How to store hyacinth bulbs at home: when to dig and whether to dig

Table Of Contents

Do I need to dig up hyacinths every year?
When to dig up plants?
Rules for removing bulbs from the ground
Storing bulbs at home
Timeline for planting bulbs back into the garden
When hyacinths are planted indoors
When can bulbs be left in the ground

Hyacinths are one of the early flowers that bloom as soon as the weather gets warm outside. But the plant also blooms just as quickly. Therefore, gardeners often have a question about how to keep hyacinth bulbs he althy for planting next year.

Do I need to dig up hyacinths every year?

Like tulips, hyacinths should be dug up every year. If you do not do this after flowering, the flower may not bloom at all the next year. Therefore, digging up hyacinths must be done.

If you do not dig up hyacinth bulbs, you may encounter the following problems:

The bulbs are becoming less resistant to frost.
Plants get sick more often.
Planting material degenerates and blooms worse.
There are problems with the propagation of bulbs.

In addition, some hyacinth varieties reproduce very poorly. You can help them just at the moment of digging. Cut the bottom of the onion crosswise with a sharp knife. The incisions are dried and cleaned in a room in which the bulbs will be stored until spring.

When to dig up plants?

In order for hyacinth bulbs to remain he althy by spring and germinate next year, they must be removed from the ground in a timely manner for the winter. Digging too early will not allow the bulb to fill up with nutrients from the soil. This process should not be delayed either.

Since the hyacinth is an early flower, you can dig the bulbs in mid-June. But again, you should not focus only on deadlines. There are other signs that it is time to remove the plant.

Dig up hyacinths after the inflorescences have faded, and the upper third of the foliage has turned yellow. Waiting for the bush to dry completely is undesirable. When digging up, the stem may break, and it will be more difficult to get the bulb. Also, if the husk is severely cracked, then at the time of digging, the children may accidentally come off and remain in the soil.

Rules for removing bulbs from the ground

With proper digging of bulbs from the ground, flowers will delight with their unusual flowering for many years. Hyacinth bulbs can keep blooming for up to 10 years if dug properly.

A few days before the expected date of digging up, the plants stop watering and fertilizing. The dug up planting material is cleaned from the remnants of the earth and washed in warm water. Then laid out on a newspaper to dry.

When the onions dry, they are sorted out.It is important that he althy and damaged bulbs are not placed together in the box. If they have signs of damage, then such planting material is thrown away. Excess scales are carefully separated (especially if there are children on the bulb) and thrown away.

After all the procedures for preparing hyacinths for winter, you need to choose a container in which they will be stored. This often determines how successfully hyacinths overwinter.

Storing bulbs at home

The most difficult thing when growing hyacinths is to keep the planting material he althy after digging. To do this, you need to provide favorable conditions. The rest period is 3-4 months. During this time, it is necessary to prevent the appearance of mold and rotting of planting material. Storage of bulbs consists of three successive stages:

The dug up hyacinths, along with the foliage, are laid out in a dark, cool room and kept there until the foliage turns completely yellow. The leaves during this time will give all the nutrients to the bulbs.
Then the foliage is cut, and the planting material is laid out in plastic or wooden boxes in one layer.
The first 8-9 weeks hyacinths are stored at a temperature of +20 to +23 degrees. The seeds are covered with sphagnum, which retains moisture and prevents the surface of the bulbs from drying out.
Then the temperature is reduced to +18 degrees and the boxes are kept in such conditions for about 4 weeks. During this period, you need to keep a high level of humidity, so sphagnum is constantly sprayed with a spray bottle.
In the last week before planting hyacinths, the temperature in the room where the pots are located is lowered to +10 degrees.

It is undesirable to sharply reduce the temperature, it can harm the seeds. A constant decrease in temperature helps to increase the frost resistance of hyacinths, and after transplanting into the ground, it is easier for them to endure cool outdoor weather.

