Now gladioli are very popular among gardeners. However, there were times when they were considered weeds and simply removed from wheat fields. The ancient Greeks did this with these beautiful flowers, but at the same time the Romans decorated their gardens with them. Now, more and more gardeners are acquiring planting material for themselves, but not everyone is ready to grow these wonderful flowers on their site. In the article we will consider all the features that relate to gladioli, planting and care in the open field, as well as the features of storing tubers.
Description
Gladiolus is an ornamental plant. It has a straight stem with long leaves and flowers. The leaves have a rich green color, and there is nothing to say about the variety of shades of flowers. In general, gladioli have dozens of species of different colors and shapes. The leaves of this plant somewhat resemble the appearance of a sword. Gladiolus root is a bulb that is in the process ofgrowth forms children, with the help of which these plants reproduce. But everything about gladioli, planting, care, storage of bulbs will be discussed later in the article.
Growing Rules
There are a whole set of rules that relate to gladioli, planting and care in the open field, if you follow them, you will be able to grow beautiful and he althy flowers in your garden.
- Gladiolus should not grow in the same place for more than two years. Every third year they need to be transplanted to another place - this is a prerequisite.
- In addition to the place where the flowers will grow, you need to change the composition of the soil. This is another condition to consider.
- Gladiolus get used to a certain climate, so when buying planting material, this fact must be taken into account. The bulbs that were brought from Holland will surely please you with flowering, but this will happen only once. This is due to the fact that a flower that previously grew in a humid climate where it always rained will not feel comfortable where there is a lot of sun and warmth.
- If you have children and large bulbs, then you need to plant them separately. If planted mixed, then the large ones will oppress the small ones. In general, try to select the largest planting material and plant it in separate flower beds.
- Special attention should be paid to the planting depth. If the soil is soft, then you need to deepen four diameters of the existing bulb, and if the soil is heavy, then one diameter needs to be removed. If planted incorrectlyyou will have to tie an arrow with a flower, and it is possible that the gladiolus will not bloom at all. This happens when the bulbs are planted too deep.
- Think ahead about the day you will plant the bulbs. Three or five days before this, the onion must be peeled. Otherwise, it may not grow. After planting for a while, they will need to be watered every other day.
- In the shade you can plant early varieties, but even they will bloom later than usual in such conditions. And late varieties planted in the shade may not please with their flowering at all. Try to choose sunny places.
- The area should be well ventilated, but not drafty. Otherwise, the appearance of various fungal diseases threatens.
- If you planted gladioli in sandy soil, then it is better to fertilize them by spraying.
- In the summer, gladioli need only one watering a week, but quite plentiful. However, if the summer turned out to be especially hot, then you will have to do this every evening. Do not forget to loosen the soil after each watering or rain so that it is well ventilated.
- Special attention from the gardener requires the cleaning of the bulbs and their subsequent storage. This will be a separate item in this article and should be of great interest to the gardener, especially the beginner.
Preparing bulbs
As for the flowers of gladioli, planting and care (photo attached), you should start studying this item by preparing the bulbs for planting.
Think beforehandwhen you plant them outdoors, because three or four weeks before that, you need to start preparing the planting material. Corms are covered with dense scales, which should be removed in such a way as not to damage the existing sprouts. Any damaged or diseased bulbs should be removed. They are not suitable for landing. It is only allowed to plant those bulbs that are affected by scab or sclerotinia. but the damaged areas need to be removed and the cut area covered with brilliant green.
Peeled and processed bulbs must be laid out in one row so that the sprouts are at the top. Place them in a warm and dry room. In this state, they are until the shoot begins to sprout. Before planting, planting material must undergo mandatory processing. This is necessary for the prevention of various diseases. For this purpose, a 0.3% solution of potassium permanganate is used, in which the bulbs are placed for no more than two hours, or a 0.3% solution of "Fundazol", where the corms can be no more than one hour.
Sometimes it happens that processing has to be carried out immediately before disembarkation. In this case, use a solution of potassium permanganate. For one liter of water you will need 1/2 gram of potassium permanganate. The bulbs are placed in such a solution for half an hour and immediately after it they are planted in the ground.
