Tulips are a magnificent decoration of a spring garden. The flowerbed with them is multicolor and very elegant. Having learned in detail about tulips, planting and care in the open ground, you can not be afraid that the plants will not bloom.
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Features of growing tulips in the open field
Growing tulips in the open field is a fairly simple and feasible task even for a beginner grower. In order for the plants to maintain their varietal qualities from year to year, they must be dug up annually, dried and planted again. Without this, the flowers are quickly chopped, lose varietal differences, or even die.
The choice of bulbs for planting
The result of the efforts of the grower depends on how well the bulbs are chosen. It is better to acquire planting material in the middle of summer or at the end, since during this period the plants are at rest and do not experience stress during planting. In autumn, at the very peak of planting a bulbous flower, it is more difficult to acquire high-quality planting material. If you buy the bulbs in the spring, they will be old and exhausted in winter storage. In spring, what was not sold in the fall is sold.
When buying, you should choose those bulbs that have a thin husk of a pleasant golden color. The presence of cracks in the skin is normal.
The bulb itself must necessarily be whole. If there is damage on it, then you should refuse to buy, since in this case you will not be able to get a quality plant.
The size of the onion to buy is medium, and when picked up, its weight should be felt.When viewed from the bottom, a good root material will show small root tubercles. If the bottom is soft, or the roots have already sprouted, you should not buy the bulb.
Time and date of planting tulips
The birthplace of the plant is Central Asia. Under natural conditions, tulips bloom intensively in early spring, and after that they dry up and go into a state of rest. In gardens, their life cycle follows the same principle. Therefore, it is important to immediately accurately determine the correct planting date, since an error in it will lead to the death of the flower.
Fall
Autumn is the best time for planting tulips. Gardeners with experience plant bulbs only in September, and never tolerate planting time in the summer or spring. It is advisable to choose a dry day for work. Details on how to plant tulips in the fall are described in the next section.
If the bulbs are planted too early, they will not only form roots before the winter, but also release the aerial part. As a result, tulips freeze and may die. If the plant survives after this, then it will definitely not bloom.
Excessively late planting leads to the fact that the bulbs do not have time to root. For this reason, the plant does not winter correctly and in the spring, after it takes the last effort to root, it does not bloom anymore. Also, tulips that are not rooted to frost can easily rot or freeze.
In the event that for some reason it is necessary to plant plants at the end of October or even in November, when they do not have time to take root, the bed should be covered with spruce branches, or mulched with a thick layer of sawdust. Suitable for shelter and fallen foliage.
In the spring
Spring for planting tulips is just the wrong time. Bulbs can take root and even bloom in mid-summer, but their life cycle will be seriously disrupted. Because of this, they will have to be dug out quite late, and, therefore, the period of autumn planting will shift to deep autumn.
Best of all, if tulips were bought in the spring, it is very early to plant them in a container - even before the snow melts. After the onset of persistent heat, the plants are planted without being removed from the container, as this will facilitate their further digging out.
How to plant tulips?
Proper planting is of great importance when planting tulips, which allows plants to be provided with the most comfortable conditions. Violations of it will lead to poor-quality flowering and sometimes even rotting of the bulbs. Planting tulips requires compliance with certain rules.
Soil requirements, site selection
Plot for tulips is selected in the fall after the leaves fall from the trees. It should be very well lit. Since tulips will bloom before the trees open the leaves, it’s not scary if the flowerbed is in the shade in summer. For plants, light is important only until flowering ends. It is better to mix the flower bed on a flat place where meltwater does not accumulate.
The soil tulips need neutral or slightly acidic, loose. The fertile layer is required thick. High water permeability and breathability are also of great importance for the plant. You can not plant tulips in areas where bulb crops or solanaceous cultivated before. This is due to the accumulation in the soil of pathogens that can switch to flowers.
If the soil is heavy, then frequent loosening is required. Without this, it is impossible to grow fully blooming tulips.
Outdoor landing
You can plant only healthy bulbs that do not have foci of rot and are not affected by diseases. Before planting, they must be soaked for 30 minutes in a slightly pink solution of manganese. After that, the bulbs are dried for an hour and planted.
It is more convenient to plant bulbs in furrows, rather than holes, as this allows you to plant the maximum number of tulips. The distance between the furrows should be at least 25 cm, so that it is convenient to care for the flowers, and the bulbs can develop, having enough soil and nutrients.The distance in the rows between the plants should be 10 cm.
What depth should I plant?
If the soil is light, the bulking of the bulbs is deeper than with heavy. In the first case, the bulbs are closed at 3 of their heights, and in the second - at 2 heights. On average, this is 15 cm and 10 cm, respectively. You need to know that rooted bulbs will go to even greater depth.
Tulip Care
In addition to proper planting, tulips require competent care, which will allow them to gain maximum strength for especially beautiful flowering. Despite all its unpretentiousness, varietal plants will not be able to feel good if they are left on their own.
Watering and feeding
Plant nutrition is carried out 3 times per spring. Without this, the bulbs will not receive enough useful substances and during the dormant period they will leave weakened. In addition, the lack of fertilizing will lead to the fact that high-quality buds and large flowers will not form.
- The first feeding. It is carried out right after the tulips emerged from the ground. Nitrogen fertilizers are used for it.
- The second top dressing. It is carried out when laying buds. Complex mineral compositions with a high content of potassium and phosphorus are used for it.
- Third feeding necessary after flowering tulips. Potash and phosphorus fertilizers are introduced.
Tulips react very positively to wood ash, which can be sprinkled with soil before watering at any time.
Watering during flowering for tulips is very important. Water is poured under the root.
Usually enough 2-3 waterings per week. After the flowers have wilted, soil moisture is stopped so that the bulbs go into a dormant state.
Loosening
Loosen the soil around the tulips regularly after watering. At the same time, weeds are being weeded out. If there is no way to loosen the soil, you can mulch it.
Features after flowering
After the tulips have faded, they also need care. In order for the plant not to waste energy on the formation of seeds, the flowers, after they have wilted, are cut off completely. Only leaves are left. The more leaves a plant has, the better.
When to dig tulip bulbs?
Bulbs are dug up after the aerial part of the plant has turned yellow. You can’t try to pull them by the stem, because if it breaks, it will be difficult to extract the bulb. Due to the property of tulips, they will go deeper into the soil at the time of digging, than when planting.
Storage conditions
Dug bulbs are dried in the shade under a canopy or indoors for a month. After that, they are folded in paper bags and removed until the autumn planting. The temperature at the storage location should be between +15 and +18 degrees. If perishable bulbs are found, they should be discarded. They will not shoot in the spring, but the planting site is infected.
Protection against diseases and pests
Whatever tulip variety is chosen, it can be exposed to disease and pest attacks. If the plant is affected by fungal diseases, then to save the flower, you need to transplant it to a new place and spill it with a 1% solution of Bordeaux fluid.
Of the pests, the main danger to tulips is:
- bulb tick;
- slugs;
- snails;
- Bears
- rodents.
To get rid of mice, mousetraps and poisoned baits are used. From pests, special preparations are used that destroy insects and mollusks that attacked the flower.
Growing tulips is a fascinating activity, which, due to the variety of varieties, often becomes a real hobby for a flower grower.
