Tulips belong to perennials from the lily family. In spring, their flowers bloom, the shades of which correspond to certain feelings. The most popular are cream, white and pink tulips. White flowers speak of deceived love, yellow - about parting, red - about passion, black about strong feelings. The varieties have various shape flowers (lily, goblet, double and simple).
The height of flowers can reach 20-80 cm, which is why it is better to plant them in the beds, in the garden and Alpine rollercoaster. But be aware that they love sunlight. Tulips can be planted in 10 cm increments in a checkerboard pattern, grouping 5-10 pieces.
The duration of flowering of tulips is short, in the spring. Their leaves are not beveled so that the bulbs do not weaken. If you need to replace faded tulips with summer flowers, then you can plant hostas, forget-me-nots, pansies, daisies.
Bulbs should be dug up when the leaves turn yellow from about the end of June to the beginning of July. After that, they are dried in a warm place and cleaned in a room where there is no moisture. But to the question of whether annual digging of the bulbs is required, one can answer that it depends on the individual desire and the place of planting. You can leave them in the ground for 2-3 years. But if you do not dig up the bulbs at all, then their uncontrolled division, shrinkage and degeneration of flowers will occur. Therefore, when digging, the largest bulbs are selected, the diseased and damaged are removed. Thus, the varietal quality is preserved without degeneration.
Features of planting bulbs
The bulbs should be planted in the fall so that they begin to bloom in the spring (after warm weather until a hard frost) from September 20 to October. That is, planting can begin at a soil temperature of 7-9 degrees at a depth of 10 cm. It is not advisable to plant bulbs before, since they do not have time to germinate and freeze. If you didn’t have time in time, then planting can be done later, but the tulips will bloom later.
But some gardeners decide to make a spring landing. But with possible frosts, planting in the soil until April is not allowed. To do this, use containers and, with constant heat, transplant tulips into the soil. But you can plant the bulbs immediately in the ground with the onset of heat, but first they are placed in the refrigerator for a day.
The bulbs are pre-peeled, can be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate or soaked for 60 minutes in a foundation. Planting material can also be treated with a fungicide against diseases.
planting depth clay soils is a couple of bulb diameters, and for light soils - 3 diameters. When deepening the bulbs, they do not need to be pressed into the soil, otherwise the bottom can be damaged.
Digging the soil is carried out to a depth of about 30 cm in advance to allow it to compact. Then the topsoil is mulched for insulation, for which spruce branches, straw, manure, compost or peat are used.
Performing top dressing
To make tulips bloom better, make top dressing:
- Nitrogen 35 g, potassium 25 g and phosphorus 35 g;
- Before flowering, potassium (25 g) and phosphorus 35 g are added.
You can also include foliar top dressing spraying tulips with mineral fertilizers. Work should be done on cloudy days.
Care and cleaning of bulbs
Care consists in loosening the soil, watering and weeding from weeds. Watering should not be stopped during prolonged drought during budding and 2 weeks after the appearance of flowers. Be sure to weed the soil from weeds that absorb minerals and can be carriers of pests.
Ripe bulbs can be dug up, on the surface of which covering scales with brown spots have appeared.
Leaves no one indifferent spring bloom tulips. And how can one remain indifferent when there is a colorful sea in front of him? Indeed, in our time, there are no tulips: red, yellow, purple, black, orange, motley. And the shape of the flower is amazing! How to grow such splendor on your site in order to admire the riot of colors in the spring? When should you plant tulips? Let's look at this issue in the article.The most optimal time for planting tubers is the period from late September to early November. But this time period does not strictly limit the landing time. Most importantly, do not plant tulips while it is still warm, as they can germinate. And do not plant when it is almost winter outside and it is cold.
Bulbs should be planted only in areas that are well lit. The lack of light will lead to the fact that the flower stem will stretch upwards, which will take all the strength and all the nutrition of the flower, respectively, the tulip cup itself will be small. And there will not be enough food for the development of the bulb. In addition, our future flower bed should not be flooded with water, it should not be located on a swampy piece of land, since the tubers can simply rot from excessive moisture.
We go around our site (dacha, garden), choose a place for a flower bed, taking into account the above requirements. After the place is chosen, we determine the shape of the flower bed. It can be a circle, a square, a rectangle, even a zigzag, the main thing is that you like it. Now we move on to an equally important stage - we decide what flowers we will plant tulips. We draw an approximate plan, best of all with colored pens (pencils, felt-tip pens). We calculate the approximate amount of planting material and go for the bulbs.
