Gladioli: planting and care in Siberia

Gladioli - the most popular flowers in the recent past that children gave to teachers on September 1st. This is not surprising, because they are quite easy to grow in the garden, and they look extremely impressive: large, bright inflorescences on a high stem. To grow gladioli in Siberia you need to put in a little more effort than in areas where the climate is not so harsh.

Types of gladioli

Gladioli (another name is skewer) belong to the iris family. Today there are more than 300 species and 5000 varieties of these plants. Gladioli are bulbous-tuberous perennial flowers. Africa is considered their homeland.

All types can be divided:

By inflorescence size:

small: the flowers are small, arranged in groups along the stem;
medium: not large flowers;
large: large, bright flowers;
giants: flowers reach 20 cm in diameter.

By flower type:

smooth;
corrugated;
folded;
fringed.

According to the color of the buds:

single-color: gladioli come in almost all major colors;
with additional colors: for example, raspberry pink.

By arrangement of flowers:

on one side in a spike-type inflorescence;
on both sides in a spike-type inflorescence;
spirally in a spike-type inflorescence;
in the form of a funnel.

By flowering time after planting:

early (includes super-early and early-middle);
average;
late (there are medium-late and very late varieties).

For growing gladioli in Siberia, you should choose varieties with early or medium flowering periods so that they have time to ripen in the short summer. It is preferable if the gladioli are from domestic breeders, since such varieties are more suitable for planting in Siberia.

Comment! Gladioli bulbs are edible: they used to be chopped with onions and baked into flat cakes.

They were also used as a pain reliever for toothache and as a diuretic. In the 1st century, magical qualities were attributed to gladioli: it was believed that a bulb hung on a warrior’s neck would protect him from death and bring victory.

Preparing to plant gladioli

To prepare for planting, you should choose the right place and properly cultivate the soil.

Choosing a landing site

When choosing a place where you plan to grow flowers, you should take into account that they will grow best on the sunny side in the absence of strong winds. If plants are planted in the shade, the beginning of their flowering will shift to a later date, and the gladiolus itself will be less persistent.

If gladioli are planted in a place where there are no natural barriers to protect from the wind, you need to make them yourself. To do this, you can plant herbaceous plants near the flowers that produce a lot of greenery (for example, fava beans or beans).

Soil selection and preparation

Gladioli will not grow in waterlogged or chalky soil. Can be grown in both light and heavy soils. Ideal for them is loamy soil, with a pH level of 7 (neutral), rich in humus.

Preparing the soil for planting in the fall

Before digging up the ground, you can add bone meal to it: per 100 cubic meters - 5 kg. Manure must be added to a depth of 30 cm. Organic matter is important for bulbs, which have a fairly large need for humus substances.

Attention! The manure must be rotted. If you bring it fresh, fungus and rot may appear.

If the soil is heavy, tree leaves (not rotten) should be added to the manure: they will prevent the soil from compacting, the soil will be looser, and more air will penetrate into it.

If the soil is too light, it should be compacted by adding clay and fine peat to the manure, which should be well aerated.

Preparing the soil for planting in spring

When the spring soil thaws, it should be amended superphosphate fertilizer in the same amount as bone meal.

Heavy soils are plowed to a depth of 20 cm, while light sandy soils are loosened. The earth is leveled, harrowed and cleared of roots weed.

Planting gladioli for seedlings

When growing gladioli in Siberia, it is more advisable to plant seedlings in the ground - this way, the flowers will have time to please summer residents with their beauty.

For preparing gladioli Before planting, the bulbs are first peeled from the shell or soaked for a day in water at a temperature of +30 degrees. Planting takes place in early February.

Boxes for seedlings are filled with moist soil with humus (or sawdust), the “babies” are planted and covered with 1 cm of soil on top. The container is placed in a place where there is enough light. It is necessary to ensure that the soil is moist at all times.

Plant seedlings in the ground when there are no night frosts. You should be extremely careful when replanting: it is better not to touch the root system. For some time after transplantation, seedlings must be protected from sunlight: the plants must be shaded. You can also cover the sprouts with non-woven material for several days.

Preparing bulbs for planting in the ground

It is first necessary to remove damaged and diseased bulbs. The remaining tubers should be cleared of dry shells. Then, within two hours, the planting material is etched with mercury preparations.

