Gladioli are luxurious flowers that cannot help but attract everyone's attention. But caring for them is quite difficult and requires year-round attention from the gardener. In particular, the harvesting period is one of the most critical stages in growing these noble flowers. After all, the correctly chosen timing of harvesting corms and the cleaning and drying procedure itself determine not only the safety of planting material during the winter, but also the very possibility of germination and flowering of gladioli next year.
Timing for harvesting gladioli
Gladioli are flowers that bloom quite late, in the second half of summer. Many late varieties can bloom even closer to autumn and in September. But at the same time, the corms and the flowers themselves do not tolerate frost, so they must be dug up for the winter and stored in a cool and relatively dry place until planting in the spring. Experienced flower growers know that it is necessary to prepare gladioli for harvesting in advance, but beginners can easily let them bloom until frost, and then quickly dig them up and store them. This is exactly what should not be done under any circumstances.
Attention! After flowering, it is vital for different varieties of gladiolus to remain in the ground for 30 to 50 days in order to gain strength for flowering next year.
If this is not done and the corms are dug up ahead of schedule, then they will not be able to ripen well and will not even sprout next year.
But, on the other hand, we should not forget about frosts, which can occur in the fall at any time and destroy all the flowers and even corms located in the ground. Of course, light frosts from 0° to -5°C are not scary for corms, especially if the plantings are additionally insulated by covering the top with any special material. But the onset of a period of persistent cold weather, when average air temperatures drop below -5°C, already poses a danger for gladioli.
Therefore, on average, the timing for harvesting gladioli must be calculated based on the local weather conditions of your region. For example, if persistent cold weather occurs in your area in mid-October, then gladioli should be harvested in the first half of October. If you subtract 40 days from this period, it turns out that it is necessary to cut off the flower stalks of all gladioli at the end of August, before the first of September, regardless of how many flowers have already bloomed by this time. In the southern regions, of course, the timing may shift significantly towards the winter period.
The first to be harvested are the early and mid-early varieties, the corms of which ripen within 30-40 days after flowering or cutting off the inflorescences. In late varieties of gladiolus, ripening can last 45-50 days, so they are harvested last.
Among varieties with the same harvesting time, it is necessary to dig up the largest and most mature corms first.Gladioli grown from children (tuber buds), which may not have formed flowers this season, are harvested last to give them more time to accumulate nutrients.
This order is explained by the fact that in plants obtained from mature corms, after the children have completed maturation, both the roots of the first order and the mother bulb, as well as the roots of the second order, begin to die off faster. And this, in turn, increases the likelihood of Fusarium and other fungi penetrating into gladioli. The onset of rainy and cold weather at the end of summer and autumn only contributes to the spread of diseases.
Important! All other things being equal, they try to remove dark-colored gladioli varieties (purple, cherry, red), as well as blue ones, first, since it has been noticed that they are the ones who lose immunity to fungal diseases before others.
Of course, sometimes it can be a shame to remove flower stalks from young plants, since new varieties are often purchased in the form of large babies that are ready to release the first flower shoot only at the end of summer. If you need to see the first flower and check the correct variety, then the arrow can be removed not completely, but leaving one bud at the bottom. When it blooms, it is quickly removed. In general, it is advisable to remove peduncles from gladioli immediately after flowering, since, being left on the plant, they extend the ripening period of the corm by 10-15 days.
Features of excavation
It is best to harvest gladioli in dry weather. When digging up gladioli in damp and cool conditions, they can lose many babies.Some of them are able to successfully overwinter, especially in the southern regions, and next year it will be difficult to determine exactly which variety has sprouted.
Comment! Remember that you can grow gladioli in the same place only after three years, otherwise it will be difficult to fight diseases.
To harvest gladioli, use a shovel, a fork with wide teeth, or even garden scoops with long handles. Forks are very convenient to use, but for those varieties of gladioli where the children are easily separated from the corms, it is advisable to use scoops to reduce the loss of children during digging.
While digging up gladioli bushes, they simultaneously check how the labels with information about the varieties have been preserved, and check the suitability of the variety against the spring planting plan. The plants are carefully removed from the ground and lightly shaken off the ground and away from the children over polyethylene or a tarpaulin. Sick and damaged corms are immediately set aside in order to burn them later. At the same time, all the children are carefully selected and laid out along with large onions according to variety.
The stems of mature corms are cut off, leaving a very small stump (0.5-0.8 cm). Such short pruning helps protect gladioli from getting inside thrips, which in the fall tend to move closer to the base of the bulbs.
For large, mature corms, the old mother corm and all roots are removed at once.This reduces the spread of diseases and also speeds up the drying time of planting material.
At the time of harvesting, the mother corm breaks off relatively easily. If for some reason this was not done, then after a few days it will be difficult to separate it and you will need to wait a few more weeks so that a protective cork layer will form upon drying.
In young bulbs grown from children, the roots are not cut off, but only shortened, so that they can be removed only during spring preparation for planting.
After removing all excess, the corms are thoroughly washed to remove contamination and treated in a solution of potassium permanganate (10 g per 10 liters of water) for 25 minutes. In addition to potassium permanganate, you can use any fungicide, for example, Maxim.
Drying the corms
If the weather is sunny and warm at the time of harvesting, then it is advisable to dry the corms arranged by variety for 1-3 days in the open air. After this, the gladioli must be dried for two weeks at a temperature not lower than +20°C, and preferably +25°+30°C. This can be done by placing boxes with corms near heating devices. It is advisable to stir the gladioli corms at least once a day to ensure uniform heating and ventilation.
At the last stage of drying, the corms are placed in loose form in a room with a temperature of +20°+22°C and stored there for about a month. Only then can the gladioli bulbs be stored. If the corms are sufficiently dried, then there is no need to remove the protective scales until spring. Moreover, they can play the role of protection against various external influences during storage.
Only adult gladioli corms need good drying. The babies are separated immediately after harvesting, put into bags by grade and almost immediately stored in the lower compartment of the refrigerator.
Advice! To prevent diseases, peeled garlic cloves, which have antibacterial and antifungal properties, are placed in bags with gladioli bulbs during storage.
Gladioli planting material should also be stored after drying in a dry and frost-free place at a temperature from +3°C to +9°C. Once a month, the corms need to be sorted out and those showing signs of disease must be separated so that they do not have time to infect others.
If you follow all the above recommendations, gladioli corms will be perfectly preserved until spring planting and will delight you with abundant flowering next season.
