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The blooming of tulips marks the triumph of spring. If the plot is decorated year after year with tulips, planting and caring in the open field is the key moment of such success. Perennial bulbous plants originally from Asia have long been a subject of admiration both in their homeland and in the Old World, which came in the middle of the XVI century.
Thanks to the universal love for these flowers, a hundred years later Holland was called the land of tulips, and today tens of thousands of varieties of these spectacular, but quite affordable plants are distributed throughout the world.
Terms of planting tulips in the ground
Tulips of cultivated varieties bloom in spring or in the first half of summer. Therefore, the optimal landing time is autumn. In 3-4 weeks, the bulbs acclimatize and form the root system, but do not form the aboveground part. This allows the tulips to spend the winter well, and with the advent of heat, give strong foliage and uncover large corollas.
Determining the time of planting tulips, it is important not to make a mistake! If the bulbs reach the ground too soon, they can produce foliage. And the coming winter will take the plants by surprise. The aboveground part will be frozen out, the underground part will weaken and will not be able to guarantee spring flowering. Late planting threatens with the fact that the tulips do not have time to take root, severe frosts will kill them or spoil them.
How to choose the optimal time? When to plant tulips in the ground in different regions?
Experienced flower growers are advised to pay attention not to the calendar, but to the weather outside the window. The best start for plants will be planting in the soil, cooled to a temperature of 10–12 ° C.
In the middle lane, such conditions develop by mid-September. To the south, tulips are planted later; to the north, the dates shift by the end of August.
If for some reason in the fall tulips did not fall on the flower beds, you can plant them in the spring. Unfortunately, in this case the plants have less time to prepare for flowering and accumulation of nutrients for the next year. To get the desired result and to simplify the care of tulips in the open field, before planting the bulbs it is better to germinate in peat pots filled with loose nutrient substrate. Before planting the bulbs, the day is cooled in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.
Tulips are transferred to flower beds when it gets warmer and the soil warms up to +15 ° C.This method can be used in all regions, including areas in which tulips in the open field do not survive the winter.
Planting tulips for cultivation in open ground
For bright flowering garden tulips require:
- sun or transparent penumbra;
- nutritious, necessarily loose soil with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction;
- wind protection;
- moderate watering.
A suitable plot for growing tulips is dug up on a full bayonet, loosened by breaking clods, weeds are selected and nitrogen and potash fertilizers are applied, for example, humus and wood ash. Dense, heavy soil is mixed with sand, peat.
Under tulips, as well as under other bulbous cultures, it is not necessary to introduce fresh organic matter, which is often a source of bacterial decay and fungal diseases.
The depth of furrows for growing tulips in the open field depends on the size of the bulbs. Therefore, they are pre-sorted, simultaneously separating sick and damaged specimens. A healthy for half an hour immersed in a thick pink solution of potassium permanganate and carefully dried.
For large adult bulbs, they make furrows with a depth of 20 to 30 cm, sprinkling a 10-centimeter drainage pad from coarse sand to the bottom. The children are planted, slightly pressing, into the wells with the same drainage, but twice as small, that is, to a depth of 7–10 cm. When the soil has been leveled, the site is mulched.
Tulips care after planting in the open ground
Tulips will react to constant and competent care by mass disclosure of bright colors. Bulbous crops, as a rule, are unpretentious, but still require attention from the appearance of the first leaves, until late autumn. Tulip care after planting includes:
- watering, especially abundant during the set of buds, mass flowering and for 2 weeks after its completion;
- weed vegetation removal around landings;
- neat, not to damage the root system and the bulbs, loosening;
- triple dressing of flowers.
After watering, the soil under the plants should be wet at a depth of 30–40 cm, that is, per square meter, depending on the type of soil, at least 10–40 liters of water should be consumed.
Fertilizers in liquid or granular form are part of tulip care after planting. They are introduced three times:
- At the phase of appearance of the first shoots, using a mixture of 2 parts of nitrogen, 2 parts of phosphorus salts, 1 part of potassium compounds;
- By the time of appearance of green buds, feeding the plants with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the ratio of 1: 2: 2;
- After flowering, using potash-phosphate compounds, completely eliminating nitrogen.
Speaking about the care of tulips, you can not forget about a simple but useful procedure. When the flowers fade, they are cut out together with flower stalks. This will allow the bulbs not to expend precious forces for the growth of the bulbs.
If seed sticks are formed and ripen on the stalks, there is no need to wait for large bulbs, and children will not be able to gain significant mass.
Before growing tulips, you need to know that in one place a crop can be no more than 4 years old. Then the risk of accumulation of dangerous bacteria, fungi and soil pests increases, the bulbs naturally age and require transplantation. The bulbs remaining in the soil gradually go deeper, so the next year it is more difficult for the sprouts to reach the surface. As a result, the flowers become smaller, the flower stalks become weaker and shorter.
Tulips are dug up when the leaves are completely withered and fall off. The freed area is useful to shed phytosporin solution, potassium permanganate or any available fungicide. Plants that remain in the soil for the winter, in order to avoid freezing, thickly mulch with peat, sawdust or cover with spruce branches.
