Delicate bouquet for March 8 - forcing tulips at home
Only in fairy tales do snowdrops bloom by themselves in the midst of winter. Distillation tulips at home - a long process, preparation for which begins long before the first buds appear in January or March.
Tulip bulbs, like other related crops, provide growth and flowering in the warm season, and during the dormant period, they retain nutrients in their juicy thickened scales for future vegetation. The buds are also formed in advance, and their quality largely depends on how the plant was looked after in the summer.
To get the flowers loved by many at an unusual time for nature, all over the world began to use these features of tulips, as well as the possibility of growing them right in the apartment. Forcing tulips at home allows you to see bright corollas of all shades from late December to May.
Features of forcing tulips at home
- selection of varieties by flowering time;
- selection of bulbs that are guaranteed to form healthy buds;
- storage until tulips are planted;
- planting the bulbs in the soil prepared for it;
- forcing from the emergence of shoots to the cutting of colored buds.
Forcing can be early, middle and late, that is, flowering plants in a closed field can be obtained by the New Year, and by Christmas, and by the first spring holidays. The most popular of all is growing tulips at home by March 8.
Although flowers do not live too long, experienced florists calculate the planting time in such a way that the best time for cutting is just before the holiday.
When to plant tulips at home
Those who are just taking their first steps in this field of floriculture may consider this fact a luck or a miracle. However, he has a very common explanation. This is a thorough knowledge of the daily routine of the bulbous culture.
When to plant tulips so that your loved ones will receive fresh, spring-smelling bouquets by March 8?
The dormant period for the bulbs lasts about 16 weeks, and the rooting and growth of the peduncle takes another 3 weeks. Counting back 19 weeks on the calendar, you can find out that you need to plant tulips for an early spring cut in the last week of October. Using the same methodology, the planting time for distillation is calculated for the New Year, Valentine's Day and other solemn dates.
How to prepare tulip bulbs for planting
So that efforts are not in vain, it will be necessary to prepare for distillation almost a year before it. If a summer resident wants to please loved ones with flowers from his own garden, a couple of days after opening the flower is cut off, leaving 2-4 healthy leaves on the stem. The bulbs should be dug out in late June or early July, at the stage of wilting of several leaves. These measures will allow the planting material to retain maximum strength and grow.
When the tulips are dug up, they are dried, the remains of the wilted aerial part are removed and sorted. For forcing tulips at home, only the largest and strongest specimens with rounded sides, without traces of damage by insects, rot or fungi, are suitable. The optimum bulb diameter is 35–40 mm.The same criteria are used when purchasing planting material.
Properly organized storage, that is, maintaining a comfortable temperature and humidity for tulips, helps not only preserve, but prepare the bulbs for forcing, allowing them to form healthy buds of future flowers.
To simulate the onset of autumn:
- during the first month of storage, the temperature is maintained within the range of 21-23 ° C;
- the next 4 weeks the bulbs are held at 20 ° C;
- in September-October, the air temperature drops to 15–17 ° C.
If the bulbs were dug out of summer cottages, at the beginning of storage, they are kept in dry heat at a temperature of 33–34 ° C for a week. This contributes to the establishment of a flower bud.
How to grow tulips at home
When tulips are to be distilled by March 8, already in October the florist must prepare:
- loose, lightweight substrate, such as a mixture of sand and sawdust, peat, perlite and garden soil, in which the bulb will take root well and quickly;
- containers with a perforated bottom to drain excess moisture or pots with drainage holes;
- phyto-backlight lamps, with the help of which you can extend the daylight hours, prevent the sprouts from stretching and weakening.
The tulip bulbs selected for distillation are cleaned of hard brown scales before being transferred to the ground, inspected and sorted again. Before growing tulips at home, planting material is treated with a warm pink solution of potassium permanganate, it will reduce the risk of rot and fungal diseases.
During forcing, bulbous plants actively consume the forces accumulated during the dormant period, so they do not need a lot of space and especially nutritious soil. For industrial plantings, up to 350 plants can fall on a square meter. At home, tulips are planted at intervals of 5-10 mm, lightly pressing into the substrate. When all the bulbs are in their places, the soil is filled up, and the containers are watered abundantly. If necessary, add soil after watering.
The tulips are then transferred to a room with a temperature of 5–9 ° C and an air humidity of 75–80%. Here the plants have to take root, and when the first shoots appear, the temperature is further lowered to 2–4 ° C.
Tulips are kept in such conditions until 3 weeks remain for the moment of their planned flowering. By this time, foliage with a height of about 6 cm rises above the soil, and the plants need more heat and light. The air warming level is changed gradually, bringing it to 16-18 ° C in 3-5 days. So that the sprouts are strong and the peduncles are strong, they turn on the lamps daily above the containers, extending the daylight hours from 3 to 5 hours. Watering tulips, as before, is carried out at the first signs of drying out of the soil. Plants are fed daily with ammonium nitrate or other mixtures containing nitrogen and phosphorus.
If all the conditions are met, soon the ends of the buds that appear will begin to stain. At this point, it is advisable to lower the temperature by 3–5 ° C, which will somewhat delay the opening of the corollas and prolong their flowering.