It is impossible to imagine a garden in which amazing flowers would not grow, striking the eye with their various colors - tulips. In our country, this flower is especially popular. It is customary to give it to women and girls on International Women's Day. In the proposed article, we will talk about how to grow tulips, about some methods of agricultural technology, and caring for them at home.
About tulips
It is believed that the word tulip comes from the eastern - turban. They say that a bouquet of tulips means a declaration of love. There are many legends about him around the world. One of them tells about the fate of the Persian prince Farhad. Upon learning of the death of his beloved girl, in deep despair, riding on his faithful horse, he rushes to the rocks and dies, not knowing that envious people lied about the death of his beloved. At the place where the blood of the young prince was shed, the first flowers appeared. After some time, tulips began to grow in the gardens of Persia. Merchants withEast, they were brought to Byzantium, after which they got to Europe, and then went on a victorious march around the world.
Description of culture
Tulip belongs to herbaceous plants, characterized by a short growing season. Tulip bulbs are pear-shaped, covered on top with covering scales. During visual inspection, one can easily see a flattened bottom and a slightly pointed top. Parameters such as the size of the bulb, the color of the tulip and the shape of the scales differ from one species to another. Tulip root is located at the bottom of the bulb. During the period when the plant is in the stage of a young seedling, it has one main stem, which, by the way, dies off immediately after the end of the first growing season.
In subsequent growing seasons, the tulip develops a new root system. A stolon is a kind of underground root of a plant, with the help of which the annual reproduction of the bulbs of this crop takes place. The stem of a tulip is always cylindrical in shape, most often it has from 1 to 12 leaves. The height of the stem can be from 15 to 70 cm, it directly depends on the variety and type of plants. The leaves of the tulip are elongated-oval, elongated and pointed, located on the stem. Inflorescences consist of three inner and the same number of outer petals, hybrid varieties have more of them. The shape of the flower can be star-shaped, goblet, oval, cupped, terry. Coloring is monophonic, but can also be two-tone ormixed.
How to grow tulips at home
It should be said that, despite their unpretentiousness, growing tulips at home is not an easy task. It is necessary to follow a number of certain rules when planting bulbs, as well as to provide plants with full care throughout the entire growing season.
Choice variety
Before you grow tulips at home, you need to find out which varieties of this crop are suitable for this method. Most often, exotics are quite capricious when grown, so it is recommended to use the following time-tested varieties:
- Aristocrat;
- Oxford;
- Parade;
- Epricot Beauty;
- Brilliant Star;
- Fringit Elegance;
- Diplomat;
- Negrita;
- Lustige Battle;
- Confucs;
- Scarborough;
- London;
- Apeldoorn.
Experienced gardeners recommend giving preference to undersized varieties, they are characterized by resistance to a number of diseases (especially variegation), they are unpretentious to growing conditions, and can endure some violations during care.
Requirements for planting material
Most often, the seeds of bulbous plants are sold completely ready for planting, the bulbs have been processed and rejected. Learn what it takes to grow tulips at home and how to prepare your own seeds. To obtain high-quality seed material, primarily plants growing in the gardenprovide complete care for the entire growing season. And this means timely feeding, providing watering, loosening the soil in time and removing weeds. As soon as yellow stems appear on the plants, you need to dig them up.
Growing bulbs from seeds
Let's take a closer look at how to grow a tulip bulb. It can be grown by sowing seeds. To do this, the seed box is cut off in early August and sent to ripen in a dry, warm room. In the first decade of October, the area chosen for sowing seeds must be dug up. Loam is considered the best soil, humus is added to it when digging. Seeds are sown abundantly in the prepared soil and sprinkled with sand. No more events are taking place. In the first spring, the tulip grows in the form of a small narrow leaf, which is folded into a thin tube and has one root. By mid-June, the leaf fades, and a small onion-baby grows from the root, which usually has a size of no more than 2-3 mm.
A year later, with the onset of spring, the leaves reappear, the plant already has two roots. When the leaves dry up, the small bulb dies off, and a larger one, up to 1 cm in diameter, appears instead. larger. And the diameter of the bulb increases significantly and reaches a diameter of 2.5 centimeters. In addition, it also appearsand a couple of kids. In the middle of summer, the bulbs are dug up and stored in a cool and dry room. In October, an adult bulb and children are again planted in the soil 12-15 cm deep. Before planting, the holes are covered with sand and watered with slightly s alted water. The bed is mulched and sprinkled with rotted manure.
The cultivation process continues for 5-6 years. But due to the fact that varietal tulip bulbs are quite expensive, you can resort to growing bulbs in this way. Of the grown bulbs, the largest should be selected and placed in a dry room to dry. It is necessary to provide them with the proper temperature regime. The first week it should be maintained up to +34 °C, the next couple of months +23 °C, and the last +17 °C. Next, the planting material should be placed for cooling, wrapped in a gauze bag or put in any box and put in the refrigerator on the lower shelf (possibly in the basement), where it will be stored at a temperature of +5 ° C until planting.
