By March 8, beautiful onion flowers, hyacinths, are beginning to be sold in stores. After their purchase, many want to keep them and grow them on their own. Not everyone knows how to save the bulb and achieve repeated flowering.
How to choose and prepare onions
Before growing hyacinth in the garden, it is important to learn how to select healthy and strong tubers. For planting in soil or a pot, medium-sized hyacinths are taken. They must be tight and without damage.
What hyacinths look like
The scales on the surface of the bulb should fit snugly against each other, their color should be darker than the color of the flower.
Important! An important indicator of a healthy bulb is the ratio of the size of the bottom to the bulb. It makes 1 to 1.6.
How to determine the age of hyacinth by the size of the bulb
| Bulb Size | Age |
|---|---|
| 2-3 cm | Young, just formed from kids |
| 4-5 cm | Adults giving good peduncles |
| 6-7 cm | Old bulbs in need of updating |
Before planting, planting material is examined, dried flakes are removed. Immediately before planting, hyacinths must be decontaminated in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or purchased fungicide.
Choosing a Place for Hyacinths in the Garden
To grow these flowers in the country or near the house, an open area is selected, protected from drafts. The plant should receive a lot of sunlight, but direct rays of the sun can harm it.
Bulbs of Hyacinths
Flowers are allowed to be planted under tall trees, but in this case more fertilizers will need to be applied. The flower bed is placed on a hill or a small slope. The surface of the earth is leveled.
Hyacinths grow well in soil rich in organic matter. Soil should be light, well permeable to moisture. The landing site is prepared 2-3 months before it.
Important! In waterlogged soil, bulbs can rot. Therefore, in places with a high water level, hyacinths are planted in pots or drainage is used.
Planting dates and soil preparation
When planting hyacinths, many gardeners are interested. It is better to do this in the fall in the last week of September - the first week of October. Earlier or later planting will lead to the death of the plant.
2 months before the expected date of planting bulbs hyacinthus prepare a flower bed. Dig the chosen place to a depth of not less than 40 cm, add organic fertilizers (for example, humus or compost), potash and phosphorus fertilizers.
In heavy soils, sand should be added, in soil with high acidity - lime, chalk or ash. The prepared garden bed is covered with a dark film or boards. Such a measure will prevent the appearance of weeds in the flowerbed.
How to plant hyacinths in the spring in the garden
In spring, hyacinth bulbs are rarely planted. Most often, for planting in the open ground in spring, they take hyacinths bought in a store. To plant such flowers, adhere to the following steps:
- When the hyacinth fades, the peduncle is removed.
- The plant, along with an earthen lump, is taken out of the pot.
- In pre-prepared soil, a hole is made to the depth of the pot.
- Sand is poured into the bottom of the hole as drainage.
- Put the bulb of hyacinth with an earthen lump in the hole and fill it with soil.
- Water the plant around, trying not to wet the bulb itself.
Important! Preparation of land for planting purchased hyacinth should begin immediately after the snow has melted. The dug up earth must have time to settle.
In the event of a threat of spring frost, the planted flowers are covered with non-woven material.
Rules for planting hyacinths in the fall
In autumn, hyacinths are planted in late September - early October. In no less than 10 days a flowerbed is prepared for planting. After the earth has settled, make holes for each plant. Sand is poured at the bottom of the recess and the bulb is placed. Around it is a sand cushion no more than 1.5 cm in thickness. Fertile land is poured from above.
Important! The depth of planting of the bulbs should exceed their height by 3 times. The distance between the holes is made equal to the depth of landing.
After planting in dry soil, the plants are watered. If the soil is wet, then watering is not needed. You can plant tubers in a common bed, but in this case more sand is needed. It is more expedient to make individual holes for planting plants in a large flowerbed. When all plants are planted, the flowerbed is mulched with peat, straw or sawdust.
