How to plant tulip bulbs in a pot: autumn, spring, forcing at home and outdoors

Potted tulips at home are gaining popularity; a bed for growing them is not at all necessary. But you can achieve beautiful flowering in a small container only if you follow the rules.

Is it possible to plant tulips in pots?

Perennial tulips are often perceived as exclusively garden plants, unsuitable for home cultivation. This is not true - you can remove flowers in pots. This method has its advantages: less soil is consumed, and it is easier to control humidity levels and temperature.

You can grow tulips in a pot at home even in winter

However, growing at home has its own challenges. Tulips require conditions that are as close to natural as possible, otherwise they will not be able to please you with flowering.

Suitable varieties

You can grow tulips at home in a pot from low-growing varieties; they have greater endurance and resistance to diseases. Among the most popular varieties are:

• Oxford;
  
  

  Oxford tulip grows up to 50 cm

• Negrita Double;
  
  

  The height of the Negrita Double variety is about 40 cm

• Christmas Marvel;
  
  

  The Christmas Marvel variety grows up to 25-40 cm

These varieties germinate quickly and easily, so even a novice gardener can cope with forcing.

Features of growing tulips in pots

Tulips grow well in small pots, but when forcing you need to take into account some important points:

1. Conditions should be as close to natural as possible. Flowers require stable temperature conditions, moderate moisture and diffuse lighting.
2. The air in the room where perennials grow should be moist. It is better to keep pots away from central heating radiators; if possible, you should, in principle, reduce the temperature of the radiators.
3. You can plant a tulip bulb in a pot at home after stratification. Cold storage is a fundamentally important stage, since it is during this period that planting material accumulates nutrients.

Tulips in pots can be placed on the windowsill if there is no draft

The optimal places for forcing in an apartment are a window sill or a glazed balcony. In these places, perennials will be able to receive enough light.But it is important to consider that spring flowers do not like drafts, and they need a very moderate temperature. You should not place pots on a window or balcony; if cold air is drawn from the frame, you should not place them close to radiators.

How to plant tulips in a pot at home

To successfully plant tulips in pots, you need to pay attention to each stage. If you follow the rules, the idea will be quite simple.

Recommended timing

Tulips are planted both in the ground and in pots at the same time. They begin planting bulbs in September and finish in December. The specific timing depends on when exactly you want to see flowering.

Timing for planting tulips in pots in autumn and winter

The optimal time for planting remains autumn. If you are going to root bulbs that you dug yourself from a flower bed on the site, then they should be planted for cooling in September. Purchased planting material can be placed in the ground later, with the onset of cold weather, in October or even November.

As for winter planting, it is rarely practiced and is carried out no later than the beginning of December. If you miss the deadline, the tulips will bloom too late, and they are grown in pots, among other things, to obtain early buds.

Planting time depending on flowering period

If you want to grow tulips at home in a pot in winter, you can do it for a specific holiday. Planting dates are calculated as follows:

• before forcing, the bulbs must be kept in a cool, dark place for 16-18 weeks;
• After cooling, the tulips can be transferred to heat and light, but their development will take another 3-4 weeks.

Since indoor germination of tulips takes approximately 20 weeks, flowering can be organized by the desired date

Thus, you need to count about 20 weeks from the desired date and find out the planting date. For example, to obtain flowers by February 23, the bulbs will need to be planted around October 6, and to force them by February 14 - no later than September 27.

When to plant tulips in a pot by March 8

Traditionally, it is recommended to plant bulbs in the ground by March 8th no later than October 1st. In this case, in early February, the seedlings can be removed from the refrigerator. After this, you need to carry out the usual forcing and get buds for Women's Day.

Selection of containers and soil preparation

The container for germination should be deep enough, at least 15 cm, and preferably 20-40 cm. It is recommended to take wide pots about 20 cm in diameter and plant several bulbs in them at once. There must be drainage holes at the bottom, otherwise moisture will stagnate.

For growing tulips, it is best to take clay pots; you can create the most natural conditions in them.