When buying, be sure to carefully inspect the bulbs. They should be firm, not sluggish, well dried, not germinated, without damage and rot, without stale roots.
Now we return to our dacha (garden, kitchen garden) and proceed to planting bulbs (it is allowed to dine and rest).
Before planting, it is desirable to mix the soil with peat so that it is loose, light and retains moisture well. We carefully loosen our future flower bed, and process the bulbs with a weak, pale pink solution of potassium permanganate. And we proceed directly to the landing process.
How to plant tulips?
Preparing holes for planting our bulbs. We carefully dig holes, the depth of which will be approximately three times the diameter of the bulb itself. Then carefully lower the prepared and processed onion into the hole with the roots down and sprinkle with earth. We plant tulips at a distance of 8-10 centimeters from each other in rows or in a checkerboard pattern. Random planting will make it difficult to dig up the bulbs after flowering.
Everything, landing is completed, we just have to wait for spring to admire the fruits of our labor. It would seem that tulips were planted, these are perennial flowers, and you can relax. However, it is not. At the end of June, we will have another important operation: digging up the bulbs. This is done so that the bulbs do not go deep into the ground (after 5 years you are unlikely to be able to dig them out), and also to avoid random division, the growth of a large number of flowers in one place, the crushing of flowers and the degeneration of the variety.
When to dig up tulip bulbs?
This operation is carried out at a time when the leaves of the tulips turn yellow, usually at the end of June. The leaves are carefully cut, and the bulb is dug up. After digging the bulb, you need to divide it, remove new small bulbs, dry them thoroughly and put them in a dark, cool, but not humid place until autumn. In autumn we will return our bulbs back to the ground.
That's all. Performing these simple operations will allow you to enjoy the beauty of tulips for many years.
When to plant tulips? In autumn? Or maybe it can be done in the spring? How to plant them correctly? How deep should the bulbs be planted? The answers to these questions will determine how our flower garden will look in the spring.
Tulips - bulbous plants. It is best to plant them in the fall. in the Kuban best timing it's mid-October, and for middle lane Russia - a month earlier.
How to plant tulips in autumn
They are among the first to bloom when other flowers have not yet risen or even planted. They look very beautiful blooming when planted in heaps, groups. The larger the group, the best impression she produces. How to arrange them will tell you the taste, as well as the place allocated for landing.
Soil preparation
I will not reveal any secret to you if I say that before planting tulips, you need to prepare the soil. It is best to do this two weeks before planting. What kind of soil do these flowers like? Loose, fertile. The place where they will grow must be sunny.
If the soil is dry, then first it must be well moistened, and only then only dig.
If you have dense soil on the site, then add sand to the hole or trench before planting - flowers love loose soil. I also add wood ash - this is at the same time good fertilizer, as well as additional protection from various diseases. Tulips are more suitable for alkaline soil, and ash just deoxidizes the earth well.
Regardless of how you arrange the bulbs - in rows or heaps, I advise you to sprinkle them with a small amount of humus or compost, and then cover them with earth on top.
And do not forget, they need the sun, and the breeze, so as not to disturb. If the site is at least partially closed from the sun, then the stems will stretch, thin, twist, and the bulbs will not be able to accumulate an adequate supply of food for themselves.
The site should be flat, with good subsoil. The roots of tulips go to a depth of a little more than half a meter, so if you ground water close, the bulbs will get wet and die. In this case, you will have to plant tulips on a hill.
Processing bulbs before planting
When we dug tulips after flowering in summer, we dried them well and sorted them. Large bulbs separately - we will plant them in the most prominent place - they will bloom, delight us. Small or medium-sized ones will not bloom in spring, therefore, as experts advise, it is better to plant them in an inconspicuous but sunny place.
This is how I roughly sort the bulbs, after drying into three parts - large, medium, small.
From medium bulbs, next summer we will get large ones with a planted flower arrow. And from small - we get medium. That is, for small children, it may take at least two seasons until they bloom.
I plant tulips not in rows, but in round clearings. I think they look more natural this way.
Unfortunately, tulips are prone to fungal diseases. Therefore, before planting them, the bulbs should be kept for at least half an hour in a solution of some fungicide, for example, Maxim, Fitosporin or a weak solution of manganese.
Planting tulips in the ground or baskets for bulbs
A convenient device for planting - plastic baskets with a slatted bottom. They are convenient in that they help form flower arrangements in a flower bed, facilitate the process of digging out bulbs after flowering is over. Usually you can buy special baskets 6-7 cm high. The average height of a large bulb is 4-5 cm. This means that the hole should have a depth of 12-15 cm.