Preparing kids
Gladiolus babies also require special attention, planting and caring for which cannot begin without special treatment. But for them the technology will be a bitdiffer. The shell is removed from them just two weeks before planting in the soil. Try to choose kidneys that are at least eight millimeters in diameter. There are not too large varieties, then the children are taken small. After removing the skin, they are also laid out in one row and placed in a place where diffused sunlight will fall on them. Children who have sprouted are placed in a solution of potassium permanganate. For one gram of potassium permanganate, you will need one liter of water. In such a liquid, sprouted onions are not less, but not more than nine hours.
This is the kind of care for gladioli before planting that every gardener should provide. Attention should be paid not only to large corms, but also to children.
Select site
Gladiolus love to grow where there is a lot of light and warm enough. That is why the choice of site must be treated with special attention.
The area where you plan to plant gladioli should be well ventilated, but there should be no drafts there. There should be plenty of sunlight and well-draining soil that gladioli love. Landing and leaving in the Urals and in the more northern regions of the country requires that the light on the site be constantly. Even the most minimal shading leads to the fact that the flowers begin to grow more slowly and may not bloom at all. If you are a resident of the south, then you can allow some presence of a shadow, but only at noon.
Try to choose a site where there will be no stagnant groundwater. This is another problem that leads to the development of various diseases. Better ifthe site will have a slight slope, along which excess water will drain.
Soil
As for the soil, for perennial gladioli, planting and care require a slightly acidic soil. If the acidity exceeds pH 6, 8, then the tips of the leaves will begin to turn yellow and gradually fade, and the flowers will open very slowly. There is a risk of Fusarium.
The alkaline environment makes it so that the iron that is present in the soil does not dissolve and is therefore inaccessible to the plant. In this regard, the process of formation of chlorophyll in the leaves is greatly slowed down and this leads to their yellowing. If all the soil in your area is acidic, then you need to add eggshells, chalk or dolomite flour to it. Any of these ingredients is taken at the rate of 200 grams per square meter. Substances are added for a reason, but during digging.
Soil structure
Chernozem is considered the best structure, but landing in loamy soil or sandy loam is allowed. You can create a similar structure yourself. To do this, heavy loam is diluted with sand, and a little clay can be added to sandy soil, as well as humus and rotted compost. Any additions are made only during digging. Usually this is done in advance. However, if you managed to choose a site that is well warmed up by the sun's rays, then you can do this just before the landing itself.
If you live in an area where the rains do not indulge too often, then it is better to dig up the beds in the fall, and in the springonly loosen a little. This helps retain moisture. Gladiolus feel good where legumes, vegetables and some perennial herbs used to grow. And you do not need to plant them where representatives of the Aster family or root crops grew. The bed should be approximately 1.2 meters wide.
For those gardeners who already know where the corms will be planted in the fall, information about pre-fertilization will be useful. In autumn, special dry fertilizers can be applied. For one square meter of beds, you will need one hundred grams of dry superphosphate and about forty grams of chloride fertilizer. After introducing complementary foods, you can safely dig up the site. But with the onset of spring, when the soil is loosened, potassium sulfate or potassium magnesia is added.
Planting bulbs
In general, you can plant gladioli from late April to early May, but you should take into account the climate in your area. And residents of northern places are better off delaying the landing and starting it a little later.
Large bulbs should be deepened fifteen centimeters, and small bulbs no more than ten. The distance from one bulb to another is equal to the depth of the hole. But the distance from one row to another cannot be less than twenty centimeters.
The landing groove should be prepared in advance. River sand is laid out at its bottom, but it would be better if sphagnum moss is placed there instead. From above, this layer is poured with a solution of "Fitosporin" and water, after which the bulbs are laid out on top and added dropwise. Why exactlymoss? Because it is able to retain moisture for a long time, but at the same time prevent the formation of rot. It does not allow the soil to dry out even in the most intense heat.
Care
After planting the bulbs in open ground, it is necessary to provide them with proper care. When the emerging seedlings begin to reach a height of ten centimeters, the topsoil must be mulched. To do this, lay out a five-centimeter layer of humus. This is necessary so that the soil does not dry out, and the humus retains moisture after watering.
Irrigation of gladioli is carried out once a week. One square meter requires about ten liters of water. It is impossible to get water on the leaves, so try to water in the furrows between the rows. After each watering, the soil should be loosened five centimeters deep. This is necessary so that a crust does not form on top of it, which will not allow oxygen and moisture to pass through. Once a decade, you must definitely loosen the ground, and also after each rain. If the summer turned out to be especially hot, then it is better to water more often up to two times a week. Otherwise, the peduncles will wither and there is a risk that the last flowers will not bloom at all.
