips, they can be stored in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. In addition, each onion should be wrapped in a paper sheet.

A good place to store tulip bulbs would be a basement. In order to create optimal conditions for the plant, it is necessary to sprinkle the material with dry sawdust or sand. Plants planted in the spring begin to bloom later than usual.

• early forcing

If the material is unlikely to survive until spring in the usual way, you can make an early forcing, then growing into open ground. Plant the bulbs in containers with regular soil from the garden. Until the first frost, they can be stored on the veranda or balcony, and then covered with polyethylene and lowered into the cellar. Ventilate every 2 weeks, moisten the soil as needed. After the emergence of sprouts, the containers are exposed to light.

Preparing for landing

Regardless of the planting time, pre-treatment of the material should be done before this. It is identical to preparing bulbs for storage.

Planting material processing includes several stages:

1. cleaning bulbs from scales;
2. inspection and sorting;
3. disinfection;
4. processing of material with small defects.

If the process of preparing tulip bulbs for planting seems laborious, you can purchase ready-made material from the store that is processed in accordance with all standards. At the same time, you need to buy quality bulbs from a reliable large supplier.

Thus, tulips require annual digging and appropriate treatment. The process of proper storage includes drying, heating and disinfection of plant bulbs, which, in turn, stimulates the laying of flower buds. Planting material that has undergone proper storage and processing gives good flowering and growth of young bulbs for variety propagation.

There are different views on the advisability of digging bulbs. Some flower growers recommend extracting and drying tulips not every year, but periodically, but the experience of well-known breeders suggests that it is better to do this annually.

Digging and storage of tulip bulbs."First and last call"when growing tulips. Planting in baskets and 5 liter bottles.

Digging and storing tulip bulbs

The bulbs are harvested in the first decade of July, after the end of the growing season, which is determined by the drilling and wilting of the leaves. There is another way to determine the time of digging: if the end of the tulip stem can be easily wrapped around your finger, the bulbs can be dug up. You should not wait for them to dry completely, otherwise the connection between the bulbs in the nest is broken and large losses of planting material are inevitable during digging. The scales of bulbs dug out in time are light brown. After digging up the bulbs, the area is dug up.

Bulbs should be dug up in dry weather and immediately put in a box. Tulip bulbs do not tolerate direct sunlight. Therefore, they are transferred from the garden under a well-ventilated canopy or into a barn. After 3-4 days of drying, the bulbs are cleaned of the remnants of the earth, roots and old scales. Bulbs must be handled with care. They can be easily damaged, and this will lead to the occurrence of fungal diseases.

After digging the bulbs, it is desirable to pickle in a 0.5% solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes. Many flower growers believe that such a double treatment of the bulbs in a solution of potassium permanganate (after digging and before planting) not only protects the bulbs from diseases and pests, but also practically satisfies the need of plants for manganese.

“extra” - the diameter of the bulb is more than 4 cm;
1st analysis - bulb diameter 3.5-4 cm;
2nd analysis - bulb diameter 3-3.5 cm;
3rd analysis - bulb diameter 2.5-3 cm;
baby of the 1st category - the diameter of the bulb is 1.5-2.5 cm;
baby of the 2nd category - the diameter of the bulb is less than 1.5 cm.

Sorted bulbs are placed in boxes in a thin layer and stored at certain temperature and humidity. Immediately after digging (within a month), they need a temperature of about 23 ° C and a relative humidity of 70-80%. Under such conditions, a flower shoot is successfully formed in the bulb. Then, at a temperature of 18 ° C, the bulbs are stored for one and a half to two weeks. During this period, a flower shoot develops, root primordia and leaves form. If after storage at this temperature before planting there is time, then the temperature is reduced to 9 ° C.

During the entire storage period, the bulbs are periodically inspected, removing suspicious and diseased bulbs as they are found, which ultimately reduces losses from diseases and lays the foundation for a future healthy generation of bulbs.

When the tulip flower has faded, the stem is cut off so that two leaves remain. This is necessary for the ripening of the bulb. Then, immediately after flowering, it is necessary to feed the plant in order for the bulb to gain strength. And wait until the leaves turn yellow, then you can dig up tulips.

It is better to dig the bulbs in sunny weather, when the ground is not damp.

If this is not possible, and you will dig out the bulbs due to dampness, then immediately rinse with a stream of water and dry the tulips.

It is better to treat with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Fold in cardboard boxes in 2.3 layers and store out of the sun until September.

People often ask if it is possible not to dig up tulips? Can. simple tulips can bloom and not be translated up to 7 years in one place. Species varieties react much worse to non-digging.

Ideal for a tulip - planted in autumn, dug up early summer.

There is a saying among the people: children to school (first bell) plant tulips, children from school (last bell) dig tulips.

