Gladioli - flowers beloved by many gardeners require attention. They need to be dug up in time, trimmed, and then stored for gladioli storage in winter. There are many different options for storing gladioli in winter and we will tell you about all of them. We hope you will choose the most suitable method for yourself and save your favorite varieties of gladioli until spring.
To ensure that your gladioli delight you with abundant flowering and large corms, start cutting flowers according to the following scheme:
- Gladioli should be cut when the flowers are partially open.
- The best time to cut a gladiolus flower is when the bottom two flowers have bloomed.
- I cut the peduncles with a sharp knife early in the morning or in the evening so that the remainder of the peduncle is deeply hidden between the remaining leaves, of which there should be at least four on the plant, and which should ensure the further growth and development of the corm. After all, she needs to gain strength to please us with lush blooms next year.
The time when it is best to remove gladioli from the flower bed can be easily calculated. 30 - 50 days should pass after flowering, and then the gladioli can be safely dug up. The above-ground part of the plant should die off during this time, and only then can the gladioli be dug up and trimmed.
After digging, the gladioli are trimmed. And this must be done very carefully! Under no circumstances should you trim, tear off or twist the stems and leaves of gladioli until they die completely. Their death occurs exactly 30 - 50 days after flowering.
How to trim gladioli for storage
The stems of gladioli are cut off, leaving a small stump (0.5 - 1.0 cm) near the corms. I advise you to leave just such a small stump, since by autumn thrips, a very common pest of gladioli, gathers closer to the base of the stem. By pruning shorter, we reduce the possibility of damage to gladioli by thrips during winter storage. Here are the basic rules for trimming gladioli for the winter:
- In adult corms, the roots and the old, mother corm are removed immediately. This reduces the drying time of planting material and prevents the spread of diseases.
- In juvenile bulbs grown from baby bulbs, the roots are only well shortened and removed the next year in preparation for spring planting.
After pruning gladioli for the winter, the corms are washed from the soil and treated in a solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) 5-10 g per 10 liters of water for 20-25 minutes.
Tuber preparation
Preparing bulbs for subsequent storage is one of the most responsible and significant processes. The safety of the shoots until the next season, as well as the quality and health of the flowers grown, will depend on compliance with all technologies.
Preparatory activities usually include the following steps:
- Initially, all dug up tubers must be dried to remove any remaining soil and dirt from them. Also a desirable measure is subsequent treatment against various parasites and diseases.
- At the second stage, all the bulbs must be thoroughly dried, since without this procedure they will be at risk of fungal growths. It is important to pay due attention to all shoots, since just one rotten or moldy tuber will be enough for the epidemic to spread throughout the entire storage facility. The drying time is usually at least 2 - 3 weeks, and the gladioli must be kept at a stable temperature of at least +25 - +30°C. After this, they sit for another month in a room at standard room temperature, and there is no need to be afraid of overdrying them, since insufficient drying has many dangers.
- Dried bulbs must be sorted not only by variety, but also by size. Taking into account the fact that storage will be quite long, it is recommended to sign the names of the varieties on the boxes so as not to forget this information. During sorting, special attention will need to be paid to the condition and dimensions of the bottom part of large tubers, since too large sizes indicate its advanced age, so this variety of gladioli may need natural rejuvenation.
- Additionally, you can store several cloves of garlic with the bulbs , which will provide additional protection against many types of parasites.
This is where the preparatory activities end, all that remains is to choose a specific method for storing gladioli, after which you can begin to implement it.
How to dry gladioli before storing
Drying of gladioli begins as early as possible, immediately after digging.
- The corms are placed in bags according to variety and dried in the open air for 1 to 3 days, if possible. After which the gladioli are brought into the house and dried at a temperature of 25-30° for 15 days.
- And then, they are dried at a temperature of 20-22° for 30-35 days. For better drying, it is useful to stir up the planting material at least 2 times a day. The good condition of planting material during winter storage depends on good drying.
Poorly dried corms, due to increased humidity under the scales, begin to develop fungal and bacterial diseases, are poorly stored and die. Therefore, it is necessary to store only well-dried and healthy corms without signs of disease. All gladioli corms with signs of disease and cracked children are discarded.
If there is a small variety or the gladiolus variety is very valuable, and the damage is small, then you can cut out the damaged areas to healthy tissue and cover it with brilliant green (brilliant green) or treat it with a strong solution of potassium permanganate.
Treatment of gladioli in the fall - before storing the gladioli in winter, treat them with Maxim against rot and pests.
How to protect planting material from diseases and pests
During winter storage, you need to check the condition of the bulbs from time to time. If damaged specimens appear, you need to remove them immediately if they are severely affected, or cut off the damaged area if it is small. The knife is pre-disinfected with dry Fundazol or a solution of brilliant green.
If thrips appear, the sign of which is small black dots, you need to treat them with Actellik solution or put them in a closed jar with alcohol for several hours. Then the treated gladioli should be dried well at room temperature.
By following the rules for digging up and preparing gladioli for winter storage, you can get good planting material for the next season.