Keep a close eye on when buds start to appear on the arrows, you may have to tie them to pegs so that they do not break. During flowering, all wilted flowers should be removed immediately. Since the gladiolus will spend a lot of energy on the formation of seeds in their place. And the propagation of gladioli by seeds, planting and caring for them are of little interest to experienced gardeners.
Besides all this, gladiolineeds to be weeded. Three or four times a season is enough. Weeds are dangerous during the period of germination. There is a risk that they will deprive you of flowering. And also a large number of weeds provokes the appearance of various diseases and slugs on the beds, which are very dangerous for these flowers.
Feeding
Mineral fertilizers are added several times a season. The first time nitrogenous fertilizers are applied. This must be done when a few true leaves have appeared on the young. Twenty-five grams of urea or ammonium sulfate can be added per square meter, and thirty-five grams of ammonium nitrate can also be used. If the plant does not have enough nitrogen, then its leaves will begin to dry out and turn yellow, but if there is too much of it, then the leaves will grow, which will slow down the appearance of flowers.
The second top dressing is nitrogen-phosphorus. It is necessary in the presence of six leaves. This time, for one square meter, you will need to take fifteen grams of superphosphate, ten grams of ammonium sulfate, twenty grams of potassium sulfate. And the third top dressing is carried out just before the very period of bud formation, it is potassium-phosphorus. You need to add twenty grams of potassium chloride and thirty grams of superphosphate, all this per square meter of beds.
Organic fertilizers should also be applied, but unlike mineral fertilizers, which are added dry, they are used as a liquid. You can use a solution of bird droppings. For ten days, three buckets of manure are infused for fivebuckets of water. After that, for ten liters of water, you will need one liter of the resulting fertilizer. Pour it into the aisles. After that, loosening and weeding are necessarily carried out. Such fertilizers can be applied within three weeks. But remember that after the fifteenth of August, their use should be discontinued. Do not use horse manure to feed gladioli.
Pruning and digging
Flowers can only be cut from plants that have at least four leaves. The procedure is carried out early in the morning or late in the evening. It uses a very sharp knife. The rest of the peduncle should be well hidden between the leaves.
Dig up corms around mid-September. For accuracy, it is better to count thirty-five days from the end of flowering and safely dig. Ripe bulbs and babies should be well separated from each other and be covered with dense scales. Dig better in dry weather. Start with the earliest varieties. Babies are the last to be dug up.
Make sure that the bulbs are not affected by black spot. If you notice a similar problem, then try to immediately dig up all the available bulbs to prevent the appearance of other diseases. Before digging, the stems can be mowed immediately, or you can cut them already from the bulbs, the same applies to the roots. Each variety is stored in a separate box. Children must be separated from large tubers. Remember to shake off the soil and rinse the bulbs under running water.
The bulbs are placed in a one percent solution of "Fundazol" for twenty minutes and washed again underrunning water, and then another in a three percent solution of manganese and then dried for three days. Bulbs are stored in boxes, the bottom of which is covered with paper. The first two weeks they are stored at a temperature of thirty degrees, and then can be reduced to twenty-two. After a month, you can start sorting.
Storage
Corms should be stored in an environment where they will not germinate prematurely. The air temperature in the room should not exceed ten degrees. For better preservation, a few cloves of garlic are placed in each box of onions. Conduct regular inspections, during which remove spoiled tubers and change the garlic. It is better to store gladioli in mesh boxes and in a cellar where there is ventilation. Drawers should not be placed on the floor, it is better to use shelving. And also a convenient storage method - dimensionless tights.
If you are engaged in planting gladioli and care at home, then you can store the bulbs in the refrigerator with dry freezing on the lowest shelf in special containers. Closer to spring, the bulbs are wrapped in paper and put back in the refrigerator, but in a cooler place. Planting gladioli in pots and caring for them has no special features. In some matters, they are even a little easier than in the open field.
The features of gladioli were described above. Photos, landing and care - all this is presented in the article. It is told about storage and digging rules. If you follow all these recommendations, then you can grow beautiful flowers on your site.and he althy flowers.