But there are trade-offs. If you really need to, you can deviate from the schedule. It is optimal for tulips and humans to dig up the bulbs after two years.

Greatly facilitates the care of tulips baskets for planting bulbs.Planting the bulbs in baskets, you can easily just take them out of the ground along with tulips and that's it. Thus, there will be no loss of bulbs.

Attention! Sometimes when baskets are large cells, tulip babies can grow lower through the basket. Therefore, when taking out the basket, dig another place under the basket, perhaps there will still be bulbs.

More experienced gardeners plant tulips in large containers, for example 5 liter plastic bottles from under the water. This is done so that immediately after flowering you can remove the containers, and not wait for the leaves to turn yellow.

At the bottom, they make a lot of holes for the roots, cut out a neck at the top and leave handles on the sides, so that later it would be convenient to pull them out of the ground.

Sand, earth are poured at the bottom, then tulips are planted and all this is in the ground. As soon as the tulip has lost its decorative effect, you can remove it and immediately plant something new in its place.

And your flower garden will be continuously beautiful and in bloom.

Tulip bulbs will not be harmed, move the container to another place in the garden where it will not be visible and continue to care for the tulip in the same way if it grew in the same place.

There is enough soil in a 5 liter container for the bulb to grow, the leaves to turn yellow naturally, and this picture does not spoil the look of your garden. When the tulips are ready for full digging, take them out of the container, dry them and store them until autumn.

The most important thing for digging up tulips is to remove diseased bulbs in the process and prevent them from going deep into the ground (the lower the bulb from the ideal planting site, the less likely it is to bloom.

Temperature required for storing tulip bulbs

During the first month (July), the storage temperature of tulip bulbs should be kept at 23-25 ​​°C. Humidity should be 70%.
To avoid the appearance of rot and mold, it is very important to maintain good ventilation of the room.
Important: The temperature is lower than required - this can lead to the fact that the kidney will not be laid in the bulb.

In August, the temperature should be 20 ° C, and by September it is reduced to 15-17 ° C. Airing by this time is reduced.

Thus, the temperature regime is very important - improper storage of tulip bulbs can lead to the formation of "blind" buds.

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Part 9 - Digging and storing tulip bulbs. "First and last call" when growing tulips. Planting in baskets and 5 liter bottles.
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In order for tulips to delight with their beauty every year, it is important to plant the bulbs on time. But how to store tulip bulbs before planting?

As you know, bulbs are easily exposed to moisture, disease, pests and temperature fluctuations. That is why it is important to dig up in time and ensure proper storage of tulip bulbs before planting.

Timely excavation and preparation for storage

Highly important point in the life of a plant - timely digging. In the case of tulips, the main reference point when harvesting them is the yellowed leaves.

A withered flower is cut off, a couple is left lower leaves and stem. When the leaves turn completely yellow and begin to dry out, it's time to dig! It is best to do this in dry weather. It is worth noting that completely dried foliage quickly crumbles, which complicates the search and cleaning. And too early cleaning does not allow to obtain high-quality ripened planting material.

After harvesting, the tulip bulb needs to be washed, pickled in a weak solution of potassium permanganate (0.5%) and dried. At the same time, damaged and diseased onions are rejected, children are separated. Clean bulbs dug out in dry weather are dried in a draft or in the open air.

But is it necessary to carry out all these procedures before storing tulip bulbs? It is noticed that dressing for 30 minutes reliably protects the planting material from diseases. And re-treatment (just before planting) allows you to get large beautiful flowers next year.

Conditions for proper storage

It is quite simple to remember and fulfill all the conditions. The basic rules are good ventilation, lack of light and moisture in storage, constant temperature.

The best option for storage is to store the bulbs in wooden boxes, wicker baskets, nets or paper containers. Temperature regime in the first month after harvesting - 23-25 ​​degrees. If the storage has high humidity and temperature fluctuations, then regular inspection and rejection of the bulbs is necessary.

The misconception that the best place for storage is a refrigerator. Too low a temperature will slow down the development of the flower bud. As a result, the bulb will be outwardly healthy, beautiful, but will not give color at all or will be reborn into a “blind” bulb.

Particular attention should be paid to children. Since adult bulbs shrink and degenerate every year, healthy offspring are the key to constant beautiful flowering. Children are also stored at room temperature, well ventilated, regularly examined.

How to prepare tulips for planting?

Before landing at a new place, the temperature in the storage is reduced to 15-17 degrees. If it is planned to land in the same place, then green manure must be sown in order to destroy the pathogenic flora. Therefore, before storing tulip bulbs, you need to resolve the issue of a place for their further planting. In the Russian climate, tulips are planted from early to mid-September, depending on the region.