For several years now I have been using special plastic baskets for bulbs for planting in the fall. But I always have a lot of tulips, so I use a plus for baskets plastic crates for vegetables, but not high, but with the lowest sides.
The time to dig tulips out of the ground in summer is much less with this method of planting. There are practically no unearthed or accidentally left. Even damaged by a shovel or pitchfork does not happen, since I actually dig out a box or basket, and only then shake out the contents on the ground.
I really like this way of planting tulips. Even if I sometimes do not have time to dig the bulbs in time in the summer, I leave them not dug out for another year, I am sure that they will not deepen, they will not go anywhere.
If you plant bulbs without baskets, then there is a good helper - a cone with a measuring scale, the purpose of which is to dig holes of a given depth.
Well, if you don't have baskets or a cone, it doesn't matter. You can do without them. In the area where I planned to plant them, I dig round or rectangular holes.
When planting tulips, you need to know the basic rule. Planting depth should be equal to the height of the bulb multiplied by three.
This depth guarantees good flowering, the appearance of a large bulb, strong, not very small children. A shallower planting will give you a small flower and, accordingly, not a large bulb.
According to agrotechnical rules, there should be a distance of 10-15 cm between the bulbs. But purely aesthetically, blooming tulips look more beautiful, located close to each other, like a living bouquet. If you dig up bulbs every year (experts advise doing just that), then do not be afraid to plant them with a distance of 5-6 cm from each other.
How to water tulips
Now a little about watering. Should I water newly planted bulbs? It all depends on soil moisture. If the soil is moist, then watering is optional. But in the case of landing in dry ground, it is necessary to shed a hole or groove well.
Tulips should be watered regularly, plentifully during the period of active growth, during budding, flowering, especially in dry years. Moisture should penetrate to the depth of the roots (0.5 m), and not just wet the ground. After flowering, watering stops.
Is it possible to plant tulip bulbs in spring
Usually best time autumn is considered for planting bulbs. But in February-March, the planted bulbs also take root well. It should only be remembered that the daytime temperature should reach + 8-10 ° C.
Fertilizing tulips during planting, during the growing season, after flowering
Ordinary tulips are practically not whimsical. It is enough to add ash, humus or compost to the hole when planting.
But for varietals, a more thorough inspection is needed. They need to be fed with mineral fertilizers 2-3 times per season.
The first dressing can be carried out even in the snow - scatter dry fertilizer- Approximately 2 tablespoons per sq. m.
The second top dressing - after emergence of shoots. Best suited for full mineral fertilizer Kemira Universal. Prepare the solution according to the instructions, water the tulip seedlings at the rate of 2-3 buckets per 1 sq. m.
The third time I advise you to feed after flowering, but no later than 2 weeks later. Dissolve 1 Matchbox any phosphorus-potassium fertilizer in a bucket of water, for example, potassium monophosphate. Pour the tulips that have lost color with the solution.
How to grow large tulips
When we sorted the bulbs, we knew what to bloom on next year will only be large. The size of the flower depends on the size of the bulbs, however, varietal characteristics still play a role here.
I will share one secret on how to get large bulbs and, as a result, large flowers. Sometimes this is important when you are going to propagate some wonderful variety, or you are selling bulbs. Professionals use a term such as decapitation - the removal of flower heads. I also advise you to use this technique.
How to properly decapitate? Let the flower bloom, admire its beauty. Make sure that the varietal characteristics are present, there is no stem curvature, that is, the flower is healthy. 3-4 days after the opening of the bud, remove the flower. At the same time, the mass of the bulb by the time of digging will increase by 30-40%.
With the advent of spring, everything wakes up, our gardens are transformed, and city squares are painted with colorful flower arrangements. Well, what is spring without tulips? And thanks to the work of breeders, so many different varieties have appeared that you are even surprised how far red tulip fields have remained in the past.
Varieties of tulips: there are none!
The color of tulip flowers contains the entire color spectrum: from pure white to almost black. In addition to varieties with simple flowers there are representatives with terry, and with fringed, and even with terry-fringed. It should be noted that exotic novelties cost a lot, besides, they are not so stable in culture - they are more “gentle”, often fall out and are more susceptible to damage than others. various diseases. Therefore, if you really want to purchase such unusual varieties, then try to create the most favorable conditions: pick up the best place be sure to arrange in the garden good drainage when planting, and if you have rodents on the site, then take appropriate measures.
How to choose tulip bulbs when buying
Tulip bulbs are quite large, rounded, flattened on one side. The larger they are, the more spectacular the flowering will be.
