When to dig up gladiolus after flowering. When to dig up gladioli and how to store them in winter. Is it possible not to dig up gladioli for the winter

Twenty years ago, I received a plot that I immediately wanted to ennoble with noble perennials. I bought in a flower shop, as I remember, salmon-colored bulbs.

Planted and then dug too early. The bulbs formed small, and then immediately began to tear off the old bulb from the young one. For the next spring, I miraculously preserved planting material.

It was necessary to urgently learn how to dig up gladioli for the winter and store them properly. Three books on flower gardening helped, advice on the Internet and, importantly, a real scientist.

Due to the nature of my professional activity, I went to the breeder to make a plot. I was wondering how to update planting material, when to dig out and all the subtleties of agricultural technology of an amazing perennial.

Now, years later, I have become an ace in the field of growing gladioli, every year I collect two buckets, and every year I distribute them to my friends.

They say that my hand is light, but I myself consider it to be the right agricultural technique. Let your flower beds smell fragrant, perform solo arrows of the many-sided and bright gladiolus. The main thing is that you know what to do with gladioli in the fall and how to store them.

My site is located in the Moscow region. Therefore, the best time for digging is the beginning of October. There is a high probability of frosts, which usually occur on Pokrov. Sub-zero temperatures will not cause significant harm to the bulbs, but I am uncomfortable digging in such a cold.

There is another factor that affects the excavation time - this is a lowland. In the private sector of the city, the temperature is 2-3 degrees higher. A friend dug up flower bulbs in November and got huge bulbs, but the option in October is very acceptable for all flower growers.

A full-fledged care for gladioli in the fall comes down to preparing the bulbs for storage. The goal is the formation of the primordia of the peduncle inside the planting material.

Only compliance with the correct temperature regime and rules will allow you to get excellent planting material in the spring, and wait for flowering in the summer. Therefore, in September I don’t touch gladioli, I don’t fertilize, but I deal with perennials only in the first decade of October.

How to dig gladiolus

1. For work I take a bayonet shovel. At a distance of 10 centimeters from the barrel, I insert the bayonet of the gun and raise the ground. I pull the plant by the trunk and pull it out of the ground.
2. I dig bulbs by variety. I leave part of the trunk 15-20 centimeters. I remove the rest with secateurs and put it in the compost pit. This is necessary so that the bulb ripens during the first stage of storage. Sometimes, however, the trunk breaks at the base, but that's okay.
3. I shake off the ground and small children, leaving 1-3 largest ones. If you need to propagate a certain variety, then I leave all the children. From year to year, my favorite bulb of the beautiful variety Peacock Feather gave only one tiny baby, and in the spring there was only one renewal bud. Therefore, it was not possible to propagate the flowers. And only two years later, the bulb gave 4 babies, which I did not separate, but left to dry.

I do not touch the roots of the bulbs. They also nourish the young bulb during the transitional period, performing an important task. The scales also remain intact until spring. Let it be slightly dirty, but protect the planting material.

I stack the bulbs to dry in the fresh air.

Important! If you need to make the bulbs clean, I wash them in water, but then you need to dry them well!

I carry most of the bulbs home, and leave some in the house - in an unheated room.

I also dig out the children that I grew in containers. Planting them in early April in pots gives more bulb growth. They become large compared to planting in the garden. Proven by 3 years of experience.

Watch an instructional video on digging and storing gladioli:

Storage of gladioli

For high-quality storage, a temperature above 20 degrees is needed so that the old bulb shrinks and easily separates. Therefore, within two weeks I bring the rest of the gladioli home from the garden.

I put the bulbs in plastic containers and leave to ripen. They are stored on the top shelves of my kitchen, refrigerator and hallway cabinets.

1. After 1-1.5 months I get gladioli.
2. I break off the stem at the base of the bulb.
3. I pry the old onion with a knife so that it separates. The result should be a smooth bottom.

Note! If the mother's old bulb does not separate, it means that it has not dried up yet. We'll have to wait 1-1.5 weeks and try again.

