Growing tulips, though not considered to be particularly difficult, will require a certain amount of effort from the gardener. To get flowers with large buds, smooth and not fading for a long time, they need to provide proper care.
Tulips are successfully grown even in cold regions of our country. And you can do it too, if you choose the appropriate variety of colors and can’t go wrong with the landing dates.
What sort of tulips to choose for planting
There are about 3000 varieties of tulips. For convenience, they were grouped by flowering time. We denote the most popular varieties of tulips, suitable for growing in different climatic conditions and undemanding in the care.
• Early flowering. Buds bloom in April. Among the simple varieties are in demand - Shrenka, Candy Prince. Flowers with terry petals are very beautiful - Ice Cream, Monte Carlo, Red Terry.
• Medium flowering. Tulips of this class open the buds by May. They bloom briefly, but very beautiful. Beautiful varieties with simple flowers - Alexander Pushkin, Eric Hofsju, Marias Dream, Denmark, Havran, Russian princess.
• Late flowering Tulips bloom at the end of May. They are resistant to heat, but the late spring frost can destroy them. It is better to abandon their landing, if you live in northern latitudes. Tulips of this class are particularly tall. Beautiful simple varieties - Queen Of Night, Prince Vladimir, Ballad. Among terry varieties deserve attention - Double Beauty of Apeldoorn, Angelica.
To see the flowering of tulips can be much earlier in April, if you grow them in a greenhouse. This method, as a rule, is preferred by experienced flower growers and nursery specialists who are professionally involved in flower forcing.
Choose a plot and prepare the soil for growing tulips
Greenhouse will save your flowers from unwanted external influences. But if you are going to grow tulips in the open ground, choose a landing site carefully. The site should be smooth, well lit and protected from strong winds. In the shade, the buds are not fully disclosed, flowering does not last long.
The best soil for growing tulips - light, sandy, with a lot of humus, with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. If the soil is clay, add river sand at the rate of 2 buckets per 1 m². Sandy soil diluted with humus or peat. Add lime to too acidic soil at a rate of 50-55 g / m². It is important that the groundwater at the site lay lower than 60 cm, otherwise - the bulbs will get wet, and the plants will die.
Keep in mind crop rotation rules. Tulips grow well after all flower and vegetable crops. The exception is the bulbous and nightshade, because their disease can be transmitted to tulips.
Choosing planting material for growing tulips
Tulips can be grown in three ways - from seeds, from bulbs, from children.
Choosing the seeds As a planting material, get ready for care and a long wait - tulips will bloom in at least 5 seasons. This option is more suitable for professionals, bringing new varieties and hybrids of plants.
Growing tulips of bulbs - The best option for ordinary florist, because it is the easiest. When buying planting material, pay attention to the appearance of the bulb - there should not be any traces of diseases or visible damage on it. A good quality onion is dense, less than 3 cm in length. In the future, you will be able to harvest the planting material yourself by digging up the bulbs at the end of the growing season. Before planting, healthy specimens for prophylaxis are treated for 1 hour with 0.2% basement or potassium permanganate, and then dried. Before planting in a greenhouse, bulbs should be held in the cold (5-7 C)
quality tulip bulbs
Kids - the same tulip bulbs, only smaller in size. The planting scheme and the rules of care in this case are the same, but the flowers will appear only for next year. Will require additional shelter kids and feeding.
Planting bulbs: open ground, greenhouse
Spring planting of tulips is not so popular in our latitudes, because by the summer the plants will not bloom - they do not have time to gain the necessary nutrients for growth. It is better to root the onions in the autumn - by the spring the site will be bright from the blossoming buds.
Give time for planting material to take root before the onset of the first frost. For the middle band, a suitable time is the end of September at a temperature of +5 C. At the same time, early-flowering tulip varieties are planted 2 weeks earlier than late. Planting flowers in greenhouses is carried out in November.
tulip growth chart
Rules for planting tulips in the open field:
• Prepare grooves or individual wells for plants. Put a layer of fertilizer for bulbous plants on the bottom, covering it with sand for better drainage. The distance between the plants is 10-15 cm, between the rows - 30-40 cm.
• Bulbs can be planted 3 pieces "bottom down". However, they should not touch. Depth of landing - 10-15 cm.
• Dust the bulbs with ash, sprinkle them with fertile soil and grumble the next flower bed with humus or peat.
• When frosts come, you can cover the landing site with a layer of foliage or straw.
Planting tulips in a greenhouse is almost the same as planting them in open ground. After planting, it is necessary to maintain a greenhouse temperature of +5 ˚C for 2 months. Toward the end of January, the temperature gradually increase to +22 ˚C. When the first sprouts appear above the ground, take care of the artificial light of the plants (at least 6 h / day). If you follow the rules of care, by the beginning of March you will see beautiful tulips in the greenhouse.