It is important to determine exactly when to plant hyacinths in open ground. With early planting, the plant will sprout, and the young shoot will freeze. If you delay in planting on a garden plot, then the tuber will not have time to take root and die during the onset of frost.
How to propagate hyacinths at home
Hyacinths can multiply both by seeds and parts of the plant. Planting seeds is used only for breeding purposes. This is a long and laborious process. More often use the vegetative method of reproduction.
During the digging of bulbs for laying for storage, you can find children on them. Well-formed babies are separated from the mother plant and separately stored. In autumn, they are planted at the same time as adult flowers.
For your information. Children on hyacinths are rarely formed and in small quantities, so other methods are used to reproduce them.
Hyacinth bulbs
From the planting material, the largest and healthiest bulbs are selected. After cleansing the soil, they are dried in a warm place for a week. After the roots have dried out, and they can be easily removed, you can cut the bottom.
To remove the bottom of the hyacinth bulb, a scalpel, pen or copy knife are used. Some gardeners can perform this operation with a teaspoon with a sharpened edge.
Important! Tools should be sharp and disinfected.
Cut out the bottom in the form of a funnel: from the outer ring to the middle. During the procedure, do not damage the outer ring and flakes of the bulb. After processing, the slices are sprinkled with chopped charcoal, and the knife is disinfected.
Treated bulbs are placed in a box with moist sand cut up. They need to be stored in a warm, darkened place, covered with a film. After 2-3 months, children are formed, after a month they reach 10 mm in size.
When the children are formed, they, together with the uterine bulb, are transplanted into the garden, deepened so that there is a 10 cm thick layer of soil above them, the planting is covered with mulch on top.
Bottom notching
The next year, mother bulbs with children are well fed, watered and weed the garden. They carefully shelter for the winter. A year later, at the end of July - beginning of August, they are dug up, separated from a large bulb and planted in a permanent place. The tubers obtained in this way bloom for 3 years.
Hyacinth bulbs incision
Notching the bottom is simpler than the previous method of propagating hyacinths, but it gives fewer children. But they are larger than the children obtained by cutting the bottom.
For this method, young bulbs are taken, they are dried well. A cruciate incision is made at the bottom. Its depth should not exceed 0.6 cm. During the day, the slices are allowed to dry in a warm and dry place. The next day they are placed in a box with sand and germinated as in the previous method of reproduction.
Potted Ground
For forcing in winter, large bulbs are picked without damage. Only those grown in the garden are taken. Selected bulbs are planted in pots in October - November.
Important! The rest period in hyacinths lasts 10-12 weeks. This should be taken into account when forcing flowers to a specific date.
The soil for forcing is taken light. To improve air permeability, sand must be contained in it. Hyacinths are best planted in separate containers.
Pots with planted plants are covered with paper bags or other pots. You can use dark plastic bags with holes. Store planted hyacinths in a darkened place at a temperature of 5-8 ° C for at least 10 weeks. When the soil dries in containers, plants are moderately watered with cold water. The earthball should always be wet.
After the emergence of sprouts at the end of the dormant period, the coating is removed and flower pots are transferred first to a room with a temperature of 10-15 ° C, then to a warmer and brighter room. Hyacinths begin to bloom 3-4 weeks after transfer.
Sprouted bulbs
After distillation, hyacinth care consists in regular watering and top dressing with mineral fertilizers for flowering plants.
Hyacinth Care in the Garden
How to care for hyacinths, you need to know everyone who wants to grow them. Hyacinth care is as follows:
- watering;
- top dressing;
- weeding;
- loosening.
To prevent the rapid evaporation of moisture and the germination of weeds, flower beds after planting are mulched. This measure will help to avoid frequent loosening of soil near plants.
Watering
Hyacinths are sensitive to excess moisture. They need to be watered moderately and in small quantities. Often you need to water the garden with these spring flowers only during the period of bud formation and flowering. The rest of the time, watering is small.
Important! During irrigation, the soil in the holes should be saturated with water to a depth of 20 cm.
