Storage of perennials and flower bulbs that do not winter in the ground

Most of the tubers, flower bulbs and rhizomes of non-wintering perennials that we planted in the spring should be dug up in September or October and stored until the next spring, when we put them back in the ground. Proper storage conditions determine whether the plants will be he althy and will bloom again in the spring. Here are the secrets to keeping flower bulbs and perennials over the winter.

How to store flower bulbs?

Where to store bulbs and perennials?

The first step that is worth taking, before digging upstorage bulbsand perennial tubers and rhizomes from the ground, is to properly prepare the room in which we will store them.Such a room should be disinfected by whitewashing its walls with lime milk with the addition of Lysol. Wooden devices are saturated with an aqueous solution of copper sulphate.

Of course, in amateur cultivation, whenwe store flower bulbsin the basement where we keep many other things and equipment, these treatments will often not be possible to perform or their implementation will be very burdensome , especially if we do not have the appropriate disinfectants. In this case, at least wash the places and boxes where we will store the bulbs with hot water, and then dry them thoroughly. It is important to ventilate the storage room in order to prevent the appearance of moisture and regulate the temperature in this room.

Important!Perennials and bulbs never store flowers in the same room where you store fruit or vegetables, as they emit ethylene during storage.Excessive build-up of this gas in the storage room can be harmful to the flower bulbs. For similar reasons, do not store the bulbs in garages where there are fuel vapors that are harmful to them.

How to prepare the bulbs for storage?

Harvesting tubers, rhizomes andflower bulbs for storage for spring plantings). After harvesting, plant material requires cleaning and drying. For this purpose, sprinkle the onions on a tray in a dry and well ventilated place. Thoroughly examine the bulbs, tubers and rhizomes and discard any specimens showing signs of disease.
"The material selected for storage can be additionally secured using dry or wet dressing (these treatments are especially useful in the case of dahlias and gladiolus).
Dry dressing
Dry dressing consists in dusting or applying fungicides with a brush. We can use fungicides such as Kaptan or Topsin.
Wet dressing
Wet dressing consists in soaking the plant material for about half an hour in a water fungicide solution. Note - after wet dressing the bulbs, dry them again before moving them to the place of storage.In amateur crops, it is not necessary to treat flower bulbs before winter, as long as we provide them with appropriate storage conditions in the storage room. The more important term for seeding is spring when it is time to plant bulbs in your garden. "

Storage of perennials and flower bulbs of various species

Storage conditionsflower bulbs , tubers and rhizomes of individual species differ slightly from each other. Dahlia, g altonia and full-flower buttercup are stored covered with earth, peat or sand.In dry peat at 5 ° C we store frost-sensitive oriental varieties of lilies, while the more resistant varieties can be left in the ground. Eukomis, crocosmia, nerin, tiger beetle and coronary anemone are kept in sand or sawdust. We store the canna together with a lump of earth, which should be slightly moistened in winter. We store acidantera, vermilion and gladiolus scattered in a thin layer in openwork boxes or on wooden platforms.Storage temperatures of individual species, of course, differ. They are presented in the table below.

Some species require varying temperatures during storage. An example is sprekelia. Its tubers must be dug up in the fall, before the first frosts come, and initially stored at 15-17 ° C. From January, the temperature should be lowered to 8 ° C.