The bottom of the bulb should be intact. An instance with a damaged bottom, even healthy in appearance, can simply rot after planting. Mechanical damage from the sides is not so terrible and will not affect the quality of flowering. But raids or dark places, especially in the area of \u200b\u200bthe bottom, in no case should be on the bulbs. Pay attention to the density and weight of the planting material. The mass should correspond to the size - the bulb should not be light and loose.
How to choose a place to plant tulips
Tulips do not tolerate stagnant water, acidic soils, and fresh organic fertilizers. A place for their landing should be chosen sunny. In such areas, tulips develop well, show themselves in all their glory, they increase resistance to various diseases. This is especially true of tall Darwin hybrids, in which, with a lack of light, the stems become twisted and may even lie down. Do not plant tall varieties in windy places.
Owners of low plots should take care of arranging bulk flower beds 15-20 cm high.
Soil preparation for planting tulip bulbs
It is advisable to prepare the soil for planting tulips in a month. The site is well dug up, complex granular fertilizers are applied, for example, autumn Kemira. If the soil is heavy, then when digging, you need to add river sand.
The subtleties of landing
Before planting, tulip bulbs are inspected again. All sick, feeble and shrunken are culled. To prevent fungal diseases, they are pre-treated with a 0.2% solution of Fundazol (a broad-spectrum systemic fungicide).
After wet processing, tulips are not dried, but immediately planted. The planting site is watered, this contributes to the rapid formation of roots. Keep in mind that if the root system of these plants is damaged, new roots will not form in the damaged areas.
The timing of planting bulbs directly depends on the climatic conditions of a particular region. Planting is carried out in such a way that before the onset of stable frosts, the bulbs have time to take root well. The optimum air temperature is +5-7°C, at a higher temperature (+10°C and above) rooting is slower, the bulbs are more often exposed to various diseases. Tulips usually take root within 2-3 weeks.
When planting bulbs, you need to add river sand under the bottom, that is, arrange a “sand cushion”. Thus, I plant all varieties of tulips, and especially valuable ones I sprinkle with sand on top, and only then I cover it with earth.
It is not necessary to plant too densely, especially varieties with large leaves. The distance between the largest bulbs should be 7-9 cm, between rows - 20-25 cm. The distance between the smaller bulbs should be equal to their diameter. The more spacious your plantings, the higher the multiplication rate will be.
Tulips are planted, based on the rule: planting depth equal to three times the height of the bulb. Therefore, it is better to plant large specimens and a baby separately.
The bulbs are carefully placed on a sandy cushion or loose soil, but not pressed or screwed in, as this can damage the root roller, and covered with soil. After planting, the place is leveled. The height of the soil above the planting material should eventually be equal to the height of two bulbs.
Tulip Care Rules
In the spring, care for planting tulips begins early enough. Immediately after the snow melts, with the appearance of the first sprouts in the flower beds, fallen leaves are removed, the ground is loosened, and the shoots are examined. Sick tulips and with twisted stems are immediately dug up with a clod of earth and removed to protect others and prevent mass infection and the spread of fungal infections.
For the first time, you need to feed the plants after the snow melts, with the appearance of the first sprouts. Use nitrogen fertilizer - urea (urea). With the advent of the first buds, a second top dressing is carried out with phosphorus fertilizer, for example, superphosphate. When mass flowering of tulips occurs, use the drug Bud (universal natural stimulator of growth, flowering and fruit formation). At the end of the growing season, a month before digging, it is necessary to fertilize with a fertilizer containing potassium (for example, potassium monophosphate). This contributes to an increase in the size of the bulb and the accumulation of starch in it.
If there was not enough snow in winter, and in spring there was little moisture in the soil, then tulips must be watered. They are especially sensitive to the water regime in the budding phase.
After each watering, it is desirable to loosen the soil. The soil crust is an obstacle to oxygen, which is so necessary for the roots. Because of this, the bulbs will not ripen well.
To form tulips large bulbs and actively increased the daughter ones, immediately after flowering, their flowers break off. In young plants, flowers are broken off 2-3 days after they open, so that it can be established that they belong to the variety and determine if they are infected with the variegation virus. You should not use scissors, since the juice of diseased plants (signs may not yet appear) can get on sections of healthy ones.
When to dig up tulip bulbs
Digging up tulip bulbs
Tulips need to be dug up every two years. If this is not done and left without digging at all, the soil will gradually pull the bulbs deep, over time they will grind.
