We carry out planting and care in the open field for a stranger babiana
Some corms, such as gladioli, are incredibly popular, while others are still unknown to a wide range of flower growers. Such decorative rarities include babiana, planting and care in the open field for which, with due attention, even beginners in floriculture can handle it.
Features of the babiana plant
As ornamental crops today, several species are grown, differing in the size and shape of flowers, their color and the appearance of leaves. Despite the varietal and species diversity, planting babiana in open ground and caring for all cultivated plants of this genus obey the general rules.
In order for garden beds in August to be adorned with white, yellow, pink and purple flowers, which at the same time resemble gladioli and tulips, conditions must be created for the babiana close to the nature of her homeland.
Planting babiana in the open ground in spring and caring for the flower
A guest from Africa in Russia is grown as an indoor pot plant or a garden flower. In the latter case, small corms with a thin elongated neck await planting in open ground in spring, and babiana care continues until autumn, when the plants that have finished flowering are dug up and their underground part is sent for storage.
When choosing a site, you need to take into account that babians are photophilous. Despite caring for Babiana, when planted in open ground in Siberia, in the Ural region and the Non-Black Earth Region, it can freeze slightly during spring frosts and early autumn cold weather. Therefore, it is better to plant flowers under protection. shrubs, large perennials, alpine hills or buildings.
The planting period begins in mid-April and lasts until the end of May. With a long spring, corms can be planted in voluminous peat pots, and when the soil and air warm up, transfer the hatched babians to the garden.
In addition, the soil on the site must be loose enough so that the corms are not afraid of decay and actively develop roots. Peat and sand are added to the dense soil for planting babians; at the bottom of the planting furrow 5–7 cm deep, drainage is made from fine expanded clay and sand.
Babiana looks especially beautiful in open ground, as in the photo, in small clumps, so about 10 cm is left between the corms, which is necessary for the growth of the leaf outlet. When planting work is completed, the site is watered, trying not to erode the soil, and mulch.
Outdoor care for babiana
Although babians accumulate moisture and nutrients in the corms, during the summer period the plants are regularly and abundantly watered, trying to prevent the soil from drying out. In addition, caring for a babiana after planting in open ground includes:
- manual weeding of the site;
- feeding carried out once a month;
- soil mulching;
- protection against insect pests, fungal and bacterial infections.
Since the corm and the entire root system of the plant are close to the surface, the soil is processed manually until foliage appears and throughout the growing season.
Peat mulch simplifies maintenance and helps to avoid overflow of the African beauty.
Babiana is thermophilic and develops well when the soil and air in the flowerbed are heated to 22-28 ° C. If the summer is cold, the thermometer sometimes freezes at around +15 ° C, the plant stops developing, its defenses decrease, the risk of weakening and death of corms increases. To prevent this from happening, it is better on such days to put a greenhouse made of film or dense non-woven material over the plantings.
Top dressing stimulates the growth of greenery, and starting from the second half of summer, the flowering of babiana, which begins in August and continues, if weather permits, until the end of September.
Residents of the southern regions can observe how, after the death of the peduncles, the entire above-ground part of the plant withers. In the middle lane, when growing babiana in the open field, it is not always possible to wait for the flower to retire. The bulbs are dug up before the onset of cold weather and the onset of autumn rains, which provoke infection with fungal diseases and rot.
In winter, babiana corms are kept cool, in dry peat or sand. The optimum temperature for the plant to form the rudiments of foliage and future flower stalks is 10–12 ° C.