Tulips are the perfect decoration for any flowerbed or lawn. With proper care, these flowers will delight you year after year. There are different ways of propagating tulips.
There are many types of these flowers, each of them is beautiful in its own way. If once in the gardens mostly red tulips grew , then now you can find flowers of various shades. The most famous varieties are Fringed, Terry early, Simple early, Triumph, Simple late, Rembrandt, Terry late, Foster, etc.
Tulips are blooming with the arrival of spring. After the snow melts, the leaves grow, after 25-30 days, flowering begins, which lasts about 14 days. These flowers are quite unpretentious, any soil and location can suit them, but how efficient the flowering will be depends on the correct choice. Therefore, for a good result, you need to take care of choosing a place and preparing the soil, top dressing, proper and timely planting, care, digging and storing bulbs before planting.
The most commonly used propagation of tulips is bulbs. Seed propagation is used to breed new varieties, while flowering begins in 7-8 years. And the result does not always meet expectations. This tulip propagation is suitable for wild species in which daughter bulbs do not form.
Landing Features
Tulip is a perennial plant. Landing is carried out in the fall. It is important to choose the optimal planting time, which is determined by the temperature of the soil. The optimal time is mid-September. Too late planting of flowers can lead to their lag in growth in the spring. Tulips planted too early can bloom in the fall, and die with the advent of frost. According to experienced gardeners, tulips can be planted in the spring, but their flowering will not be magnificent.
Flowers need a well-lit, drained and protected from strong winds area with a neutral or slightly alkaline, humus-rich soil. Tulips can be preceded by any vegetables or flowers, except onion and nightshade crops. In the same place, flowers are recommended to be planted no earlier than five years later.
Care
As soon as the first sprouts appear, it is necessary to carefully examine them so as not to miss the signs of the disease. Damaged plants are dug up and destroyed so that healthy tulips do not get infected. To satisfy the oxygen demand of plants, carefully loosen the ground. This should be done regularly, especially after watering or rain.
Watering and feeding
Until flowering begins, tulips need moderate watering. It is important not to allow the soil to dry out. When the first sprouts appear, top dressing is carried out using nitroammophos or crystallin with the addition of trace elements in the form of tablets.
During the period when buds begin to set, plants need potassium and phosphorus. When buds are blooming, they are again fed with full mineral fertilizer.
Breeding
Gardeners most often use tulip propagation by children and daughter bulbs. Seed propagation is commonly used by breeders.
Vegetative propagation of the tulip
With this method, weather conditions and insect activity are not very important than with seed propagation. The method of vegetative propagation of the tulip is traditional and most reliable.
The growing season of tulips is small. When flowering ends, the leaves of the plant dry. In the mother's bulb, a daughter is formed, a new flower is forming.
Bulb preparation
Propagation of tulips by bulbs will be successful if they are properly prepared and stored. Around July, it is necessary to separate the daughter bulb from the mother bulb. After that, it needs to be cleaned and dried in the fresh air. Then the onion is sent for storage. At a temperature of about 20 degrees, it should remain for about a month, after which you need to transfer it to a place where the temperature is lower (about 12 degrees).
Bulb planting
In autumn, the bulbs are planted in the ground to a depth of 10-15 cm, they quickly root. First you need to inspect them, they must be clean and solid. If spots are noticeable on them, such bulbs are thrown away. Tulips are planted in a row, with a distance between plants of 10-15 cm, between rows - 40 cm. The beginnings of leaves, flower and flower-bearing shoot begin to grow. With the advent of the first frosts, the bed is covered with a layer of straw, leaves or humus. By the onset of winter, sprouts reach almost the surface of the soil.
In spring, when the soil begins to thaw, the sprout comes to the surface, the development of leaves begins. In the onion, nutrients are intensively consumed . A noticeable growth of the replacing bulb occurs.
