In order to admire slender gladioli from year to year, they should be surrounded with care and attention. Too harsh climate in some regions does not allow bulbs to winter safely in the ground. The question arises before flower growers when to dig up gladioli so that they can safely last until spring plantings.

Care for gladioli in autumn

You need to start preparing gladioli for winter in the summer. Cutting of the peduncles is done before the formation of the seeds, at the time when the flowers began to wilt. This will give the bulbs time and space to build up enough strength to survive the winter.

In the autumn, special care for flowers is not required. The last mandatory watering is carried out in the first decade of September with warm water with potassium permanganate. In addition to nutrients, the plant will have a good opportunity to get rid of pathogenic microorganisms.

Important! Feeding gladioli with manure causes fungal diseases.

Care for gladioli in autumn

Preparing for winter

The procedure includes: pruning, digging, storage.

Long before frost, gladioli are cut almost to the base, leaving shoots of about 2 cm. This operation allows the bulbs to form well and significantly reduces the drying time. On a large plantation, it is permissible to mow the above-ground part of the bushes, but it is advisable to cut each bush with a pruner.

Is it necessary to dig up gladioli

When autumn comes, and it gets colder every day, some gardeners face a problem regarding the wintering of flowers: do gladioli dig up for the winter or not, how to keep them in the ground until next year?

When to dig up lilies

If the cultivation area is southern, where temperature indicators are extremely rarely below zero, then gladioli can be set aside in the ground. However, you still have to cover them: they put shields, cover them with film, and throw a layer of leaves or sawdust on top.

However, the climate of central Russia has long, harsh winters, and the tender bulbs will die. The damp and cold ground will kill them long before spring. However, there are species of gladioli that are not afraid of open ground. They do not need to be dug out and survive the cold under cover well. Such varieties are very rare and quite expensive, so it is almost impossible to find them in gardens, but during prolonged frosts they can also freeze out.

Important! In the northern regions and in central Russia, gladioli must be dug up.

To winter without problems, the bulbs need a temperature not lower than + 2 ° C. Even if you cover the flowers very well, during the thaw they can rot, and mice can feast on them.

When to dig up gladioli

It is important to dig out the corms of gladioli before the ground freezes. If this is done later, when the cold has already come, then during storage they will rot. In supercooled bulbs, water will destroy cells, and even one night in frozen ground will destroy them.

When to dig tulips

It is also unsafe when you have to dig up gladioli bulbs ahead of time. They will take much longer to adapt to storage conditions. On such onions, the scales are soft, they themselves are easily injured. Having spent a lot of effort for winter preparation, the planting material loses water and shrivels.

But there are times when you have to dig up gladioli immediately after flowering: a particularly valuable variety affected by rot or pests.Then the bulbs are removed prematurely, but only from the second decade of July.

Many gardeners note that flowers should be dug out after harvesting potatoes, but long before freezing. If the flowerbed is decorated with a couple more gladioli, then they are cut off.

On a note. The golden rule: when to remove gladioli is 40-45 days after the end of flowering.

At this point, the onions are ripe. In early varieties, the period for digging up occurs in about 1.5 months. During this period, the bulb will gain weight, get stronger, and form children. It is only required to cut off the peduncles, otherwise, having spent energy on seeds, the gladiolus will not be able to prepare the bulb for winter and will not bloom next year.

When to dig up gladioli

Cleaning gladioli

To dig up and prepare the corms for wintering, you need to have the necessary equipment and preparations, these are:

  • Pitchfork;
  • Wicker basket;
  • A pair of containers;
  • Boric acid;
  • Manganese;
  • One of the disinfecting drugs is Karbofos, Trichoderm veride, Maxim summer resident.
When to dig up hyacinths

Gladioli are removed one by one, depending on the variety: first, early, then medium, late. First of all, it is customary to deal with burgundy, lilac and purple gladioli, since their immunity is much weaker.

Important!It is advisable to harvest flowers in dry, clear weather, since damp clods of earth break up poorly, and small onions can be missed. Having dug a bush, they shake off the ground, rob the children from the roots and the mother's bulb.

Often they get rid of the young, but flower growers leave the largest children to plant them in the spring. Wash large onions, remove the old bottom. If the tuber is mature enough, then it separates well.

An unripe tuber should lie down a little to ripen, only then the bottom is separated.

Bulb processing

For gladioli to bloom next year, the harvesting and storage of their bulbs must be carried out correctly.

The largest and healthiest tubers are selected from the excavated material, not older than 4 years. Roots are cut off from them, washed, and put into a disinfecting solution. The planting material should be kept in the solution for half an hour. If the bulbs are slightly damaged, they should be cut and treated with brilliant green. At the end of the procedure, the stem is cut off. You do not need to remove the husk from the tubers. In this form, the corms can be stored until spring.

Storing the bulbs

Important!Each grower should know not only when to dig up gladioli bulbs, but also how to store them so that there is something to plant.

For the first 3 weeks flower tubers should be kept at a temperature of + 22 ... + 25 ° C. A private house or apartment is suitable for this. Every day, the bulbs are turned over so that the scales dry well, and the upper ones can be removed without fear of damaging the body.

Only after that, the tubers are transferred to storage in the cool, previously placed in cardboard boxes. To prevent the appearance of fungi with gladioli, cloves of garlic are placed in cartons. Wood ash and grated dry mint will help protect tubers from excess moisture.

Storing gladiolus bulbs

Cleaning gladioli in Siberia, Moscow region, in the Urals

Most gladioli that fill the Moscow region bloom at the end of July and in August. The period of their digging falls on the month of September.

Tubers are stored in basements, cellars, placed in wooden boxes and covered with hay and linen.

As for the Urals and Siberia, the climate allows only early varieties of gladioli to be grown there. The short-term heat allows plants to bloom by September.

The Urals are famous for their harsh climate, so all gladioli flowers are cut in early September. Until the end of the month, the bulbs have time to get enough nutrients, and they are dug out.

Important! Gladiolus corms will ripen faster if the peduncle is cut off earlier, after the disclosure of several lower flowers.

Siberia has long winters, frosts often appear in mid-September. Flower bulbs are not able to ripen in the open field. Gardeners dig up unripe tubers and, together with a lump of soil, place them in boxes, which are taken to a basement with a temperature above zero.There, uncircumcised gladioli calmly ripen, then they are processed.

So that every year wonderful flowers can please the eye, you need to dig them up in time and be able to properly preserve them in the winter.