As soil for tulips in a pot, take peat mixed with sand or garden soil with the addition of an equal amount of compost. Before planting, it is recommended to calcine the soil in the oven or treat it with a solution of potassium permanganate, this will eliminate dangerous microorganisms.

Preparing the bulbs

Like the soil, the bulbs need to be disinfected before planting. To do this, they are placed in cool water with the addition of potassium permanganate for half an hour.It is also recommended to clear the tubers of the brown outer scales, in which case they will germinate faster. Only the healthiest material should be taken for planting in pots.

How to plant tulips in a pot at home

The planting material is buried approximately 3 cm, with the top of the bulb slightly visible above the soil.

At home, several bulbs are planted in a pot at once - flowering in this case will be more abundant

Immediately after planting, water the soil in the pot; calcium nitrate can be added to the water - 10 g per 5 liters. If the soil settles slightly, it will need to be replenished so that only the tops of the bulbs still protrude above the surface.

How to grow tulips at home in a pot

An important stage in growing indoor tulips in a pot is cold stratification. Immediately after planting, the container is moved to the refrigerator or basement - the temperature should be from 5 to 10 ° C. In such conditions, seedlings are kept for 16-18 weeks, periodically moistening the soil.

Tulips begin to germinate already during stratification

Forcing tulips in pots

After long-term cooling, the pots can be moved to a lighted place with a temperature of about 12 ° C. There should be no drafts on the selected window sill or glazed balcony; seedlings should not be placed near heating radiators. The light required is diffused, without direct sunlight, the duration of daylight should be at least 10 hours.

During forcing, tulips in a pot on the windowsill continue to be watered twice a week and sprayed with a spray bottle. You can fertilize 1-2 times a month - potassium sulfate and calcium nitrate.

The process of forcing indoor tulips takes about 3 weeks

If a few days before the desired date, the tulips have already released buds, but have not yet bloomed, they can be artificially rushed. To do this, raise the temperature in the room to 18-20 °C and increase daylight hours for a couple of hours using a lamp.

How to grow tulips in pots outdoors

In winter, cultivation is carried out at home - flowers will die in the fresh air. But come spring, many gardeners prefer to plant bulbs in outdoor pots.

Recommended timing

As with indoor growing, it is recommended to plant tulips in outdoor pots in the fall, from late September to mid-November. The bulbs are placed in containers and then simply left outside until spring. If winters are very harsh, you can put the pots in the basement or put them in the refrigerator during frosts.

Planting tulips in pots in spring is also not prohibited; it can be done in March or April. But if you do this without preliminary stratification, then most likely there will be no flowering this season. Therefore, it is advisable to still put the bulbs in a flowerpot in January-February and keep them in the cold, and with the onset of spring, take them out into the fresh air.

Preparing containers and soil

Pots and soil for tulips outdoors are selected according to the same rules as for home planting. It is recommended to take ceramic containers that are sufficiently deep and wide, at least 20 by 20 cm. Even several perennials will feel quite free in them.Holes are made at the bottom of the pots to drain moisture and a drainage layer is poured - charcoal, gravel or expanded clay.

The soil mixture can be bought at a specialized store, or you can make it yourself by mixing 1 part sand and humus with 2 parts turf soil. The pH level for tulips is neutral or slightly alkaline; flowers do not like acidic and highly alkaline soils. Immediately before planting, the soil is treated with calcination or a disinfecting solution to eliminate possible microorganisms.

How to plant tulips in a pot outside

The tulip pot is filled with prepared soil so that about 12 cm remains to the edges. After this, the planting material is placed with a distance of 5 cm between individual bulbs. The perennials are sprinkled with remaining soil on top until about 3 cm remains to the sides, and carefully watered, trying not to erode the soil.

When planting tulips in pots in the fall, they are placed quite deep so that the bulbs do not freeze over the winter.

If planting is carried out in the fall, the pots can either be left outside or brought into a cold basement or garage. When planting in spring, flowerpots are left in the open air.