After separating the maternal base and breaking off the trunk, I again remove the bulbs for drying. I do not touch for 1-2 weeks. It turns out that only in December, gladioli go into a state of rest.

I wrap the bulbs ready for this period in a cloth and put them in the lower compartments of the refrigerator. A constant temperature of 4-5 degrees Celsius and low humidity will allow the planting material to survive well until March.

For myself, I chose storage in the refrigerator, although for some gardeners the bulbs successfully winter in a caisson or underground.

Summing up

Caring for gladioli in the golden season requires work and adherence to simple rules.

• When digging in early October, I do not touch large children, scales and roots, I only shorten the stem with pruners.
• I dry the bulbs at a temperature above 20 degrees so that there is no moisture left, and to reduce the risk of developing a fungal infection.
• I separate the old onion and dry it again.
• Then I store it until spring.

Gladiolus is a favorite of many flower growers. Almost no site is complete without these bright, graceful beauties. However, like all bulbous flowers, the splendor of flowering is due not only to leaving during the growing season. This is largely due to a well-organized rest period.

When to dig out planting material and how to store it properly in the winter, the well-being of the plant next summer depends.

Gladioli are not at all adapted for wintering in open ground. Excessive moisture, cold adversely affect the health of the bulbs. The time of digging is associated with the climate of the place of cultivation, with the onset of a cold snap.

For this reason, it is impossible to give an exact number that is suitable for absolutely everyone. Much easier to navigate the weather conditions.

Experienced gardeners are advised to start digging up planting material a month after the flowering of late varieties (for early 50 days), when autumn weather sets in. It is not necessary to do this before, since the bulbs simply do not have time to ripen, but it is also not desirable to pull.

In general, no more than 50 days should pass from the time of cutting the peduncles. You need to dig along with green foliage, you should not wait for it to turn yellow, since yellow color often indicates the presence of a disease. And the affected material is not subject to storage or further disembarkation, of course. The yellowness of the leaves is permissible only in early flowering varieties.

Digging should begin before the arrival of frost, after the temperature outside the window is about 10-5 above zero. Healthy, powerful plants without the slightest signs of infection with thrips and other diseases can be removed a little later, but the thermometer should not fall below +3 degrees.

If the harvesting of the planting material is too long, then the likelihood of fungal infections is high.

If there is a danger of infection with thrips, flowers are removed from the ground at an ambient temperature that does not drop below +8. A cold snap causes these pests to crawl into the ground, where they climb under the bulbous scales and comfortably survive the winter.

You should not start harvesting the bulbs in rainy weather, the earth will not crumble easily, and removing adhering soil can damage them. The tubers are dug in accordance with the timing of flowering: they start with early varieties, then medium ones, and end with late ones.

Bushes obtained from children and intended for breeding are harvested at the very last turn, but also before the onset of frost.

It happens that gladioli are late in flowering and release flower stalks only at the end of summer. In this case, they must be removed immediately so that the bulbs have time to ripen by the time of digging.

How to dig gladiolus corms

If you notice that the foliage of gladioli has begun to dry out, brown spots have appeared on it for no apparent reason, then the tubers must be dug up as soon as possible. Similar symptoms indicate that the flower is affected by a fungus, and it will be possible to cope with the disease only at the initial stage of infection.

For this, a fork with flat wide teeth or a shovel is suitable.

• The tool is carefully buried at a small distance from the plants, trying not to damage the planting material and the children that have grown to it.
• Then the gladiolus, holding the foliage, is pulled out.
• At the flowers extracted from the ground, the entire green mass is cut off, leaving a stump no more than one and a half centimeters. This is necessary to protect them from thrips.
• If the greens of the dug up flowers are still quite green and fresh, then the plants need to be brought home for several days so that the nutrients move from the foliage to the bulbs.
• The tubers are cleaned of soil and sorted by size and species.
• In an adult bulb, the roots are cut off, which in winter can provoke its dehydration, as they evaporate moisture, and also remove the old mother corm. Spores of infections and thrips can be placed in its scales, which is dangerous for the health of planting material.
• Young tubers obtained from children are also cleaned from the roots, while leaving 1 cm each.
• Old, obsolete bulbs with a wide bottom are thrown away.
• When sorting babies, give preference to large onions with good scales without any kind of damage. They will survive the winter better and bloom faster.
• The selected bulbs are washed with running water, and all those rejected along with the foliage are taken out of the site and destroyed.