Advice! To ensure quality flowers, select bulbs for planting with a diameter of no more than 5 cm and spherical in shape.

If the tubers are larger or flattened, it means that they have partially degenerated: the quality of the flowers will be low, the plant will bloom later than expected and the tubers may die during storage.

After dressing, one day before planting, it is recommended to place the bulbs in a solution of microelements for 16 hours.

The solution may contain the following substances:

potassium permanganate;
copper sulfate;
zinc sulfate;
boric acid;
cobalt nitrate.

Planting gladioli

They plant either a replacement bulb or a “baby” obtained in the fall after digging in the tubers.

Planting a replacement bulb

To ensure proper planting and care of gladioli in Siberia, they begin to be planted when the soil is warmed up to at least +8 degrees. You can plant in furrows or beds. In heavy soil you need to sow the bulbs to a depth of at least 5 cm and no more than 8 cm, in light soil - 10 centimeters. If the soil for planting is dry, you need to pour water into the holes.

It is better not to plant tubers of different sizes next to each other: a large bulb will develop earlier and will interfere with the growth of a small one. Don’t forget to place a sign at the planting site with the name of the variety and the date of planting.

Landing "baby"

The “baby” should be planted to a depth of 3 cm after the ground has thawed and the soil is still quite moist. To prepare gladioli for planting in the spring, you should remove the hard shell from the bulb or soak the “baby” for a day in water at a temperature of +30 degrees. Without these manipulations, in 60% of cases the bulb will not sprout.

Gladioli care

In order for gladioli to bloom on time and have beautiful buds, they need to be properly cared for.

Watering

After planting, until the gladioli have sprouted (about a month), they should not be watered so that the soil does not become compacted and allows air to pass through. Otherwise, the development of the root system may be disrupted.

After the gladioli have sprouted, it is necessary to ensure that the soil is moderately moist (usually watering is done once every three days), otherwise the ears may become deformed and the quality of the flowers will decrease.

It is best to water with mechanical sprayers, except during the flowering period of gladioli: if water gets on the buds, they will become spotted.

Soil care

During the growth of gladioli, it is necessary to ensure that the soil is free of weeds. You also need to loosen the soil from time to time so that air can flow to the roots.

If there is sandy soil, after the sprouts appear, the beds should be mulched with peat or covered with a 2 cm layer of humus - this way, moisture will be retained in the soil.

Feeding and fertilizing gladioli

When growing gladioli in Siberian conditions, the use of microelements is important. They speed up the period of flowering by half a month, help plants protect themselves from diseases and affect the size of buds. A solution of microelements (the composition may be the same as when soaking the bulbs before planting) should be sprayed on the plants from the beginning of August.

In addition to fertilizers applied to the soil in the fall, it is necessary to feed the gladioli three more times with minerals:

After a month after planting - ammonium nitrate (up to 4 kg per 100 cubic meters);
after the development of the fourth leaf - potassium nitrate in the same dosage;
after the appearance of buds - phosphorus and potassium in the same quantity.

General rules for caring for flowers

Gladioli need to be tied up when the inflorescences begin to appear. To do this, you can drive pegs along the edges of the bed, with which you can stretch a cord at a height of half a meter - it will be more convenient to tie plants to it.

The emerging branches of the inflorescence spikes must be removed. It is also necessary to tear off buds that have already bloomed. When the inflorescence spike has already faded, it should be cut off, otherwise it will contain seeds that have a bad effect on the development of the bulbs.

How to properly cut and transport gladioli

The stems should be cut early in the morning when the first bud blooms. This should be done extremely carefully so as not to scratch the leaves. After cutting the flower, the plant must have at least 4 leaves left on the garden bed so that the bulb can ripen and be stored for a long time.

To prepare gladioli for long-term transportation, cut plants must be placed in water for 2 hours in a cool place. It is better to cut them before the gladioli begin to bloom.

Cut flowers can last in vases for up to two weeks. To do this, you need to change the water in the vessel daily and remove wilted flowers. Before placing the stems in the vase, you need to shorten the stem by three centimeters.