It is better to dig up novelty varieties every year, as they are more susceptible to diseases, especially in hot and rainy summers. Sick and damaged among them must be immediately discarded. The remaining bulbs, after they dry out, should be treated for prophylaxis in a solution of potassium permanganate or Maxim.
You need to dig up the bulbs in a timely manner: not too early, but not to delay this process. With early digging, the bulbs do not have time to ripen and then wither, become flabby and die. With a late one, it will be difficult to choose children from the ground and you can easily lose even an adult bulb.
The signal for digging is the completely yellowed top two leaves, bottom sheet becomes grey-green. Dig up tulips in dry weather. They are left to dry for 3-6 days in the shade under a canopy along with the stems. When the nests of the bulbs dry out, they begin to divide. The stem is carefully separated, the bulbs are freed from scales, and the replacement bulb is separated from the rest of the peduncle.
Tulip Bulb Storage Modes
The first month, tulips are stored at a temperature of + 23-25 ° C. At this time, flower buds are laid on the bulbs. Fringed varieties prefer a higher temperature (+ 25-27 ° C). This will positively affect the quality of the fringe - it will become more magnificent and longer. Too high a temperature (more than +30°C) is harmful, since, on the contrary, the flower bud may not develop or its development will occur with deviations. A month later, the storage temperature is lowered to + 18-20 ° C.
Reproduction of tulips
All tulips are propagated by baby bulbs. Adult bulbs are planted for flowering, and small and children are planted separately for growing and reproduction.
A replacement bulb, which will bloom next year instead of the mother's, is not suitable for this, since it inherits all the physiological characteristics of the mother and accumulates signs of aging. Medium-sized, young, strong, rounded bulbs are suitable for breeding varieties.
Tulips are not propagated by seeds in amateur floriculture. This method is used exclusively for breeding purposes, and the flowering of plants from seeds occurs only after 4-5 years.
❀ By the end of the growing season, the mother bulb dies off completely and a whole nest of daughter bulbs is formed in its place. The largest of them becomes a substitute. The rest of the baby bulbs (1st and 2nd generations) will need to be grown within 1-2 years.
Diseases and pests of tulips. Treatment
Unfortunately, tulips are subject to various diseases and have numerous pests. Let's get acquainted with the most common and learn how to deal with them.
Fungal diseases
Botrytis, or gray rot, is most active in rainy and cool weather. On the first storage scales, bulbs form rounded and irregular shape spots. They are clearly defined, yellow-orange or brown, reaching 1 cm in diameter or more. Bulbs shrivel, turn black.
In years when the spring is long or cold, the disease appears on the leaves and even on the flowers in the form of brown spots. Affected bulbs give out weak shoots and develop poorly, leaf blades are torn, deformed and turn brown. Plants seem to be charred, covered gray coating. The infection is transmitted through infected bulbs and soil.
Taking action
They do not allow thickening of plantings, remove weeds in time and loosen the soil.
When landing, avoid low areas. On heavy soils, sand is added.
Plant resistance to the disease is increased by fertilizing with phosphorus and potash fertilizers, as well as containing trace elements.
Before planting, tulip bulbs should be placed in a 0.2% solution of Fundazol for 30 minutes.
From the moment of emergence of seedlings, every 10-15 days preventive treatments of plants are carried out with a 0.4% solution of copper oxychloride, a 0.2% solution of Fundazol, a 1% Bordeaux mixture, a 0.2% solution of the preparation Skor.
Strictly observe the mode of storage of bulbs.
When digging, tulips are immediately treated with one of the listed fungicides.
Typhulosis is one of the varieties of white dry rot. Tulips sprout later, their leaves do not develop, the shoots remain rolled into a tube, turn red. With a weak degree of infection, when there are no obvious signs of bottom rot, the plants have an oppressed appearance, do not bloom or give out "blind" buds, their root system not viable.
The development of the disease is facilitated by low positive temperatures, so tyfulosis often manifests itself after warm winter and at high humidity autumn and spring. The infection persists in the soil, on weeds and is transmitted with the bulb. Infected bulbs during storage serve as a source of disease.
Taking action
Weeds are removed from the site in a timely manner, the bulbs are carefully inspected and discarded during storage.
After digging up the tulips, the site must be dug deep with the turnover of the reservoir, since at great depths the spores of the fungus do not germinate and die over time (after 70-80 days).
Bulbs dug out from the site where typhulosis was observed should be treated in a 0.5% solution of potassium permanganate.
Before planting, the bulbs are treated with this solution: 10 g of potassium permanganate and 3 g of boric acid are dissolved in 10 liters of water.
