When to plant tulips, how to do it right

When to plant tulips in the fall, and maybe it can be done in the spring? How to plant them? What should be the depth of planting the bulbs? The answer depends on how our flower garden will look like in spring.

Tulips - bulbous plants. The best place to plant them in the fall. In the Kuban, the best periods are mid-October, and for central Russia it’s better a month earlier.

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How to plant tulips in the fall

They are one of the first to bloom when other flowers have not yet grown, or even not yet planted. They look very beautiful blooming when they are planted in heaps, groups. The larger the group, the better the impression it makes. How to arrange them, tells you your taste, as well as the place allocated for planting.

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Soil preparation

I will not reveal to you any secret if I say that before planting tulips, it is necessary to prepare the soil. It is best to do this two weeks before landing. What soil do these flowers like? Loose, fertile. The place where they will grow must necessarily be sunny.

If the soil is dry, first you need to moisten it well, and only then dig it up.

If you have dense soil in your area, then add sand to the hole or trench before planting - flowers like loose earth. I also add wood ash - this is both a good fertilizer, as well as additional protection from various diseases. Alkaline soil is more suitable for tulips, and ash just soothes the ground.

Regardless of how you arranged the bulbs - in rows or in clusters, I advise you to sprinkle them with a small amount of humus or compost, and then fill them with earth on top.

And do not forget, they need the sun, and the breeze, so as not to disturb. If the site is at least partially closed from the sun, the stems will stretch, thin, bend, and the bulbs will not be able to accumulate an adequate supply of food for themselves.

The site should be flat, with a good subterranean layer. The roots of tulips go to a depth of a little more than half a meter, so if you have close groundwater, the onions will get wet and die. It is necessary in this case to plant the bulbs on the dais.

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Processing the bulbs before planting

When we dug up tulips in the summer after flowering, we dried them well, sorted them. Large bulbs separately - we will plant them in the most prominent place - they will bloom, please us. Small or medium-sized bulbs will not bloom in spring, therefore, as experts advise, it is better to plant them in an inconspicuous but sunny place.

That's about how I sort the bulbs, after drying into three parts - large, medium, small.

From the medium bulbs, next summer we will get large bulbs with a flower arrow, and from small bulbs we will get medium ones. That is, for little children it may take at least two seasons until they bloom.

I plant tulips not in rows, but in round glades. It seems to me that so they will look more natural.

Unfortunately, tulips are susceptible to fungal diseases. Therefore, before they are planted, they should be kept for at least half an hour in a solution of a fungicide, for example, Maxim, Fitosporin or a weak solution of manganese.

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Planting tulips in the ground or in a basket for

bulbous A convenient device for planting is plastic baskets with a slatted bottom. They are convenient in that they help to form flower compositions in a flowerbed, facilitate the process of digging out the bulbs after the end of flowering. You can usually buy special baskets with a height of 6-7 cm. The average height of a large onion is 4-5 cm. Therefore, the hole should have a depth of 12-15 cm.

For several years now I have been using special plastic baskets for bulbs for planting in the fall. But I always have a lot of bulbs, so I use plastic boxes for vegetables as a plus to the baskets, but not high, but with the lowest sides.

Time to dig tulips out of the ground in the summer is spent with this method of planting much less. Virtually no remains dug out or accidentally left. Even damaged by a shovel or pitchfork does not happen, since I actually dig not the bulbs, but the box or basket, and only then shake out the contents on the ground.

I really like this way of planting tulips. Even if I sometimes do not have time to dig up the bulbs in the summer, leave them not dug out for another year, until next summer, I am sure that they will not go deep or go anywhere.

If you plant bulbs without baskets, then there is a good helper - a cone with a measuring scale, the purpose of which is to dig holes of a given depth.

Well, if you do not have baskets or a cone, it does not matter. You can do without them. On the site where I planned to plant them, I dig out round or rectangular pits.

There is a basic rule of how to properly plant tulips before winter - the depth of planting should be equal to the height of the bulb multiplied by three.

This depth guarantees good flowering, the appearance of large bulbs, good strong, not very small children. A smaller planting will give you a smaller flower and, accordingly, a smaller onion.

According to agrotechnical rules, there should be a distance of 10-15 cm between the bulbs. But purely aesthetically more beautiful are the blooming tulips, located close to each other, like a living bouquet. If you dig out bulbs every year( experts advise doing this), then do not be afraid to plant the bulbs with a distance of 5-6 cm from each other.

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How to water tulips

Now a little about watering. Do I need to water just planted bulbs? It all depends on the soil moisture. If the soil is wet, then watering is optional. But in the case of planting in dry land, it is necessary to shed a well or groove.

Tulips should be watered abundantly during active growth, during budding, flowering, especially in dry years. Moisture should penetrate to the depth of the roots( 0.5 m), and not just wet the ground. After flowering, watering stops.

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Is it possible to plant tulip bulbs in spring

Usually, the best time for planting bulbs is autumn, but in February-March the planted bulbs also take root well. It should only be remembered that the daytime temperature should reach + 8-10 ° C.

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Tulip fertilization during planting, during the growing season, after flowering

Ordinary tulips are practically not whimsical. Enough when planting add ash to the hole, humus or compost.

But for the varietal need more thorough inspection. They need to be fed with mineral fertilizers 2-3 times per season.

The first dressing can be done even over the snow - scatter dry fertilizer - about 2 tablespoons per 1 square.m.

The second feeding - after the emergence of seedlings. Best suited full mineral fertilizer Kemira Universal. Prepare a solution according to the instructions, pour the seedlings of tulips at the rate of 2-3 buckets per 1 square.m.

The third time I advise you to feed after flowering, but no later than 2 weeks. Dissolve 1 matchbox of any potassium phosphate fertilizer in a bucket of water, for example, potassium monophosphate. Pour over the discarded tulips with the solution.

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How to grow large tulips

When we sorted the bulbs, we knew that only large bulbs would blossom next year. The size of the flower depends on the size of the bulbs, although varietal characteristics still play a role here.

I will share one secret how to get large bulbs - as a result, large flowers. Sometimes it is important when you are going to propagate a wonderful variety, or you sell bulbs. Professionals use the term decapitation - the removal of flower heads. I also advise you to use this technique.

How to decapitate correctly? Let the flower bloom, admire its beauty. Make sure that the varietal signs are present, there is no stem twist, that is, the flower is healthy.3-4 days after opening the bud, remove the flower. At the same time, the mass of the bulb will increase by 30-40% by the time of digging.