Proper preparation for storage

It is not enough just to dig up gladioli in a timely manner. In order for them to please you with abundant and juicy flowering next season, planting material must be properly prepared for winter. It is in winter that buds are laid, from which new plants sprout with the advent of spring.

Tubers, first of all, need to be dried and disinfected.

To prevent damage by viruses and thrips, the bulbs are washed again in warm water with laundry soap dissolved in it or kept in a light solution of potassium permanganate.

Defective nodules that have surfaced during the procedure are discarded. After that, the planting material is kept for half an hour with the intoxicides "Khom", "Inta-vir", "Maxim".

The drying of the bulbs completes the procedure for preparing for a successful wintering. First, they are scattered on paper-lined pallets, exposed to bright sun and left until the liquid has completely evaporated. Then the tubers are placed in 2 layers in plastic or wooden boxes with a mesh bottom.

The boxes are transferred to a room with good ventilation. At first, the temperature in this room should be maintained around 25-30 degrees, and after 2 weeks the temperature drops to 20-23 degrees for a month and a half. Periodically, the tubers are mixed, so that moisture also evaporates from the lower ones.

If it is not possible to keep the planting material under the required conditions, then it is permissible to leave the gladioli to lie down for two months on the windowsill or in another place.

Regularly check the condition of the bulbs. The appearance of small spots of red or purple color is a signal of thrips damage, which means that these gladioli will have to be thrown away. The same should be done with tubers eaten from the inside.

If other damage is found:

1. Several tubers are laid out in bags;
2. Sprayed with a spray from pests, a solution of 4% "Arrivo" is suitable;
3. Packages are tightly tied for half an hour or an hour;
4. For complete certainty, you can immerse the planting material for 5-7 minutes in hot water (no more than 50 degrees), dry thoroughly.

If particularly valuable varieties have been damaged, then they can be cut and disinfected with potassium permanganate, and then treated with ordinary brilliant green.

Options for winter storage of tubers

In a dry cellar or basement

I must say that this is an ideal place to save planting material. Just place the bulbs away from the place where vegetables are stored, as the latter emit moisture that is detrimental to flowers in large quantities. The temperature here should be kept at 5-8 degrees, and the humidity level should not be higher than 60-80%.

In the room

If you are not a happy owner of a basement, then, following some rules, tubers can be well preserved in an apartment. To do this, choose the coolest room. The tubers are placed in paper bags or boxes and sprinkled with sawdust. In this case, the bulbs should not touch each other.

When wintering in such conditions, the planting material will be somewhat reduced in volume, so in the spring, before planting in the ground, they will have to be kept for half an hour in a growth stimulator solution (Kornevin, Epin).

Some flower growers store gladioli in the winter in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf, packed in airtight containers. Previously, each onion is wrapped in paper. In early March, they are taken out and dried, and then returned to the topmost shelf.

The most common mistake that gladiolus fans make is the use of plastic bags for storage, because they do not allow moisture to pass through, condensation accumulates inside the storage.

Sprouted bulbs must be moved to a cooler room with diffused lighting.

Gladiolus are flowers that every grower can be proud of. Central Asia is considered the birthplace of this beautiful plant. As a decoration of house plots, it began to be grown back in the Middle Ages. To get a profusely flowering flower bed, you need to know when to dig and how to store gladioli. Gardeners have a few rules that allow not only to save the bulb, but also to achieve growth and abundant flowering next year.

When to dig up flowers

Determining the timing when you need to dig up gladioli depends on the climatic zone of their cultivation. It is almost impossible to name specific time frames, but it is much easier to determine the temperature regime. As soon as stable autumn weather is established, but no later than a month from the date of completion of flowering of late varieties, you can start digging up gladioli. In these 30 days, the tubers should have time to ripen.