Fusarium usually appears towards the end of the growing season, causing a significant drop of tulips. Sometimes plants die in early spring, after the snow melts. Large tulips lag behind in growth, their flowers become small and faded, the peduncles are short and thin. Sick tulips are easily pulled out of the soil.
The likelihood of infection increases when the weather before digging is humid and hot. Wet white rot forms on the bulbs, covering the bottom, the scales lag behind, during storage large light brown spots with a red-brown border form, and a pink coating appears between the scales. Subcutaneous tissues soften, darken and acquire a sharp specific odor. Ultimately, the bulb turns into dust.
Taking action
Measures to combat fusarium are the same as for the defeat of tulips by botrytis.
variegation virus
The variegation virus changes the color of the flower. Depending on the initial color of the variety, it manifests itself differently. So, in pink, purple and lilac varieties, the color of the flower becomes heterogeneous: strokes appear on the edge of the petals on a white or yellow background, and in the middle of the petal there are asymmetrically arranged stripes against the background of the original color of the variety. Tulips of red, dark red and purple colors appear against the background of their own color strokes and stripes more dark tones. It is difficult to recognize the presence of the virus in white and yellow varieties, since the shading on the flowers is poorly visible.
On the stems and leaves, strokes and faint stripes of a pale green color also sometimes appear. But do not confuse such specimens with tulip varieties, in which striped leaves are a varietal trait.
Plants infected with the virus are weaker, the flower stalk becomes shorter, and the weight of the bulbs decreases. Such tulips will continue to bloom and grow for a long time, but the variety will gradually degenerate - the disease destroys the main ones inherent only in this variety signs.
The variegated virus is incurable and spreads with the juice of diseased plants, carried by various insects (aphids, bugs, thrips). For relatively a short time you can lose the entire collection of varieties. Since the mass appearance of insect vectors is observed in the second half of May, it is mainly varieties of medium and late flowering that are affected by the variegation virus. Early flowering varieties, Kaufman, Foster and Greig tulips are also susceptible to this virus, but by the time aphids appear above-ground part they already die off and infection becomes almost impossible.
Taking action
In order to avoid the transfer of the virus from diseased plants to healthy ones, one knife should not be used to cut flowers and remove buds. I just break the flowers with my hands, but so that the broken stem does not touch my fingers. To do this, tightly grasp the flower or bud and remove it.
After use, the tool must be disinfected with alcohol, in a solution of potassium permanganate or baking soda.
Diseased plants must be ruthlessly cut out and destroyed before the flower fully opens. Usually, on the second day of staining the petals, it is already clear whether the tulip is sick or not. Under no circumstances should such plants be thrown into compost heap, ideally they should be incinerated.
To prevent the disease in the neighborhood of tulips, you should not plant lilies that can be affected by a virus without showing signs of illness, and planting tulips after lilies is simply unacceptable.
In most varieties of tulips, the baby is immune to the virus, so it is better to grow tulips from it.
Since the main carriers of the virus are aphids, it is important to monitor their appearance on tulip plantings and deal with them in a timely manner.
Tulip pests
onion hoverfly- This is a greenish fly up to 1 cm long.
But the main harm to tulips is not caused by herself, but by her larvae, which appear in June and September (second generation).
The larvae penetrate the tulip bulb through the bottom and make moves in it. Affected bulbs do not produce flower stalks, the leaves turn yellow and wither prematurely, and with severe damage, the plant may die. Fly larvae overwinter in bulbs, soil and storage.
Taking action
Affected plants are removed during the growing season.
You can destroy the larvae in the bulb if you keep the infected bulbs in hot water(not more than +43°C) for 2 hours.
An effective method is a deep autumn digging of the soil with a layer turnover.
Reduces the spread of onion hoverflies by mulching the soil with peat, which prevents egg laying.
It is useful to plant plants around the perimeter of flower beds with tulips that produce phytoncides: marigolds, calendula and others.
Planting tulips are watered with infusion wood ash(500 g per 10 l of water) at the rate of 5 l/m2.
Root onion mite- most dangerous pest. It penetrates between the scales of the bulb, bites into its tissues. It quickly rots and may no longer germinate. If it does germinate, then during the growing season the growth of tulips is delayed, the leaves turn yellow and die prematurely, the quality of flowering deteriorates. Such plants are usually affected by other diseases and quickly die.
The bulbs can also be damaged by a tick during storage if the pest remains on the old scales and roots. It reproduces especially well at a temperature of about + 25 ° C and air humidity of more than 70%. The outer surface of the scales is gradually covered with brown dust, the bulbs rot and dry out.
