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It is difficult to find a person who would not admire gladioli. They bloom at the end of summer and delight the eye with their many colors for a long time. Gladioli are grown in open ground and using the pot method. In the fall, before frost sets in, the bulbs are dug up, dried without removing the scales, and removed for the winter for storage.
In a city apartment, the bulbs are placed in a vegetable storage box on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. In a private house - in the basement, wrapping the planting material in newspapers. With the arrival of spring, flower growers are faced with the question of how to prepare gladioli for planting in the spring. This is an important stage in growing a bulbous plant. If you remove the stored bulbs at the wrong time, copious amounts of gladioli bloom subsequently will not occur.
How to decide on deadlines
So, let's look at the question of when to take gladioli out of the refrigerator or basement for germination and planting. In each region, spring begins at different times. The bulbs should not outgrow by the time they are planted in the ground. After all, gladiolus is not planted in cold soil.If you get the bulbs too late, buds will form on the flower stalks, but the gladioli will not have time to bloom.
You just need to take an ordinary calendar, calculate when it will get warmer outside, subtract 30-40 days - you will get the approximate time when you should start working on gladioli bulbs. Germination of planting material is necessary for the formation of powerful shoots.
The question of when to germinate gladioli has been sorted out. Now we need to figure out how to prepare the bulbs for planting in the spring.
Preparing gladioli for germination
Cleaning the scales
First, the scales covering it are removed from each bulb. This is necessary so that the arrows grow freely. You need to clean it carefully. When cleaning the cap where the sprout appears, you must act with extreme caution so as not to damage the sprout.
First of all, we find out whether there are pests on the gladioli, such as thrips and aphids. If you look closely, you can see them with the naked eye. It is possible that during storage some of the bulbs dried out, shriveled, or developed wet or dry rot. What should I do, throw away the planting material?
All other bulbs can be pickled or treated.
Dressing of planting material
Peeled gladioli bulbs must be pickled to destroy fungal, bacterial diseases and pests. There are different ways to process planting material:
- The drug “Maxim” and “Fundozol” work effectively. The bulbs are immersed in the solution for an hour. This time is enough, since the drugs are potent.
- A solution of potassium permanganate works well for disinfection. You need to be careful here.
- If the bulbs are still dormant, prepare a thick solution for pickling. If they have already sprouted, you need to use pink so as not to burn the sprouts and roots. The planting material is kept in a solution of potassium permanganate for at least 3 hours.
- After dressing, the corms are washed with running water.
Saturate with microelements
To get healthy plants, disinfection alone is not enough. Bulbs need microelements. You can feed gladioli already at the germination stage.
To do this you will need:
- liter jar of water. If it comes from the tap, you need to defend it;
- potassium permanganate on the tip of the knife;
- a pinch of boric acid;
- ammonium molybdide;
- copper sulfate;
- magnesium and zinc sulfate.
All components are combined, and the bulbs are placed in the resulting composition for half a day. In the future, gladioli will bloom earlier, the peduncles will be more powerful, and the flowers will be larger.
This event also helps resolve the issue of how to prepare gladioli bulbs for planting.
Processing damage
Gladioli may be damaged in spring. You cannot leave any sores on the bulbs; they will continue to develop and destroy the plant. Processing is carried out after disinfection and “vitaminization” of the bulbs.
Small spots are signs of scab or fusarium; you can simply pick them out with a knife and burn the cut area with brilliant green. If the spots on the sides of the planting material occupy a large area, you need to take a sharp knife and cut it down to living tissue. The cut area on the onion should be sprinkled with crushed activated carbon or lubricated with brilliant green. Once the edges dry out, the disease will not be able to spread further.
Bulbs are cut not only to remove damage. If the planting material is large and 2-3 sprouts have formed on it, you can cut the bulb into pieces. Treat the cut areas with brilliant green.
For information on how to properly prepare gladioli for planting after a long winter, see the gardener’s tips. Cool video:
Sprouting gladioli bulbs
Beginning flower growers make the mistake of planting gladioli directly into the soil, without prior germination. In this case, flowering is greatly delayed, and you may not have time to admire the swordfish before the onset of frost.
This is why gladioli need to be spread out for germination after they have been processed.
This can be done in different ways. Experienced flower growers who breed gladioli have their own secrets. But they don't make a secret of them. Let's look at different ways to germinate bulbs.
On dry paper or cloth
After the bulbs have been prepared accordingly, they are slightly dried by placing them on a dry towel. The bottom of the box is lined with dry paper or cotton cloth. You need to lay them out in one layer at some distance from each other. The box is placed in a bright, warm room.
The room should not be humid, otherwise not only the tops, but also the roots will begin to grow.
In the sawdust
Sometimes wet sawdust is used to germinate gladioli. The substrate is specially poured with boiling water twice to wash off the resin. The planting material is laid out on the wrung out and cooled sawdust, bottom down, and pressed lightly. In this case, roots appear on the gladioli. They can grow deep into the sawdust.
If all the measures for preparing and germinating gladioli are carried out correctly, then soon you will be able to observe how sprouts and rudiments of the root system appear.
About one of the ways to germinate bulbs in this video:
What to do if the bulbs wake up in the middle of winter
Sometimes, when looking at planting material, flower growers discover that already in February some bulbs began to wake up. What to do in this case? There remains the option of growing gladioli in pots.
All preparation activities will be identical to those described in the article. There is no need to additionally germinate the planting material. The bottom of the pots is covered with drainage, fertile soil is added and the planting material that has awakened ahead of time is laid out. All that remains is to take care of the plantings. As the weather warms up pot taken out into the street. By this time, gladioli have time to bloom.
Let's sum it up
If you do not prepare bulbous plants in spring, you may not only be disappointed by weak flowering, but also lose your favorite varieties due to the development of diseases. Preparation of gladioli for germination and planting begins in late March - early April.The soil outside warms up around May 15 (it all depends on the region). Bulbs with strong sprouts take root well in open ground and will bloom earlier.
Immediately before planting, gladioli bulbs are treated with root growth stimulants and copper sulfate. Your efforts will be justified by the lush bloom of gladioli.
The article is useful, competently and clearly written. Thank you