During the formation of the bud, daughter bulbs grow rapidly, the first lateral (grandchild) bulb is laid. When flowering begins, the plant becomes twice as high, there is an intensive growth of leaves, a powerful development of the root system. In daughter bulbs, the primordium of the first leaf and grandchild bulbs are formed. This period is the most important in the development and growth of the plant.
The end of the vegetative period of the plant occurs when its aerial part dries and the roots die. One mother onion is replaced by a daughter nest, which differ in size.
The bulb lives for about two and a half years, a year and a half it develops from the embryo to the replacing bulb, within one year it is an independent maternal.
With fertilization and the formation of an ovary, the vegetative period lasts longer. In order for the seeds to ripen, it is necessary to expend nutrients, so the size of daughter bulbs is smaller. In the summer, the process of organ formation continues in them.
If the vegetative propagation of the tulip occurs using only the replacing bulb, then after four to five years the adult plant begins to bloom. The size of the substitute bulb becomes maximum and remains so for two to three years. After that, it becomes smaller, the quantity and quality of daughter bulbs decreases. Over time, aging and death of the replaced bulb occurs.
Seed propagation
Propagation of tulips by seeds requires a lot of patience from the gardener, since the flowering of some plants can be seen only in the seventh, and sometimes even in the twelfth year after planting. And not always the result can please.
During seed ripening, the plant is very sensitive to moisture, it is often affected by gray rot. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully examine the plants: if the dead ends of the leaves are visible on the tulips or if signs of the disease are found, the fruits must be destroyed immediately.
For reproduction using seeds, it is necessary to select only the strongest plants. Those that are stunted, as well as those affected by the disease, destroy.
In the event that the epidemic situation is threatening for the testes, which did not have time to reach maximum sizes, they need to be cut, leaving a stem and one leaf. The plant is placed in clean water with a solution of boric acid (three teaspoons per ten liters of water). Boxes of plants should not be in contact, but it is best to place them in different containers. There should not be more than five plants in one pot.
Seed collection and storage
When the boxes turn yellow, you can carefully select the seeds, removing the husk. Healthy seeds have transparent walls and the embryo is clearly visible. Seeds that look dull or are stained with gray rot cannot be used.
For the seeds to germinate, they need peace. They are kept at a temperature of about 25 ° C, with the advent of autumn, they are planted in pots or special boxes filled with light soil, sprinkled with sand, to a depth of about three centimeters.
When the plants sprout, it is important to prevent them from drying out, a lack of moisture can lead to the death of seedlings.
Before planting the seeds, they can be germinated in the refrigerator. For this, the seeds are placed on a moistened filter paper on a plate. Seedlings can be expected in three months. The sprouts should be carefully transferred to sand, which is poured on light soil (one centimeter layer) and topped up with the same layer of sand on top. Thanks to this method, the maximum number of plants is obtained. If the seeds are sown directly in the ground in the fall, the plant will be larger and more stable.
In the first year, the formation of one bulb, one root and one cotyledon leaf, round in cross section, occurs from seedlings. Next year, the sheet is already flat and narrow, with each year its surface becomes larger. Bulbs increase in weight; in the second or third year, vegetative propagation of the tulip is already possible.
In the first year, the bulbs need to be dug up, when half of them have dried leaves, dried and stored at a temperature of 23-25 ° C. During planting in the fall, bulbs must be watered for better rooting, the soil is mulched. With the advent of spring, with the appearance of leaves, you need regular watering of seedlings until the leaves begin to die.
Planting bulbs from a container in open ground is carried out in the second or third year. Then they need to be dug up every year and transplanted every time deeper. Flowering can be expected in the fourth to sixth year, sometimes you have to wait fifteen years.
Propagation of tulips by seeds is a rather time-consuming method. Usually it is used to breed new varieties.
These delightful flowers come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Pink, lilac, yellow, red tulips are decoration of the garden from the moment of snow melting until the arrival of summer, causing associations with spring warmth.