Taking action
Carefully inspect the bulbs during digging and storage and discard the affected ones.
Before storage planting material must be treated with acaricide (Aktellik, Fitoverm and others).
You can sprinkle the bulbs with chalk or ash, they stick to the body of ticks that die from drying out.
An effective way to fight is heat treatment of the bulbs. Affected bulbs are immersed for 5 minutes in hot (+ 35-40 ° C) water and planted on a separate bed.
If a tick is found on tulips during the growing season, plantings can be treated with an acaricide solution, but still it is better to dig them up and destroy them.
For prophylactic purposes, after digging up tulips (and other bulbs), plants resistant to this pest are planted on the site: marigolds, feverfew, tomatoes, radishes.
wireworms damage tulip bulbs during their active growth, making moves in them. Bulbs easily rot and are affected by other diseases. Wireworms are larvae of the click beetle that look like pieces copper wire from where they got their name. Beetles lay their eggs in the soil near the root neck of plants. Favorable for laying places overgrown with weeds, especially wheatgrass and thistle - this is the favorite food of wireworms.
Taking action
Timely remove weeds and loosen the soil.
Pests prefer to live in acidic soil. Therefore, it is recommended to add lime, chalk, dolomite flour or ash.
Baits are laid out (pieces of potatoes, beets) and bait plants (wheat, oats, corn, barley) are sown.
Ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate is introduced into the soil in the amount of 20-30 g/m2, creating unfavorable conditions for the reproduction of beetles, which leads to a reduction in the number of their larvae.
Medvedka Causes significant damage to plants, gnawing their stems and roots. The bulk of the passages is at a depth of 2-4 cm, the pest goes deeper only for wintering and for laying eggs. Around its nest, the bear destroys all plants so that the nest warms up well (it is usually located at a depth of 10-15 cm), which serves as a good guide for searching and destroying its nests. You can also detect the presence of a bear on the site by numerous holes and passages in the soil, which become especially noticeable after rain or watering.
Taking action
Bear nests are destroyed during deep loosening of the soil.
Starting in spring, traps are laid out on the site: sheets of plywood, slate, iron, under which insects crawl to bask. It remains only to regularly review the traps and destroy pests.
At the beginning of autumn, bait pits up to 0.5 m deep can be arranged. They are filled with manure. Insects settle in such pits for the winter. With the onset of frost, manure from the pit is scattered and pests die.
A similar option is for the beginning of spring. Small heaps of manure are laid out around the site, in which the bears arrange oviposition. Periodically, once a month, heaps look through and collect pests.
You can catch the bear and with the help of water traps. To do this, banks filled with water are buried in the ground so that it does not reach the edges by 8-10 cm. Once in the water, the pest cannot get out of it.
Nematodes are roundworms that live in the soil. They penetrate the root system. As a result, the shoots become shortened, have swelling. The roots quickly rot, the plant loses turgor and dies.
Taking action
Carry out heat treatment of the bulbs before planting.
Defender plants have different effects on nematodes. For example, marigolds for nematodes are detrimental, only it is necessary to plant varieties of marigolds rejected and thin-leaved with a strong odor. Extracts from marigold roots expel nematodes. The roots of gaillardia, rudbeckia, coreopsis secrete substances that nematodes cannot tolerate.
Aphids damage young shoots and leaves, causing their deformation and discoloration. Sucking out the juice, aphids secrete a sweet substance - honeydew, which attracts other insects. That is why ants can often be seen near aphids feeding on sweet and aphid secretions.
Taking action
Do not overfeed plants with nitrogen fertilizers, because it is fresh young greens that attract aphids.
The most popular means of fighting aphids is soap dissolved in water (it is more convenient to use liquid) and vegetable oil. The viscous consistency of the solution envelops the bodies of insects and prevents them from breathing.
From chemicals you can use Inta-VIR, Alatar, Fitoverm and others.
Hello dear friends!
Today we will talk about the features growing tulips about how they differ from others
There is no such garden where tulips do not bloom and already in April their pointed seedlings pierce the melting snow - the leaves begin to grow.
And after 20-30 days they bloom and we can admire their luxurious flowering for up to 35 days.
In order to make it easy and enjoyable, you must follow a number of simple rules.