Reproduction of gladioli

Flowers are propagated by bulbs: if seeds are used, the plant may end up with characteristics different from the parent. After planting one bulb in the spring, in the fall you get up to two replacement bulbs and several small “babies” (the number depends on the quality of the tubers and the type of flowers).

There are some varieties that do not produce bulbs at all or produce only small quantities. To increase the number of “babies”, before planting gladioli, the tubers should be cut vertically with a knife into 2 or 4 parts so that each piece has an “eye” (shoot bud) and roots.

Each time after cutting one tuber, the knife must be treated with alcohol or another disinfectant. The place where the bulb is cut must be treated with charcoal and sulfur (mixture).

Watch the video to see how to properly cut an onion:

Comment! As a result of research, it was revealed that vertically divided bulbs in the fall yield up to three times more than from whole tubers.

Dividing the bulbs into 2 parts does not affect the date of flowering, but when cut into 4 parts, it shifts 14 days later.

To quickly reproduce flowers, “babies” are planted. The disadvantage of this method is the lack of a guarantee of germination.

Cleaning and storing gladioli

After autumn frosts arrive, the bulbs must be dug up. This rule is especially relevant for growing gladioli in Siberia: if you leave the bulbs in the ground over the winter, they may die. To dig up the tubers, you need to cut the stems right above the bulb.

Advice! To collect all the small onions, you need to sift through a sieve a layer of earth up to 15 cm deep, remaining after digging up gladioli.

The dug up tubers should be placed in a box, the bottom of which consists of a mesh, and washed with water, clearing them of soil. Then the bulbs are placed in gauze bags and soaked in granosan (0.25% solution) or ceresan (0.35% solution) for pickling for 15 minutes. After this, the tubers are dried in the sun and ventilated.

Bulbs that have dried out are put into a box. Don't forget to indicate the variety of gladioli on the container. The boxes should be placed in a place with an air temperature of +25 to +30 for 10 days. The place should be well ventilated. Tubers should be turned over periodically. This is necessary so that roots and old bulbs can be easily separated from the total mass of tubers.

After 10 days, when the old tubers and roots are removed, the bulbs should be placed in boxes with a mesh bottom (can be laid in two rows) or in gauze bags. Label the variety of gladioli stored in a specific container.

For about 5 days, the bulbs are stored at an air temperature of +15 to +18 degrees, in the following days the room temperature should not be lower than +4 and higher than +10 degrees.

It is better to store boxes on shelves made of timber: this ensures uniform air circulation. It is necessary to ensure that there is no high humidity in the room where gladioli are stored, so as not to provoke early forcing of the plants.

During storage of gladioli, the bulbs must be periodically inspected in order to remove diseased tubers in a timely manner.

Diseases and pests of gladioli

Like any plants, gladioli are susceptible to diseases and pest attacks.

The main pests of gladioli:

cabbage cutworm: a caterpillar that eats holes in flowers and leaves;
field slug: damages bulbs and stems;
striped click beetle (wireworm): damages roots and bulbs;
mole cricket: damages roots, bulbs and stems.

Main diseases of gladioli:

dry rot of tubers and yellowing of gladioli;
leaf spot and hard rot of tubers;
brown (gray) rot of gladioli;
bacterial scab.

Prevention of gladioli diseases

To reduce the possibility of diseases of gladioli, the following conditions must be met:

Treating the bulbs before planting.
Do not plant flowers in the same place until 5 years have passed.
The distance between planted gladioli should be large enough so that diseased plants cannot infect healthy ones.
Proper care of gladioli.
Timely harvesting.
Proper storage of bulbs.
Applying the correct fertilizer in the required quantity.
Twice a month during flower growth, gladioli should be treated with Bordeaux mixture (1-2%) or zineb solution (0.70% to 0.75%). You need to add casein glue to the composition at the rate of 20 g. for 10 liters or 50 grams of wheat flour for the same amount of liquid.
Infected plants should be dug up and burned to avoid spreading the disease to healthy flowers.

Conclusion

If the conditions for proper planting and proper care of gladioli are met, a good harvest of these bright, beautiful flowers can be grown in Siberia. In addition, gladioli contain a huge amount of vitamin C: the same amount as in rose hips. By drying the leaves in the summer and brewing them in the winter, you can avoid vitamin deficiency and colds.

When to plant gladioli in spring in Siberia