Winter storage of bulbs allows you to significantly save on purchasing them in specialized stores. Rate this article:
How to save gladioli bulbs affected by thrips?
In winter, it is advisable to periodically inspect the corms of gladioli in order to promptly identify the presence of pests in them. The main enemy of gladioli is thrips, a skilled camouflage plant. During sorting, bulbs infected with the pest may appear completely healthy. If you notice traces of insect bites (small black dots) on the bulbs, do not despair - all is not lost. You can get rid of thrips. There are several ways to provide first aid to infected bulbs. We will present three of the most effective of them.
- Alcohol. Some gardeners advise placing the bulbs in a glass jar, putting a cotton swab generously moistened with alcohol inside and sealing tightly. After a few hours, you should notice that the insects have emerged from under the scales of the bulb and, most likely, died. If necessary, you can repeat the procedure.
- Decis solution. Two ampoules of the substance are dissolved in 10 liters of warm water. The bulbs are left in the solution for 30-40 minutes. Then dry again.
- Actellik solution. The substance is diluted with water in a ratio of 2 g per liter. The bulbs are immersed in the solution for 5 minutes. After this, the bulbs are dried again at a temperature of 20-25°C.
When to take bulbs out of the refrigerator to sprout?
Gladioli should be removed from the refrigerator approximately a month before the date of planned planting in the ground. It is this time that is necessary for normalization of the flow of biological processes inside the biomaterial and successful “awakening”.
Planting in the middle zone should be planned for early April; accordingly, it is recommended to remove gladioli bulbs from the refrigerator in early to mid-March. Sometimes 20 days are enough for the formation of full-fledged arrows and the pipping of a bud.
Advice! Gladiolus bulbs should be buried 7-10 cm. It is better to plant them. When the stable air temperature in the morning reaches 10 degrees.
After removing the bulbs from the refrigerator, they should be prepared for planting as follows:
- The bulb should be freed from scales and examined. The surface of high-quality planting material should be shiny and pale yellow or cream in color.
- The root embryos should hatch on the surface; they are white and look like dense buds.
- Shrunken and wrinkled specimens should be planted separately, otherwise they may affect healthy specimens.
- If there are brown or bright crimson dots on the bulb, they should be cut off and then treated with a preparation to prevent rotting processes.
- The bulbs should be placed in cardboard boxes and the date of germination should be marked. After 2-3 weeks, the dormant buds should hatch. It is worth planting the bulbs in the ground when the sprout reaches 4 cm in height. He should get stronger.
The process of storing gladioli bulbs in the refrigerator in the winter is simple, and if certain germination rules are followed, the flower harvest will be rich.
Basic mistakes
- Storing bulbs in the bathroom. This room does have a more favorable temperature regime, and it also has a cool tiled floor, but it must be taken into account that the humidity level in the bathrooms is too high, which can lead to rotting of the planting material.
- Simultaneous digging up of all the gladioli bulbs in the garden bed, as a result of which shoots that are not ripe and not ready for this process are sent for storage. Most plants bloom at different periods of time, so when calculating the time of digging it is easy to get confused, in this regard, it is recommended to record the dates when the gladioli fade, count 30-40 days from them, and only then carry out the digging.
- Removing the top layers of husk, as this in most cases leads to subsequent drying out of the bulb. The only exceptions are situations when the bulbs are treated with paraffin.
- Storage of planting material in plastic bags. Such a ban is associated with poor air transmission, which even making holes for ventilation cannot help, which leads to oxygen starvation.
- Having directional light sources near the storage area is another common mistake. The bulbs tolerate light well, but it must be diffused.
In the box
A box or box made of any material, but always perforated, is suitable for storing tubers. Air enters the bulbs through the holes, without which they will die.
Each variety of gladioli is placed in a separate box, not covered with a lid, and put away. For reliability, you can install a thermometer and a humidity controller in the box in order to notice changes in storage conditions in time and rearrange the bulbs.
On the grid
It is convenient to store the bulbs in a net or bag. You can put it in a cool place and forget about the tubers until spring. A mesh made of synthetic materials is not suitable for storage because it does not allow air to pass through, and good ventilation is necessary for gladioli.
It is not recommended to hang a net from the ceiling; warm air accumulates in the upper part of the room, and this harms the plant. Likewise, you should not leave the mesh next to the radiator.
Adviсe
To prevent gladioli tubers from taking root during storage, before storing them in the refrigerator, they are thoroughly dried and placed in gauze nets.
Alternatively, the tubers can be wrapped in toilet paper (as soon as the paper starts to get damp, it is changed).
Gladioli bulbs are dug up for storage thirty days after the flower shoots wither. There is no point in keeping the tubers in the ground. High humidity and low temperatures activate the process of tuber rotting and the proliferation of bacteria and fungi.
If it is not possible to wait for the gladiolus to bloom, first of all, cut off the still blooming arrow, and after fifteen days, dig up the tuber. It is better to dig up bulbs not with a shovel, but with a pitchfork . This will protect the planting material from damage by the sharp blade of the bayonet.
