How to store tulip bulbs

In the fall or even early winter, garden centers and shops offer a variety of tulips, often at good discounts. It is not always possible to plant them immediately in open ground and you need to somehow save them until spring. And experienced gardeners recommend digging out bulbs growing in a flower bed every 3-4 years and replanting them to another place, otherwise over time they will go too deep into the ground and stop releasing powerful peduncles. In addition, bulbs are dug up to propagate tulips.

How to prepare tulip bulbs for storage

If you bought bulbs, skip this step - they are already ready for wintering. The instruction will come in handy when you are going to send tulips from your site for storage.

Dig up the bulbs

They begin to do this around the beginning of June, when the leaves of tulips turn yellow after flowering by a third. You can also dig tulips in the fall until the soil begins to freeze. True, if there are no leaves of the plant left in the flower bed, it can be difficult to determine the location of the bulb.

Carefully dig into the soil with a small garden shovel or fork and remove the bulbs. You can just rake priming hands - so you definitely do not damage the tulips. If soil remains stuck to the bulbs, wash it off with water.

Now put the bulbs in a box and leave for 2-3 days in a dry, ventilated place to dry.

Clean and disinfect the bulbs

Remove the dry covering husk from the tulips; it is easily separated with your fingers. For convenience, wear gloves.

Even if the bulbs look completely healthy, without rot and stains, they need to be disinfected. This will help get rid of fungal pathogens. diseaseswhich may not yet have shown themselves. So make a solution of potassium permanganate at the rate of 0.5 g of the product per 2.5 liters of water. Instead, you can take special drugs - for example, "Maxim" or "Fitosporin", which are diluted according to the instructions on the package.

Leave the bulbs in the disinfectant for 30 minutes, then remove and dry on a paper towel for 1 hour.

Dry the bulbs

Take cardboard boxes or plastic boxes with holes. Arrange the bulbs in them in one layer. If you have several varieties of tulips, put each in a separate container and be sure to label it to avoid confusion.

Send the crates to a dry, warm and well-ventilated area. It is important that the temperature does not fall below 23 degrees. Leave the bulbs for about a week - this will be enough to dry.

How to store tulip bulbs

The method is suitable for any tulips: both personally dug up and bought in a store. Take wrapping (craft) or parchment paper, a regular newspaper will do. You will need as many sheets as you have bulbs. The length and width of each piece is at least 20 cm.

On the sheet, make small cuts with scissors at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other - they will become a kind of ventilation for the tulip.

Carefully wrap each onion in one "leaky" sheet of paper. On the package, you can write the name of the variety, so as not to get confused.

Put the tulips in paper in the refrigerator on the lowest level or in the compartment for vegetables and fruits. Or place the bulbs in boxes and send them to the basement where the temperature does not rise above 5 degrees. Even a glazed balcony will fit for storage, because tulips can withstand short-term frosts down to -3 degrees.

It is important that during storage the temperature does not rise above 10 degrees, otherwise the tulips may germinate ahead of time. In addition, for high-quality intensive flowering, they need to undergo stratification - “wintering” in coolness, imitating natural processes. Therefore, monitor the temperature regime in the place where tulips are stored, and also periodically unfold the paper and inspect the bulbs: if condensation appears on the surface, gently wipe them, dry them and wrap them in new paper sheets. And in the spring, when the heat comes, proceed for planting in open ground.