If you are engaged in the cultivation of gladioli, and want that next year your flowers will please you with a magnificent color, then you need to create the necessary conditions for storing gladioli for the winter. You can not leave bulbs of gladioli in the ground. When the soil temperature falls below zero degrees, the bulbs will die. Therefore it is important to take care of preparation of bulbs for winter in advance.
How to prepare the bulbs?
To start, the bulb must be excavated from the ground. One of the important factors influencing the time of digging bulbs is the time of color cutting, as well as the climate of your locality. For example, if you live in the middle belt, the bulbs must be excavated at the end of September, and if closer to the south, a more suitable month is October. But do not forget that bulbs can be excavated no earlier than 30 days after you cut flowers. Therefore, do not tighten with cutting flowers, there is a risk that frost will come earlier than you dig up the bulbs.
After digging out the bulbs, check the lumps of the earth, for the presence of children. And do not throw them away.
Then trim the stem of the plant, and proceed to the primary treatment of the bulbs.
To save the gladiolus for the winter, you need to know how to conduct the primary treatment of bulbs. This treatment involves two steps.
The first is washing the bulbs. To prevent bulb disease, during washing, it is recommended to lower the gladiolus bulbs in the manganese solution for half an hour.
The second is the drying of the bulbs. After you have washed the bulbs, allow them to dry thoroughly. Otherwise, if at least one of the bulbs rot, you risk ruining all your flowers.
After the preparatory work, you can sort the bulbs. There are 6 groups of bulbs, and the assignment of a bulb to a particular group occurs according to its size. However, some gardeners do not perform such a large-scale procedure, and only children from adult bulbs are selected. On the way, how to store gladioli for the winter, the presence or absence of sorting does not affect.
How to properly store gladioli in winter?
There are several options for how to keep gladioli in winter.
For example, you can put bulbs in a cardboard box, having previously made a few holes in it, for airing. Some experts, with this method of storage, recommend wrapping bulbs in a newspaper. Good for these purposes are suitable and wooden boxes, with holes between the boards.
Another way to store gladioli for the winter is in a vegetable net. In such grids, vegetables and fruits are sold in supermarkets, and if you store them in advance, you can not spend money on buying new ones.
The optimum temperature regime for storing gladioli in winter is from 3 to 8 degrees. Therefore, the bulbs will feel good in the refrigerator, cellar or basement. Once a month, the bulbs need to be sorted, and a little drying, if they appear moisture.
Polyethylene bags for storing gladioli in winter are not suitable. Polyethylene does not provide air access, and there is a very high probability that bulbs do not
In the middle of winter, when the period of rest in bulbs is over, and they begin to germinate, you need to change how to store gladioli in winter. The bulbs will need to be removed from a dark place, and placed under scattered sunlight. Under the direct sun, gladioli can not be stored.
How to keep the children gladiolus in the winter?
Children have a small diameter, so storage in a grid or a leaky box is not suitable for them. Paper bags will come to the rescue. They can be bought, or glued on their own. But do not forget that from time to time children will also need to be "ventilated".