Growing Rules
- Immediately at the beginning of spring, as soon as the snow melts (and even better in the snow), you need to feed the tulips chemical fertilizers- 15-30 g per 1 m 2 , but not more. When fertilizing, try to remember that tulips do not grow well with high salt concentrations in the soil and therefore only half the dose recommended for bulb crops should be applied. I usually feed tulips with nitroammophos or special fertilizers for garden flowers: the first dressing is in the snow, the second is at the beginning of budding, the third is a week after flowering.
- Basic spring care for tulips is to remove diseased plants, moreover, together with the bulb, roots and adjacent soil. At the same time, the hole is filled with a solution of potassium permanganate, which is sometimes recommended to be heated to a temperature of 70-100 ° C.
- In winters with little snow, severe freezing of the soil to a depth of up to 20 cm is possible. If tulips survive the freezing temperature of the soil to minus 4 ° C without consequences and bloom normally in the spring, then freezing to minus 9 ° C is fraught with various deformations of the flower. Therefore, after the first frost, when the soil freezes at night and thaws during the day, it is better to cover the plantings of tulips with peat, humus, sawdust or straw with a layer of 10-15 cm.
As of appearance tulips can determine which elements are missing in the soil. For example, if there is not enough nitrogen, then the leaf plates of the tulip become narrow and are no longer able to maintain a vertical position. The stems and leaves, at the same time, gradually acquire a red tint. With a lack of potassium and phosphorus in the soil, a blue-green color appears along the edges of the tulip leaves.
All agricultural practices - loosening, weeding, fertilizing, removing diseased and viral plants - must be carried out very carefully so as not to damage the leaves and roots healthy plants, because it is they who “feed” the bulb.
Leaves, stems, flowers grow very quickly in tulips, and even underground, active work is underway to increase the size of the daughter bulb and grandchild bulbs are laid. And this explains their short period of life. These rapid processes require large amounts of nutrients and moisture in the soil. Therefore, during the period of budding and flowering, especially in the absence of rain, it is necessary to water the plants regularly. And also, in order to get a properly formed large replacement bulb, tulips must be watered for another two weeks after flowering.
To get in the second year big flowers and so that the bulb does not break up into small onions, the seed box should not be allowed to appear - when the flower begins to wither, you must immediately remove it (tear off with your hands, and not cut with a knife). At the same time, it is imperative to leave at least two leaves on the stem, because the future flower and bulb will feed on them.
Tulips love sun and well-drained, light soil. As a rule, bulbs are dug up every year, but if you plant tulips deeper and remember to feed them during growth and after flowering, they can grow in one place for several years. I transplant tulips every 3-4 years.
In June, as soon as the leaves begin to turn yellow, dig up the bulbs, dry them in the shade and store them in boxes until autumn, signing the name of the variety. Tulip bulbs can't stand direct sunlight. and, therefore (I want to repeat once again) they must be dried in the shade, in a well-ventilated place.
In September, it's time to plant tulips on the ridges. To do this, we make trenches 30 cm wide and about 20 cm deep. We pour superphosphate on the bottom. Attention! I remind you that in no case should you put manure under tulips (as well as under all bulbs), as this leads to rotting of the bulbs. First, we lay out large bulbs in trenches with the bottom down and lightly sprinkle with earth. Then we plant smaller ones between them and sprinkle again, and lay out the children along the edges. From above we fall asleep with the remaining earth. With this planting, the beds look more decorative in spring and there is no need to dig up tulips every year.
Diseases and pests
If the tulip bulbs have sprouted, but the leaves begin to turn yellow and dry, then we can talk about the disease of the plant. Very often, diseases spread after damage by both a root onion mite, a bear, click beetles, and mechanical ones.
Symptoms fusarium rot (fusarium) are: sudden yellowing and drying of the ground part of the plant, the bulbs begin to turn brown and dry, a weak grayish coating of mycelium with spores appears.
penicillium rot manifests itself as follows: the scales on the surface of the bulb begin to turn yellow and then dense bluish-green sporulation rapidly grows. Decay begins with flower buds and peduncles and very often the bulb rots completely.
Bacterial rot (bacteriosis) develops mainly as a result of damage to the root onion mite, which feeds on the bottom and young roots of the bulb, sometimes nematodes also provoke the disease. With this disease, the bulbs turn brown and rot, an unpleasant odor appears.
One of the most common and dangerous viral diseases tulips are considered variegation virus. Outwardly, it appears on the petals of tulips in the form of various stripes and specks, which often look decorative and unusual. However, the virus infects all parts of the plant, slows down metabolic processes, provokes a delay in flowering and early yellowing of the leaves.
Or maybe you have your own interesting secrets in growing tulips, dear readers? Share with us!