Tulips care
When the snow in the area melts, check if all the bulbs have sprouted. If you find traces of diseases on young stalks, remove infected plants from the flower beds. Dig out bulbs too. Healthy flowers will be able to tolerate small frosts, but they will actively grow only when it is warm enough outside. Provide proper care for tulips:
• Watering. Tulips love moisture, but they will not grow in a marshy area - stagnant water will lead to decay of the root system. If the spring is dry, do not forget to regularly moisten the flowers, otherwise they will fade. Ensure that water does not fall on the leaves when watering in large quantities. Use irrigated water for irrigation.
• Top dressing. During the season, tulips need to feed 3 times. The first fertilizer (phosphorus and nitrogen) spend, when there will be full-fledged stalks. Just before flowering, you can take potassium and nitrogen to feed. When the tulips have faded, fertilize the soil with phosphorus and potassium. It is much more convenient to use fertilizers in liquid form, combining them with irrigation. Do not use supplements containing even a small amount of chlorine. Cannot be used and manure.
• Weeding. To prevent planting from affecting fungal diseases, regularly remove weeds from flower beds.
When the tulips ottsvetut, for some time continue to care for them, to prepare for the next season of large high-quality bulbs. Break off the seed box right away so that the plant does not waste force on the formation of seeds - we do not need them. But leave the leaves on the stem, be sure to leave, otherwise the onion harvest will be significantly reduced. Leave the stems on the flowerbed until yellowing. To hide its inaccurate appearance, think in advance of a plan for planting around tulips of other colors that would disguise the ugly picture.
Cultivation of tulips: collection and storage of bulbs
By early July, the onions are already ripe - they can be dug up. Quality planting material should be rounded, large size (at least 3.5 cm), with brown scales. But lay flat bulbs - next season they will not give good shoots. Immediately after digging, you need to put them in boxes for 2-3 days to dry. And before planting, store the planting material with a 0.2% foundation.
During the storage of the bulbs in them accumulate biologically active substances that will be needed for the active growth of tulips. Therefore, after sorting the planting material, provide them with the proper conditions:
• Temperature - 17-20 ˚C.
• Humidity - 70-75%.
• Lack of light.
The best option is to put the bulbs in mesh boxes with straw or sawdust in 2-3 rows. Constant ventilation will not allow them to dry out or rot from excessive moisture. In a month, the storage temperature can be reduced to 15-17 ˚С.
The formation of pestles with 3 tubercles on tulip bulbs will signal that they can be planted soon - start cooling the material before planting.
Growing Tulips: Fighting Diseases and Pests
Tulips are susceptible to diseases and invasions of pests. And the reason is often not even infected bulbs, and non-compliance with the rules of planting and caring for plants.
Of tulip diseases common:
• Fusarium. The leaves and stem of the tulip begin to turn yellow and dry, a grayish bloom appears on the bulbs, the roots begin to rot. A diseased plant should be dug out so as not to infect them with other flowers in a flower bed. Soil and plants treat fungicides.
• Rhizoctoniosis. The root system remains healthy, but the young seedlings of tulips rot. Defeat can be seen - on the soil formed mycelium filament. Fighting tulip rizoktonioz - cultivation of land and bulbs fungicides.
• Gray rot. Tulips appear yellow-gray spots of various sizes and shapes. The aboveground part of the plant is deformed. It is established that flowers planted in the soil with a high content of potassium and magnesium are less susceptible to the appearance of gray rot. The early varieties of tulips are resistant to this disease. For the prevention of the bulbs, treat with special sulfur-containing drugs. Treat blooming affected plants with fungicides.
gray rot on tulip bulbs
• Botrytiosis rot. Bulbs are affected. Flowers grown from them - poorly colored, easily broken. For prevention, treat planting material with fungicides.
• Variegation (mosaic virus). The disease is expressed in uneven color of tulip petals. Depending on the specific variety, the virus manifests itself in different ways - for example, even more red streaks are visible on red tulips. Leaves may appear whitish-green stripes. Dig out the affected plants, process the ground with fungicides.
For prophylaxis, be sure to disinfect work tools so that the disease does not go from one flowerbed to another. It is better to dig out diseased plants immediately, capturing the earth on which it grew. Using chemicals, make sure that they do not contain chlorine!
Among the pests that affect tulips, we note:
• Root onion mite. The most dangerous pest that feeds on not only tulips, but also other onion plants. This is a small insect of pale yellow color, striking the bulb - it either does not germinate at all, or gives a weak plant. In order not to put onion mites in the ground, carefully inspect the planting material before disembarking on the site. The bulbs can be covered with chalk a little - insects die. The onion heat treatment also helps - place them for a couple of minutes in hot water (35-40 ° C).
• Hothouse greenhouse. This wingless insect is 2 mm long, green, yellow or pink in color. Aphids feed on the sap of the plant and damage its stem, flower stalks, and bulb. The damaged parts of the tulip are deformed. Good results in the fight against aphids show pesticides. It is possible to prevent its occurrence if you plant feverfew or tagetes near tulips - the plant louse does not like these plants.
aphid on tulips
Florists may encounter other "misfortunes" - snails, slugs and mice. Snails and slugs clean manually. Use poison baits to fight mice. But make sure that pets do not get to the poison.
Protect from rodents and planting material left until next season for storage.