Another nuance to consider when storing hyacinths in winter is the appearance of mold. With excessively high humidity and improper storage conditions, seeds can become moldy and infect he althy specimens. To prevent this from happening, you need to constantly look through the boxes, and if damaged specimens appear, immediately throw them away, and treat the he althy ones with potassium permanganate.

Timeline for planting bulbs back into the garden

By the end of winter, you need to start preparing for planting flowers in open ground. The timing depends on the region of residence, in different climatic zones, cooling occurs at different times. Hyacinths are planted in late September - early October, when the soil has not yet had time to freeze and the weather is relatively warm outside. In warm growing regions, the timing of planting hyacinths back into the beds is shifted by several weeks.

Soil preparation

Before planting in open ground, the soil is first prepared. The soil for flowers should be well drained and fertile. Heavy and acidic substrates are not suitable for this crop.

It is not recommended to apply fresh manure before planting. Not only will such a fertilizer lose most of its nutrients during application, but because of its concentration, it can destroy the seeds.

Preparation for planting begins in August-September. The soil is dug up, weeds are removed. The soil needs to be dug up to a depth of 30-40 cm. Then potash-phosphorus fertilizers are applied to the soil.

Before the autumn planting, it is not recommended to apply nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Nitrogen stimulates growth, and this is undesirable in the fall, when the plants need to prepare for wintering.

Seating chart on site

You can plant planting material in any order, the main thing is to leave the distance between the bulbs at least 15-20 cm.

Hyacinth planting process:

Dig a hole in the ground 10 cm deep.
Pour humus into the bottom of the hole.
Put the bulb in the hole and cover with soil.
The top must be completely covered with earth.
Sprinkle plenty of warm water.

Seeds are planted deeper in loose soil than in heavy soil. Watering newly planted hyacinths should be plentiful, but do not flood them. Subsequent waterings are carried out as needed.

In regions with high humidity, the planting process is slightly different:

Dig a hole 20 cm deep.
Pour humus on the bottom.
Then cover with a layer of river sand (3-5 cm).
Expose the bulb and pour another layer of sand.
Fill up the hole with soil.

This method of planting will protect the bulbs from decay and infection.

After planting, the bed with hyacinths must be mulched. First of all, this measure will protect the flowers from winter frosts. In addition, the soil will always be moist, and weeds will not appear in the garden in spring.

When hyacinths are planted indoors

At home, hyacinths are distilled in mid-September. Only large bulbs are suitable for this. Before landing, they are stored in a dark room at a temperature of +17 degrees.

During forcing, the planting material is not buried, a third of the bulb should be on the surface. For distillation, plants use light fertile soil based on peat and river sand. You can also add one piece of leaf ground. Drainage is laid out at the bottom of the container.

Then the containers are placed in a cool room at a temperature of +6 … +7 degrees. If you plan to get inflorescences by spring, the temperature is reduced to +5 degrees.

In such conditions, the plants are left for 10-14 weeks. Then they will sprout. The main thing is that all this time sunlight does not fall on them. Watering the soil is also optional.

The second stage is the transfer of containers to a warm room with a temperature of +15 … +21 degrees. Moisten the soil regularly, do not allow it to dry out. After a few weeks, place the containers in sunlight. You need to put hyacinths in a warm room in the sun after they have a green arrow with an inflorescence.

When can bulbs be left in the ground

It is not always necessary to dig up hyacinth bulbs every year and plant them back into the ground by winter.Although it is better to do it regularly. It is not necessary to dig up a flower every year if the region of growth has a warm winter. But even in this case, digging will have to be carried out at least a year later. If you do not do this annually, you will still have to dig up the plants and plant the children so that the beds do not overgrow and there is enough space for the bushes.

It is also not necessary to do this if the bulbs are still very small and have not even bloomed yet. They can be left in the ground for the winter in the first year after planting. And the next year, dig up along with the rest of the seeds.