Forcing Tulips In Autumn

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

If you want to please your family with delicate blooming tulips for the 8th of March, then in October you need to worry about putting the bulbs of the plant for distillation. The main thing here is not to miscalculate with the moment, and remember that medium-sized tulips are put on forcing three months before the expected flowering period, and early ones - 4 months before the buds should dissolve their petals

Requirements for forcing bulbs

Only large bulbs are selected as planting material for forcing. They should be at least 3 cm in diameter, and preferably larger. It is from such bulbs that well-developed flowers with large buds are obtained.

Another important point is that flower buds should already be laid in the bulbs for distillation. It is advisable to check for their presence before landing. To do this, select one copy, which is cut along and examined.

Should the bulb be peeled before planting?

Many experienced flower growers can already recognize by touch whether the bulb under the integumentary scales is affected by a disease. If you have such skills, then before planting, you may not need to clean the bulbs from the integumentary scales, since such a procedure often leads to damage to the root collar. Some varieties have rather thin scales, under which it is not difficult to recognize the disease, while it easily departs - such specimens are best taken for forcing.

When planting for distillation is carried out not in separate pots, but in a common container close to each other, then the inspection must be approached more carefully and the planting material must be cleaned. If some bulbs are in doubt, but you cannot call them completely rotten and they can still give buds, it is recommended to plant them in separate boxes - in the so-called quarantine, so that the infection does not spread to healthy planting material.

Technology for planting tulips for distillation

For forcing tulips, a soil substrate is made up of the following ingredients:

• sod land - 2 parts;

• greenhouse land - 2 parts;

• sand - 1 part.

By the way, tulips and hyacinths are put on forcing in a soil mixture of the same composition. Rotten sawdust is also suitable for tulips.

The bulbs are immersed approximately halfway into the substrate. If the planting was carried out in a common container, the bulbs are covered with sand on top so that a layer of about 1 cm is formed above them. When planting is done in pots, they are buried in peat or sand. After that, watering is performed.

Bulb rooting and conditions for the appearance of a flower arrow

The optimum temperature for rooting tulip bulbs is + 5 … + 9 ° C. To provide them with such conditions, containers or pots are left in the closet or on the balcony for the first time. Owners of private houses can put boxes of bulbs in the yard or arrange a trench for them, where it is very convenient to cover them with leaves or cover them with straw mats. It is necessary to monitor the moisture content of the substrate and water the contents of the containers on time.

After one and a half to two weeks, the pots are transferred to a warm, dark room. Planting care consists of regular watering. When the leaves grow up to 5 cm long, the pots are given a place in a lit corner, but not in direct sunlight. Here the thermometer should stop at + 15 ° C. Due to exposure in such conditions, the appearance of a flower arrow can be expected after 2, 5 months. If the beginning of bud formation and petal opening is delayed by the planned date, additional artificial lighting will help speed up this process.

When the buds appear and the tulips will open their petals, they need to be kept relatively cool to extend the flowering period. In the warmth, the plants fade very quickly.