Three ways to store tulip bulbs before planting

Any florist 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 extremes. Therefore, it is important to observe the terms of extraction, storage conditions, sorting and processing of the material before planting in open ground.

Biological feasibility of excavation

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

The bulbs require good heating in order for the flower bud to take place. 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 harming tulips. If the dug out bulbs are cleaned of remnants of scales and the dead ones removed, then the risk of infestation of flowers by 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 a sprout to break through to the surface; there is a lack of heat for the formation of a bud. Therefore, digging up and preserving tulip bulbs before planting is a good way to speed up the multiplication of valuable varieties.

Tips for proper storage

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

Tips on how to save planting material

• When removing 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 optimal to use a wooden box, since it is difficult to ensure good air circulation in cardboard boxes, moreover, they are 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 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 on the balcony, controlling the temperature inside the container with a thermometer.
• For professional cultivation of flowers, a heat chamber is used that maintains the temperature within the required range.
• In some cases, you can store the material in the lower compartment of the refrigerator, where the temperature ranges from 3 to 5 ° C.

The health and further development of flowers after planting in the ground will depend on how accurately these recommendations are followed.

When to remove the bulbs

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

Tulips can be removed when ⅔ of their leaves wilted and the stem itself softens and turns yellow. For the middle zone of the Russian Federation, this period corresponds to the last decade of July. Tulips can be considered ready to be removed from the ground if their stem can be wrapped around a finger.

Advice

Don't 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 are exposed to fungal diseases. Most of such inferior material will not survive to be planted in the ground, and one should not expect good flowering from those that have survived.

It is also undesirable to delay the extraction of the bulbs until the aerial part of the plant is completely dry. 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 amount of material.

Preparing the bulbs for storage

The removed nests of the bulbs, without removing the soil 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. At the same time, 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 bulbs 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 it from rot and fungus.

Storage conditions

The most important storage conditions for the material are stable temperature, good ventilation, low humidity and no light. Tulips are best stored in natural wicker baskets, wooden crates or shelves, in paper containers or nets suspended from the ceiling.

The sorted material is laid out in a container in one or two layers. During the next two months, the formation of buds and leaves takes place in the bulbs, therefore, the planting material should be provided with optimal conditions.

• Humidity should be between 60-70%. Dry air can lead to shrinkage of the fleshy membranes 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 humidified.
• Ensuring the correct temperature regime is the main condition for saving material. The first three weeks of storage should be kept at a temperature of 25-30⁰ C. The rest of the time - no higher than 15-20 ⁰ С.
• One of the main storage conditions is to provide ventilation in the storage. Bulbs should not be stored in plastic containers with high sides and plastic bags. In such conditions, the material will not survive until disembarkation.

In conditions of high humidity and unstable temperatures, the bulbs should be inspected regularly. Rotted material should be discarded. The refrigerator is not the best place to store bulbs. Low temperature inhibits bud formation. The bulb will keep well, but the plant will not flower.

Adult bulbs become smaller 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.

Advice

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

When is the best time to plant

Unlike other types of ornamental plants, tulips are best planted in autumn. The optimal time for this event is the second and third ten days 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. Bulbous plants cannot bloom without preliminary cooling. Timely planted material has time to take root and tolerates frost well. If tulips are planted in the ground after freezing the top layer of the soil, then the planting should be well covered with brushwood, peat or other insulation.

Existing storage methods for bulbs

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

• Wet germination

Wet sprouting of tulip bulbs is an excellent storage option. To do this, put wet sawdust or high-moor peat in a perforated plastic container. Bulbs are set on it with the bottom down and lightly sprinkled with a substrate. Store containers with tulips in the cellar. Plants sprouted in this way begin to bloom at the usual time.

• Dry storage

If tulips are small, they can be stored in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. In this case, each onion should be wrapped in a paper sheet.

A good place to store tulip bulbs is in the 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 spring start blooming later than usual.

• Early distillation

If the material is unlikely to survive until spring in the usual way, you can do early forcing, then growing in the open field. Plant the bulbs in containers with ordinary 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 once every 2 weeks, moisten the soil as needed. After sprouting, the containers are exposed to light.

Preparing for landing

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

Planting material processing includes several stages:

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

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

Thus, tulips need to be dug up and treated every year. Proper storage includes drying, warming and disinfecting the plant bulbs, which in turn stimulates the formation of flower buds. Planting material that has undergone proper storage and processing gives good flowering and the growth of young bulbs for breeding the variety.

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