Keeping the bulbs in the ground for a long time can lead to their infection with various diseases and pests. You need to store tubers with green foliage. Some novice growers mistakenly expect it to dry completely. Collection of material with yellowed leaves is allowed only in early plant varieties.

Digging up gladioli and preparing for the winter should begin when the air temperature is not higher than +10, but not lower than +3 degrees. It is allowed to take planting material only from healthy flowers that have not been infected over the summer. Do not delay harvesting gladioli, as lowering the temperature can provoke fungal diseases.

Roots must be removed from adult tubers, as they contribute to the evaporation of moisture. It is also necessary to remove the mother bulb, because its scales may contain thrips or spores of various infections that can infect the entire flower bed next year. Young onions grown from children are freed from roots, leaving only 1 cm in length.

When sorting children, it is necessary to separate the largest of them and those that do not have noticeable damage to the scales for storage. Such material will survive better than others, and will bloom faster next season. After that, the prepared tubers are washed under warm running water to completely remove the remaining soil. Cut leaves, as well as old and unhealthy bulbs, are taken out of the site and burned.

Gladiolus is a real decoration of the autumn garden. Majestic flowers, as if specially created by nature for special occasions. They are most often grown for making bouquets. But gladiolus (they are also called "skewer") look great in mixboxers, giving the main accent to the flower garden. The process of growing them is considered difficult, in order to get chic flowering specimens, you need to follow the correct agricultural practices. In particular, bulbs need to be dug out of the ground and then planted again. Let's talk about the reason for this need, and what are the features of storing bulbs.

There are two reasons for digging gladiolus bulbs out of the ground in autumn.

The first is that tubers, being in the ground for a long time, are very likely to become infected with various diseases, especially fungal ones. The affected tuber becomes weakened and may not germinate in the spring, or will give very poor flowering.

To avoid such a situation, the bulbs are not only dug up, but also those of them that show signs of the disease are discarded, and the rest are treated with appropriate preparations before being stored.

The second reason for digging bulbs in autumn is their low frost resistance. Due to hypothermia in winter, the bulbs can die, because this culture is thermophilic.

It is best to remove tubers from the ground 40-45 days after flowering. With late varieties, this manipulation can be carried out a little earlier, for certain varieties, on the contrary, the period is reduced. The main criterion here is the time of the onset of frost. Therefore, in each region, bulbs are dug up at different times.

In outskirts of Moscow

The Moscow region belongs to the central zone of Russia. The first snow in this region falls in the second decade of October, and the final snow cover is established in November. If the flowers were used for cutting by the beginning of the school year, the tubers are dug up closer to mid-October.

In those gladioli that were grown to decorate the flower beds, it is still recommended to cut the flower stalks 40-45 days before the expected digging of the tubers, in early September. It is this amount of time that the bulb needs in order to have time to store nutrients for the winter. If you do not give the plant this opportunity, the tuber will not germinate next year.

Now there are many varietal variations that are adapted for cultivation in the Urals, despite the difficult weather conditions of this region. These are such varieties as Oasis, Benvenuto, Sonata, Azurro, Vista, Passos, Gagarin's Smile.

When digging bulbs, the basic rule is observed - the tuber must be in the ground for 40 days after cutting the peduncle in order to accumulate nutrients in itself. At the same time, at least 4 leaves should remain on the plant. It is better to cut the cut in the 20th of August, and at the end of September - to dig up the ripened bulbs.

The climate of Siberia is characterized by short warm summers and severe winters. Here flower growers have to plant gladioli later, and their flowering occurs in September.

This month, frosts can already occur at night, so the tubers have to be taken out of the ground ahead of time, because at low temperatures they stop absorbing food and begin to rot.

To save the bulbs, they are dug up as soon as the temperature drops to +5 degrees. First of all, gladioli of early varieties are removed from the ground, and then later ones. It is impossible to name specific dates for carrying out these works; the grower must be guided by the weather.

On a note! To help such bulbs ripen, they are left together with a clod of earth and leaves in a dark, cool basement, and after a month they are processed and stored in the usual way.

