Content
Many lovers of these chic and noble flowers every year act according to a long-familiar scheme: they sprouted corms on the windowsill, planted them in the ground, enjoyed the flowering, dug up the bulbs in the fall, cleaned them of the earth and "everything superfluous" and, after drying, put them in storage. After a while, the corms begin to hurt, be affected by pests, weaken, rot during winter storage and, sooner or later, there is a need to purchase new planting material. But true flower growers, first of all, will be interested in the reproduction of any flowers that they are engaged in. And very soon it will become clear that the "superfluous" that every year was simply removed along with the dirt and earth, is a great replacement for old flowers.
After all, one gladiolus corm does not live long, a maximum of about 5 years, and then it begins to "age", which manifests itself in all the above symptoms, which are not at all to the liking of any enthusiastic florist. And the easiest way to find a worthy replacement for her is to grow good planting material from the baby for the next year. After all, gladioli from children, as a rule, grow strong, healthy and beautiful. The article will discuss in detail all the stages of growing chic multi-colored handsome gladioli from children.
What is a baby and what is it for
First of all, it is necessary to consider the size of the gladiolus corms. Most of the questions for beginners arise when it comes to an incomprehensible word - parsing corms. This term usually denotes the size and the possibilities of flowering of the bulb following from it.
- So, if the corm has a diameter of 3.2 cm and above, they say that it is of the 1st analysis. This means that when it is planted, it will most likely give several powerful peduncles, the color coloring will be as intense as possible, and the corrugation will reveal its full strength.
- If the corm has a size of 2.5 to 3.1 cm, then it is called a second parsing bulb and its flowering will also be quite impressive.
- When attributing a corm to a size of 1.5 to 2.4 cm, it can be called a third parsing bulb. In this case, flowering is likely to occur with a delay of several weeks, the maximum number of buds on the peduncle is not formed and a smaller number of them will open.
- If the size of the corm is from 1 to 1.4 cm, then it is called the 4th parsing bulb. They usually bloom much later and show half the possibilities of those laid down in the characteristics of the variety. Although a lot depends on the care and even from such small bulbs, you can achieve quite decent flowers.
If smaller nodules are formed at the base of the gladiolus corms, then they are usually called tubercles or simply children. Children of gladioli, in turn, come in two sizes.
- Children of the 1st category grow from 5 to 10 mm, which may well give corms of the first or second analysis.
- From 3 to 5 mm is the size of very small babies, which usually give only corms of the third analysis in the first year after planting.
That is, the baby is an organ of vegetative reproduction of gladiolus, which appears at the base of the corm at the end of the growing season. It is usually covered with a dense and dry shell that protects it from all external influences.
So, children of gladioli have three main and very important functions:
- Maintain and update the existing collection of gladioli.
- If you want to significantly increase the number of plants grown (for example, for sale), propagate them with the help of children.
- Adapt the newly acquired varieties of gladioli to the conditions of your garden, because it is the cultivation of gladioli from children that allows you to get plants that are most resistant to various diseases and are best adapted to a new place.
Keeping babies in winter
To do this, they are laid out in a warm and dry, maybe a dark place, the main thing is not to be in the sun. Drying of babies lasts until about mid-November. Then it is advisable to sort them by size and put them in storage in a dry place at any positive temperature, preferably up to + 15 °.
Preparing children of gladioli for planting
Most novice florists quite reasonably have a question: "Spring has come, I got the gladiolus babies from the store, and what should I do with them now?"
Of course, to land, but before that you need to do some operations. There are several types of preparation for planting gladioli children.
If you take the baby in your hand and take a closer look, you will see that it is covered with a dry, but very dense shell. It is this shell that protects the babies during storage from various damages, but it is because of it that the germination of the gladiolus babies can be delayed for a very long time, for a month or more. Therefore, it needs to be removed, or at least broken.
Usually, the casing is removed by hand, this is not very difficult, but it can be quite laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, it will be somewhat difficult to process a large number of children in this way. In addition, due to inexperience, it is possible to damage the delicate inner tissues and, most importantly, the future growth point of the flower. Nevertheless, with a small number of children, this method is worth trying, because peeled children germinate much faster and easier, and when they are planted at a shallower depth, they form a large final corm.
A much less time-consuming but effective way is to germinate gladiolus babies before planting. At home, this can be done both warm and cool.
Then they are placed according to grades and sizes in jars or sachets with fasteners. Add a little warm water with potassium permanganate, so that it is pink, and close the bags or jars so as to provide air access. There should be water at the very bottom so that the children are not immersed in it. In such conditions, after a couple of weeks, the rudiments of roots and the first seedlings appear on them.
The timing will increase slightly, but the seedlings will appear more amicably.
Growing seedlings from gladiolus babies
If it is winter or early spring in the yard, and you still have time for experiments, then the safest way is to try to let the children of gladioli seedlings. Of course, it will take more time and effort, but as a result, 100% of all children will sprout. In principle, growing gladiolus seedlings is not fundamentally different from the same tomatoes. There are only two conditions that must be met in order to grow gladioli:
- plant in separate containers so as not to damage the roots during transplantation,
- provide the coolest, and even coldest growth conditions. Ideally, the temperature should be between + 5 ° C and + 15 ° C.
Children of gladioli are usually planted in small cups or cassettes, and poured into a tray from below. When the first sprouts appear, they need the maximum amount of light. If you live in a private house, then you can place the planted seedlings in the basement and illuminate them there with energy-saving lamps. These conditions will be ideal for good growth and root formation in children of gladioli.
Small plants grown in this way can be planted in the beds in April. Since each baby was planted in a separate container, there should be no problems with disembarkation.
Planting and caring for children of gladioli in the beds
It is advisable to plant the children of gladioli in the beds, the sooner the better. But it is necessary that the earth warms up to at least + 10 ° С. To accelerate germination and better development of corms, babies can be planted shallowly, to a depth of about 2-3 cm.But it must be remembered that babies at this moment really need constant humidity, therefore, when planting at such a depth, they must be constantly moistened. As a rule, they are planted to a depth of 4-7 cm. Here, much more moisture is retained in the soil, but there is also less heat, which can delay the germination of children.
After the first sprouts grow, they, if necessary, need to be protected with a film or non-woven material from possible frost. Although small drops in temperature, gladioli shoots usually tolerate well.
Already a couple of weeks after the emergence of sprouts, the planted children of gladioli can be fed with a diluted mullein or other organic fertilizer. It is advisable to loosen the soil in the aisles regularly - this provides the roots with additional air nutrition and helps to form large corms.
After the kids have landed in the garden, they need constant and regular watering until the very end of the season. Young bulbs tolerate drought the worst.
This will allow the corms to mature more fully by the time of autumn digging. And in the fall, from small children, you can get already full-fledged planting material for gladioli.
Conclusion
There is nothing particularly difficult in planting children and growing beautiful flowers from them. Be sure to try this method of breeding and growing gladioli, and you will never have any problems with getting too much planting material.
