The splendor of tulips has been loved since ancient times. In Europe, they are rightly considered the kings of flowers. Tulips are the most popular bulb culture of gardeners, but they require special care.
Tulip bulbs need to be dug up in order to further ensure their full-fledged further growth and development.
There are many different opinions on how often you need to do this. Someone digs bulbs annually, someone in a year or even two. However, practice indicates that it is better to do this every year.
With this care, the reproduction rate does not decrease, the bulbs do not become smaller from year to year. True, sometimes gardeners grow tulips from small bulbs, but only as a two-year-old culture. With the annual digging of bulbs, the area of plant nutrition does not decrease, and the risk of damage to the bulbs by diseases and pests that may appear in the soil as a result of its depletion does not increase.
To spring tulips pleasing to the eye, you need to remove the bulbs in time. It is important to be able to accurately determine the time of excavation, for which there are several ways. In the first case, the leaves of the plants begin to turn yellow, while the scales of the bulbs become light brown. In the second case, you should try to wrap the end of the tulip stem around the finger. If this can be done, then it is time to dig the bulbs.
Too early dug bulbs do not have time to ripen. The integumentary scales on them are not formed well enough. There is a high probability that they will be poorly stored, because the risk of diseases and mechanical damage increases. In addition, the reproduction rate and decorative qualities of tulips will suffer in the next season.
It is also impossible to be late with digging. This can lead to the loss of a significant amount of bulbs. They are difficult to find after the leaves of the plants fall and disappear. Overripe bulbs fall into pieces, and small ones remain in the ground. In addition, part of the planting material is easily damaged by a shovel, which can lead to plant diseases in the future.
After digging, the bulbs are scattered in varieties of crates, dried and cleaned. An etching procedure is often carried out. Bulbs are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, which protects them from pests and saturates with manganese. Prepared bulbs are sorted by parsing depending on their diameter. To speed up this process, special rounded patterns are used.
After this sorting, the tulip bulbs are stored indoors with good ventilation. Exposure to drafts and direct sunlight should not be allowed. Throughout the entire storage period, it is extremely important to maintain the required temperature regime in the room.
