Crocuses - planting and care, the secrets of proper growing

To get a beautiful flowerbed on your site, pay attention to the crocuses, planting and caring for which should be carried out according to simple agrotechnical rules. Grow these beautiful bulbous flowers at home and outdoors. Conditions in care for these options are no different.

Crocuses - landing

First you need to decide on the right place where the flowers will be taken, will grow well and bloom. The best solution for crocuses is sunny places where moisture does not stagnate, as this will cause damage to the roots and death of the plant. In the shade buds of this flower culture will not be dissolved. When planting crocuses in the ground, note that they do not like drafts, so give preference to the quiet places of the garden. Sharp wind gusts can break the fragile stalk.

How to store crocuses before planting?

Before sending crocuses for storage, it is necessary to clean them from the ground, dead roots and affected parts. In order to carry out the planting of crocuses in the open ground in the future, you need to keep the bulbs, for which purpose, consider a number of rules for care:

After the collection they must be put in one layer in a box or box. Small specimens can be decomposed, for example, in a box of sweets.
Until August, store them at 22 ° C and not lower, because only with such indicators are laid flower buds. At the beginning of the last month of summer, the value should be reduced to 20 ° C, and a week later to 15 ° C. At home, maintaining such temperatures is not easy, so just store the bulbs at room temperature in a place that is ventilated.

Crocus - planting seeds

In spring plant species, the seed capsules are well tied, which can not be said about the autumn varieties. Seeding is less frequent, but it is possible. In most cases, it is used to multiply valuable species if it is necessary to obtain a large amount of planting material.

Seeds can be stored, but it is better to sow them in the same year when they were collected for the winter, so that they passed the stratification by cold, so that they will germinate better.
Finding out how to plant crocuses, it is worth saying that it is better to sow the planting material in boxes. The seeds are small, so just fill them in prepared wells, which should not be deep and sprinkle with a thin layer of soil. Top for proper care close the black film to maintain the temperature and humidity. It is important to ensure that the soil does not dry up.
Note that the flowering of plants planted through seeds will be observed only after a few years.

Planting crocus bulbs

When buying planting stock, please note that it should not be damaged, large roots and stems. To the touch, it should be dense with dry scales. To start crocuses, planting and care is carried out according to the instructions:

It begins with the treatment of bulbs in a solution of the fungicide, for example, you can take the usual manganese. Dilute the pale pink solution, using a pinch of potassium permanganate per 1 liter of water. Duration of treatment - 30 min.
Planting crocus flowers should be carried out in special containers, so that the flowers do not pass to the entire flower bed. If you want to get a three-dimensional flower bed, plant them so that the distance between them is about 3-5 cm. As for the optimum depth, these are the three height of the bulb.

Crocus planting time

Plant this flowering culture in the open ground at different times, and it all depends on when you want to see the flowering:

Planting crocuses in autumn in the open ground is carried out to enjoy flowering in April. Choose for this spring varieties.
To see on your site a beautiful flowering flowerbed in September, the landing should be carried out in mid-July. It is not recommended for autumn varieties to buy planting material that blooms.

Crocuses - growing and care

To enjoy the abundant flowering, after planting the plants carry out a number of mandatory nursing procedures, which include watering and feeding. Fertilizers are introduced at least three times: after the appearance of sprouts, ovary formation and after flowering. Cultivation of crocuses requires the use of fertilizers with a high content of potassium and phosphorus. The first of the presented minerals is important for good growth and development of bulbs, and the second - is necessary for a rich flowering.

The crocuses blossom well, the planting and care of which includes all important procedures, otherwise a number of diseases may arise:

Viruses. Diseases are manifested by white spots on buds and in the form of deformation of perianth leaves. Viruses are carried by sucking insects. Affect the diseased plant, so that it does not infect other "inhabitants" of the flowerbed.
Fungal diseases. The problem arises from warm and damp weather, and improper care. As a result, the corms are wrinkled, it becomes soft and spots appear on the surface. Affected bulb should be destroyed, and other crocuses should be excavated after flowering, dried, and before planting, treat in a solution of potassium permanganate.
Chlorosis. Characteristic for the disease is the appearance of yellow leaves, and it occurs as a result of damage to the bulb, due to poor drainage or poor conditions of detention and improper care.

Soil for Crocuses

This kind of bulbous plant grows well in nutrient loamy or sandy loamy soil, which should have good drainage to avoid stagnation of water. In the recommendations on how to grow crocuses, there are several useful tips:

If the soil is clayey and heavy, then it is recommended to dig it up thoroughly, adding large sand or compost , given that 1 m ² should account for 1-2 buckets. In addition, it is recommended for proper care to use carefully reparted manure, peat and lime, according to the proportion: 0.5 kg per 1 m ² .
In a month it will be useful to additionally add superphosphate to the land, considering that for each 1 m ^{2 there} should be 40 g of fertilizer.
Crocuses, planting and care of which are carried out in sandy soil, will receive less nutrients, so it is recommended during the digging to add peat, which has overgrown the manure or sheet humus. The proportion is as follows: 5-7 kg per 1 m ² .
If the flowers are planted in loamy or sandy loamy soil, then you do not need to use additional fertilizers. It is recommended to simply dig the ground to a depth of 20-36 cm.

Crocuses - watering

If the bulbs were planted in a place where snow often lay in winter, then additional watering with the onset of heat is not required, since a lot of moisture will still be stored in the ground. It is recommended to loosen the area to prevent its evaporation. Care for crocuses in the garden, located in a place where snow is snowless, includes irrigation when the first sprouts appear. It is worth noting that in this case loosening must be carried out in advance, so that the water soaks the soil well. If there is not enough rain before flowering, then watering should be done as the land dries up.

Caring for crocuses after flowering

Many believe that bulbs must be digged every year, but in fact it is not, because crocuses belong to perennial plants. This procedure is needed to perform a transplant or to inspect the bulbs for damage. Caring for crocuses after flowering includes such manipulations:

By mid-summer, the plant loses the leaves, so they need to be removed together with the peduncle. If it was decided to dig out, then it's better to do it in July.
It is necessary to gradually reduce the abundance of watering, so that all the nutrients go to the corms.
When all the leaves dry, you can dig out the bulb and dry it. After this, scaling is performed. Be sure to throw sick and damaged daughter tubers. Keep the crocuses according to the rules specified above.

Crocus - care and reproduction

During the years of cultivation, this flower culture forms daughter bulbs that can be used for reproduction. Thanks to this, you can completely preserve all the qualities of the variety in a young flower. Finding out how to grow crocuses in the open field, it is worth pointing out that reproduction and transplantation should be carried out every four years. If this is not done, that the flowering will not be so abundant, and the flowers will become shallow. The secret of gardeners - to increase the number of daughter bulbs, it is necessary to make a shallow landing. Flowering of young crocuses will come in a year.