In Belarus

Autumn in this country is short. After a short warm period, the temperature drops sharply, the weather becomes rainy, foggy and cloudy. The first snow can fall both in November and in October. IN It is customary in Belarus to dig up gladioli at the end of August or at the beginning of September. Since it often rains at this time, it is recommended to dry the bulbs thoroughly before storing them.

According to the lunar calendar for 2018

• in August: 14-18 (until 20 o'clock), 20-23 (until 20 o'clock), 27-31;
• in September: 1-6 (until 17 h), 10-19, 23 and 24, 26-30;
• in October: 1-3, 8, 10-16, 20-23 numbers.

These are the most favorable days for such work. The tubers dug out at this time are more likely to be stored until spring without loss.

How to properly dig gladiolus

The first step is to dig out varieties with dark petals, as they are less resistant to fungal diseases. Young, non-flowering corms require a longer ripening period; on the contrary, they are dug out a little later than all other gladioli.

Digging up the bulbs

The procedure should be as follows:

1. Near the beds you need to spread a piece of film where you will put the corms.
2. The procedure is carried out with a shovel, making a neat dig from below. It is better to shake off excess soil lumps from the tubers over the film so that the children are not confused.
3. After that, the stem is cut off with a sharp pruner, leaving a stump 1-2 cm high.

Too old bulbs are not advisable to save. They are thrown away, and children are used to propagate the variety. In young bulbs, it is required to shorten the roots, and before planting in the spring, the roots are cut off completely.

Children are called young nodules that appear near adult bulbs. Over time, new gladioli grow out of them, completely repeating the characteristics of their parent.

Plants obtained from babies will be stronger and more resilient, as such bulbs are adapted to growing conditions from an early age. These nodules can range in size from a few millimeters to 1.5-2 cm in diameter.

Some unknowingly just throw the kids away. Meanwhile, with their help, you can increase the number of gladioli in your collection, get younger copies of your favorite variety and save them is not at all difficult.

After liberation from the soil, small nodules are separated from the mother bulb, washed, dried, sorted by size and stored for storage.

Before laying the bulbs and children for storage, you need to carry out their disinfecting treatment. For this, a light pink solution of potassium permanganate or a solution of any fungicide diluted according to the instructions is prepared.

The tubers are placed in it for 5-10 minutes, after which they are dried on a newspaper, laid out in one layer. In the process of drying the corms, it is recommended to turn them over twice a day so that they dry evenly.

After 4 days, they need to be laid out in cardboard boxes and stored at a temperature of 25 degrees for about 2 weeks. During this time, the bulbs will finally dry out. The next month they are stored at a temperature of 20-22 degrees. And then in the same cardboard boxes or linen bags they are placed in the basement, cellar or refrigerator until spring.

An additional storage place can be a vestibule of a staircase, a glazed loggia, a cold window sill. The storage place should be dark and have a temperature in the range of 5-10 degrees.

Periodically, planting material should be inspected and sorted out for the timely removal of diseased bulbs. If individual strawberries become moldy or damp, they need to be dried for 2-3 days in a warm room and returned back.

Some summer residents use melted candle paraffin to better preserve the bulbs.

The substance is melted in a water bath and the onions are dipped into it in turn, immediately after which they are dipped in cold water to solidify. A layer of paraffin protects gladiolus tubers from moisture loss and external infections. In the future, the protective wax layer can be easily removed by hand.

As for babies, they are much better preserved than bulbs under the same conditions. Before storing them, it is advisable to sort them into varieties, and keep them in separate containers so as not to be confused with each other.

On a note! Humidity in storage should not exceed 70%, otherwise the bulbs will start to grow.

As soon as the tubers begin to germinate (this usually happens in the middle of winter), they need to provide access to light, while avoiding direct sunlight. The emerging shoots may be green or reddish. Bulbs with sprouts continue to be stored without problems until spring planting.

When to dig and how to store gladioli: video

Timely extraction of bulbs from the ground and proper storage will provide you with high-quality planting material for growing beautiful flowers. Every year there will be more and more nodules, you will be able to expand your own plantings and give varietal gladioli to your neighbors in the country.