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It is difficult to find a person who does not admire gladioli. They bloom at the end of summer and for a long time delight the eye with their multicolor. Gladioli are grown in the open field and by the potting method. In autumn, before the onset of frost, the bulbs are dug up, dried without removing the scales, and removed for winter for storage.
In a city apartment, 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 have the question of how to prepare gladioli for planting in spring. This is an important step in growing a bulbous plant. If the stored bulbs are removed at the wrong time, abundant blooming gladioli will not come afterwards.
How to decide on a deadline
So, let's deal with the question of when to get gladioli out of the refrigerator or basement for germination and planting. Spring starts at a different time in each region. The bulbs should not overgrow by the time they are planted in the ground. Indeed, gladiolus is not planted in cold soil. If you get the bulbs late, then buds form on the peduncles, but the gladioli will not have time to bloom.
You just need to take a regular calendar, calculate when it gets warmer on the street, take 30-40 days away - you get an approximate time when you should deal with gladioli bulbs. Germination of planting material is necessary for the formation of powerful shoots.
We figured out the question of when to germinate gladioli. Now you need to figure out how to prepare the bulbs for planting in the spring.
Preparing gladioli for germination
We clean the scales
First, the scales covering it are removed from each bulb. This is necessary in order for the arrows to grow freely. You need to clean it carefully. When cleaning the cap at the place where the sprout appears, you need to act very carefully so as not to damage the sprout.
First of all, we find out if there are pests on gladioli, such as thrips, aphids. If you look closely, they can be seen with the naked eye. It is possible that during storage, some of the bulbs have dried out, wrinkled, or wet or dry rot has appeared on them. What to do, throw away the planting material?
All other bulbs can be pickled or treated.
Etching of planting material
Peeled bulbs of gladioli must be pickled to destroy fungal, bacterial diseases and pests. There are different ways of processing planting material:
- The drug "Maxim", "Fundozol" is effective. The bulbs are dipped in the solution for an hour. This time is sufficient because the drugs are potent.
- A solution of potassium permanganate works well for disinfection. You have to be careful here.
- If the bulbs are still asleep, a thick solution is prepared for pickling.If they have already sprouted, you need to use pink so as not to burn the sprouts and roots. In a solution of potassium permanganate, planting material is kept for at least 3 hours.
- After pickling, the corms are washed with running water.
We saturate with microelements
To get healthy plants, disinfection alone is not enough. Bulbs need micronutrients. You can feed gladioli already at the germination stage.
This will require:
- liter can of water. If it is from the tap, you need to defend;
- potassium permanganate on the tip of a knife;
- a pinch of boric acid;
- ammonium molybdide;
- copper sulfate;
- magnesium and zinc sulfate.
All components are combined, 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 activity also helps to decide how to prepare gladioli bulbs for planting.
We handle damage
Gladioli can 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 specks are signs of scab or fusarium, you can simply pick out with a knife and burn the cut 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 to living tissue. The place of the cut on the bulb should be sprinkled with crushed activated carbon or smeared with brilliant green. After the edges are dry, the disease cannot spread further.
The 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 onion into pieces. Treat the cut points with brilliant green.
For information on how to properly prepare gladioli for planting after a long winter, see the tips of the grower. Cool video:
Germination of gladiolus bulbs
Novice flower growers make the mistake of planting gladioli directly into the soil, without prior germination. In this case, flowering is very late, you may not have time to admire the skewer before the onset of frost.
That is why gladioli need to be spread out for germination after they have been processed.
This can be done in different ways. Experienced gladiolus growers have their secrets. But they don't make a secret of them. Consider different ways to germinate bulbs.
On dry paper or cloth
After the bulbs have been prepared appropriately, they are lightly 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 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 start to grow.
In sawdust
Sometimes wet sawdust is used to germinate gladioli. The substrate is specially poured twice with boiling water to wash off the resin. The planting material is spread on the squeezed out and cooled sawdust with the bottom down, slightly pressed. In this case, roots appear on the gladioli. They can grow deep into the sawdust.
If all the measures for the preparation and germination of gladioli are carried out correctly, then soon it will be possible 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, looking at the planting material, flower growers find that already in February, some of the bulbs began to wake up. What should you do in this case? There remains the option of potting gladioli.
All preparation activities will be identical to those described in the article.It is not necessary to germinate the planting material additionally. 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 landings. With the onset of heat pot taken out into the street. By this time, gladioli have time to bloom.
Let's summarize
If you do not make the spring preparation of bulbous plants, you can not only be upset with 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 on the street warms up by about May 15 (it all depends on the region). Bulbs with strong sprouts take root well in the open field, bloom earlier.
Immediately before planting, gladioli bulbs are treated with root growth stimulants and copper sulfate. Your labors will be justified by the exuberant flowering of gladioli.
The article is useful, competently and intelligibly written. thank