Caring for tulips in pots on the site

Caring for perennials growing in pots is quite simple:

1. Tulip bulbs require regular watering. It is carried out as the soil in the flowerpot dries, usually no more than twice a week. Water is poured exclusively at the root, without touching the stem and young leaves.
2. Before flowering, perennials are fed with nitrogen and potassium fertilizers, on average twice, with an interval of 2 weeks. Potassium sulfate and calcium nitrate are well suited for the culture; minerals strengthen the endurance of tulips and accelerate growth.
3. If the temperature in the area is unstable, then in the evenings the pot can be covered with burlap or other non-woven material. Sudden transitions from daytime heat to nighttime cold can damage the bulbs.

You need to keep tulips on the site in a well-lit place, but not in direct sunlight.

Rules of care during the flowering period

In order for flowering to be bright, abundant and long-lasting, you must follow simple rules. Namely:

• continue to regularly moisten the soil in the pots, the buds consume a lot of nutrients;
• keep flowerpots with flowers away from direct sunlight and high temperatures; tulips do not like heat and, if there is excess heat, they bloom very quickly;
• regularly spray the plantings - this is especially important for indoor perennials suffering from dry air.

To make tulips bloom longer, they need to be sprayed and shaded from direct sun.

Perennials grow outdoors when night temperatures naturally drop slightly. Homemade tulips in pots can be moved to a slightly cooler place every evening to imitate natural conditions. Flowering in this case will last a little longer.

What to do after flowering

At the end of flowering, tulips in pots must be cut off.Only the flower stalks are removed, and the stems with leaves are left and continue to be watered until they wither naturally. Immediately after this, the bulbs need to be removed from the pot, cleaned of soil and dried. Then the planting material is removed to a cool place with low humidity.

In autumn, dried bulbs can be planted in open ground. They are not suitable for re-forcing in pots, since they will take 1-2 years to recover.

After flowering, tulip bulbs are removed from the pot for drying and storage.

Diseases and pests

Tulips are a rather sensitive crop to fungi and pests. The main dangers for flowers are:

• fusarium;
  
  

  With fusarium, tulip tubers begin to rot

• typhullosis;
  
  

  Typhulosis of tulips leads to rotting of the roots, and then the bulbs

• variegation virus;
  
  

  The variegation virus gives buds unnatural colors

• August disease;
  
  

  With the August disease, the tulip leaves become covered with brown streaks and wither

Diseases most often develop in conditions of waterlogging and elevated temperatures. If a plant is sick, it is almost impossible to save it; usually infected bulbs are simply dug up and destroyed. The fight against viruses and fungi is carried out preventively - before planting, the soil and plant material are treated with potassium permanganate or fungicides.

Among the pests that are dangerous to the plant are:

• root nematodes;
  
  

  Nematodes lead to the formation of growths on the tulip bulb and prevent the plant from developing

• onion root mite;
  
  

  Onion root mite can get into a pot outdoors and damage tulip tubers

• aphid;
  
  

  Aphids especially often harm tulips in outdoor pots.

At the first signs of pest damage, tulips can be treated with Karbofos. If there is no result, the bulbs also need to be dug up and destroyed.

Reasons for possible failures

It is not always possible to grow tulips in a pot or flowerpot the first time. The most common mistakes include:

• planting without stratification, if the bulb was not previously kept in the cold, the tulip will germinate, but will not bloom;
• overmoistening - closed soil especially often becomes waterlogged, and the roots of the plant begin to rot;
• poor-quality planting material; small bulbs dug out of the flower bed too early do not germinate well in pots, since they do not have a sufficient supply of nutrients.

For successful germination in a pot, a tulip requires light and moderate watering.

Lack of daylight often leads to failure. If you grow perennials at home in a shaded corner of the apartment, they will not bear buds, or they will be very small, weak and will not open.

Conclusion

Tulips in a pot at home can be grown much earlier than expected - in March or even February. The rules are quite simple, but it is necessary to pay attention to the preliminary cooling of the bulbs, flowering depends on it.

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