Planting flowers
Let's consider how to grow tulips at home. First of all, artificial conditions are created for plants that are most similar to natural ones. In this case, special attention must be paid to the cooling of the bulbs, since the shoots and flowers are formed only after passing through the stage of winter rest. Consider the whole process of planting bulbs in stages:
- recommended landing time - end of September;
- pots used must be at least 15 cm deep;
- fertilesoil for plants is prepared from river sand, humus and sod land, or you can purchase a ready-made mixture for this type of plant;
- before planting, all bulbs are once again visually inspected, they must be perfectly clean, and then immersed in a solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes;
- it is necessary to lay drainage at the bottom of the pot, then fill it with earth at such a level that a distance greater than 3 times the height of the bulb is observed to the edge of the container;
- planting material is laid out on top of the ground at a distance of ten cm from each other and covered with substrate;
- planting must be well shed, in the event that open bulbs appear, sprinkle with more earth;
- tanks with plantings should be brought to a dark place where the air temperature is at least +9 °C and the humidity is about 80%.
- it is not recommended to leave unattended for a long time of planting, it is necessary to ensure that the earth does not dry out, and also that it is not too waterlogged and mold does not appear on it.
On how to grow tulips in a pot, we suggest watching a video.
Growing tulips by a specific date: March 8
It is impossible to imagine this holiday without flowers. In this case, the leading positions are occupied by bouquets of tulips. Very popular recently among flower growers is such an occupation as forcing flowers. We will try to tell you in more detail about how to grow tulips by March 8. You can grow bulbous flower crops on the windowsill, but on a larger scaleand in a greenhouse. The tulip is one of the most sought after flowers for this spring holiday. By the way, having built your business on this, you can make good money growing flowers for the holidays.
Which variety to choose
What needs to be done in order to grow tulips by March? How should you treat the choice of variety! The right variety is the guarantee of success. Particular attention should be paid to the following characteristics:
- petal coloring;
- bloom duration;
- plant height;
- plant class;
- disease resistance.
Moreover, the last criterion is especially important, because because of the disease of the flower, the plant will not look so attractive. In the varieties listed below, the petals have an amazing unusual color, the inflorescences are quite large, the stem is of medium size. The following varieties are considered the most suitable for this growing method:
- Kaufman;
- Great;
- Forester.
In order to grow flowers at home, an artificial light and heat regime is created for them, which encourages the buds to bloom ahead of time. However, it should be noted that growing in such conditions is not an easy task, which requires certain knowledge and efforts from the grower. The preparation of seed material is carried out identically to that which is observed for planting plants in pots.
Forcing tulips
Let's look at how to grow tulips by 8March, applying distillation. In autumn and winter, extremely important processes take place in tulip bulbs, during which substances are synthesized and accumulated, which subsequently activate the growth of the stem. Therefore, it is extremely important to observe the cooling period, the time when the bulbs are kept in a dark room at a temperature of +5..+9 °C for a long time. If all conditions are met, the plants bloom well and the stem has a high growing point.
As you know, in order to determine the start date for the cooling of the bulbs, it is necessary to count the number of weeks spent on cooling, add another 3-4 weeks to it for plant growth, and also count the time until the date when flowering is scheduled. When cooled at a temperature of +5 ° C, plants are planted 6-7 weeks before the expected flowering period. In this case, tulips bloom first. However, it should be noted that this extreme method cannot be applied to all varieties.
The secrets of proper bulb cooling
It must be remembered that the violation of the temperature regime will primarily affect the quality of flowering tulips. In the event that the bulb was cooled less than the allotted time, this will affect the quality of the peduncles - they may become shortened. If the cooling period lasted longer, the peduncles will be strongly stretched, brittle, and the stem will begin to bend and lie on the ground. Bulb storage at temperatures exceeding +20 °C during growth can cause the plants to develop fungal diseases.
Forcing varieties
What parameters should be considered when choosing a variety? The intensity of color, the ability of the buds to keep their shape for a long time. The following varieties of tulips, the so-called Darwin hybrids, are most suitable for cutting in March:
- Olympic Flame;
- Eric Hofsue;
- Oxford Elite;
- Forgotten Dreams.
The inflorescences of these tulips are characterized by the fact that they open slightly. Usually cut off 2-3 days after the start of flowering. It is at this time that the coloring becomes the most saturated, and the sizes are the maximum.
Growing in water
We offer an interesting way to grow tulips using water. This method involves cultivation without the use of soil.
You will need any container of the desired shape, you can use decorative stones, shells or beads as a decor. We offer instructions on how to grow tulips in water:
- First, soak the bulbs root down in water (warm) with the addition of any growth stimulant.
- Spread the pebbles evenly on the bottom of the container.
- Carefully stack the bulbs and secure them with another layer of decorative elements.
- Pour enough water so that it barely touches future roots.
- Remove the container away from sunlight.
- As soon as long white roots appear, add more water.
- When green leaves appear, put the container onwindow sill.
- In the event that the water stagnates, it should be drained and rinsed with running water.