Fertilizers
Hyacinth bulbs live up to 7 years, so it is important to provide them with nutrients. Depending on the phase of growth of the flower, different fertilizers are used.
In the spring, after the appearance of the leaves, the flower bed is watered with a solution of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. It can be urea or ammonium nitrate.
After the buds appear, fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus are added. For example, superphosphate and potassium chloride. After flowering is complete, superphosphate and ash are added.
Preparing for the winter
After planting the bulbs in the garden, the flower bed is watered. If it rains a lot in autumn, then natural moisture will be enough for hyacinths to root. Preparing for winter is to create the optimal temperature regime around the bulbs. For this, mulch is used. It can be made from compost, leaves or straw. The layer should be at least 20 cm. This will protect the tubers from frost.
In the conditions of Siberia and the Urals, the earth freezes more than in the central zone of Russia. Therefore, for the winter, hyacinth bulbs are dug up and stored until spring.
Hyacinth transplant after flowering or purchase
When transplanting hyacinths, the plants themselves will tell. Yellowing and wilting of leaves serve as a signal for digging bulbs. Carefully remove hyacinths from the ground. The shovel is placed 10 cm from the flower and is sunk into the ground with a bayonet. Dug bulbs are cleaned from the ground and washed. After examination, whole healthy specimens are left.
Selected plants are placed in a solution of potassium permanganate or foundationazole for disinfection. After processing, the tubers are dried. Before laying for storage, dried flakes are removed from the bulbs. Prepared planting material is placed in boxes or bags and put in a warm, dry place until autumn.
Useful For better preservation of the bulbs, they can be wrapped in newspaper.
Onions are stored in the first month at a temperature of + 25-30 ° С, in the following months it is lowered to + 17 ° С.
Hyacinth Bulb Storage
Storage for purchased flowering plants and grown on the site varies. In the first case, after flowering, the peduncle is cut off. If the plant grew in a small container, then it is transplanted into a larger pot. After trimming the peduncle and transplanting, hyacinth is placed in a cool, lit place. It can be placed close to the window glass. There will be enough light for him, and the temperature will be low.
Hyacinth should be watered in storage moderately. In May - June, the stored bulb is transplanted into the flower garden.
Storage option
Plants growing in the garden are dug up after flowering and re-planted in the fall before winter. In summer, the bulbs are stored in a cool, dark room.
The main pests and diseases of hyacinths
Growing and caring for hyacinth in the open ground is impossible without knowledge of pests and flower diseases.
Code of pests and flower diseases
| Pests / disease | Signs | Treatment method |
|---|---|---|
| Flower fly | Slows growth, leaves fade | Processing plants with the preparations "Flies", "Aktara" or "Tabazol" |
| Aphids and thrips | Leaves turn yellow, flowers do not develop and fall | Hyacinth Care Means Acid Treatment |
| Medvedka | The plant withers, dug bulbs badly damaged | When planting around a flower bed, they lay a corrugated board or slate 20-25 cm wide |
| Apical flowering | A short inflorescence is formed, the upper flowers bloom earlier than the lower ones | Compliance with storage temperature |
| Peduncle rot | The top of the peduncle rots when germinated | Grow at lower temperatures |
| Yellow bacterial rot | Yellow spots appear along the veins on the leaves and peduncle. The same spots form on the bulb, gradually rotting. | Bulb destruction, land cultivation with bleach. It will be possible to plant hyacinths in this place only after 3-4 years. |
| Soft bacterial rot | The plant turns yellow, does not develop, withers. Bulb rot | Store and grow at low humidity, dry the bulbs well. Affected bulbs are destroyed |
Hyacinths planting and care in the open field for which require knowledge of the characteristics of cultivation, will bring many pleasant moments. Compliance with the rules for growing hyacinths for their care and storage will allow any gardener to decorate his site with beautiful caps of hyacinths.
