How gladioli reproduce: seeds, bulbs and babies, preparation for planting

The greatness and beauty of gladioli force gardeners to invent effective, simple and cost-effective methods of reproduction. To date, about 2 thousand varieties of this plant are known. Despite the impressive figure, getting the right planting material is sometimes not easy. But a neighbor in the country often has it. How do garden gladioli reproduce? There are several ways to do this, it remains only to choose the right one.

Reproduction of gladioli by children (tuber buds)

The most reliable, but at the same time, the easiest way to propagate a flower you like is to collect tuber buds from it. Garden gladioli of any variety produce enough of them after the end of the flowering period.

What is this?

Corms form the basis of bulbous plant species, it is with them that the growth and development of the future flower begins. Depending on the variety, a different number of children are formed on the mother bulb.

Sometimes you have to resort to stimulating this process by cutting off the peduncle just before the end of flowering.

Propagation of gladioli by tuber buds allows you to quickly breed your favorite variety, as well as rejuvenate your own plantings.

Winter storage

Before storage, small onions are recommended to dry thoroughly. The duration of the drying process is several weeks (usually 2-3). After that, the planting material is sorted again and only he althy babies are sent to the storage. If small foci of decay are found, then they are cut out with a sharp knife, poured with brilliant green and left for further drying.

Wooden boxes for vegetables are suitable for drying, in which children of gladioli are stored for 1-1.5 months at room temperature, covered with a newspaper that will absorb the released moisture. After drying, the onions are wrapped in a dry, clean newspaper and sent for storage in a cool room or in the lower section of the refrigerator. If the necessary conditions are met and the temperature regime is maintained, gladiolus babies retain their qualities for 2-3 years.

Growing seedlings from gladiolus babies

Preparing children for planting involves certain activities. The collected planting material is taken out of the storage, cleaned of dry husks, if necessary, soaked for a day in warm water. Thus, the rhizomes are stimulated to start growing. After that, the children are planted in the prepared soil, covered in a flower pot or box, and wait for their germination.Next, plantings are moistened and left for a week in a warm, well-lit room, waiting for sprouts to appear.

Planting and caring for children of gladioli in the beds

After the bulbs are planted in the soil, they are irrigated and the ground around is mulched. Throughout the growing season, young gladioli are watered, loosened the soil, and fed. As soon as foliage begins to form in them, a complex mineral fertilizer with a nitrogen content is applied. After a couple of weeks, the plants are fed with preparations containing iron and manganese. Emerging flower stalks from young plants must be cut.

Dividing the bulb

Propagate gladioli by dividing the bulbs risk more experienced florists and gardeners. This will require certain skills and a stock of theoretical knowledge, otherwise the experiment will fail.

Features of the method

When dividing the maternal gladiolus bulb into several parts, you can get not only more planting material, but also stimulate the formation of children. For manipulations, material from the second or third year of life is selected without signs of any diseases or pest damage.

How to exercise?

Before you start cutting the onion, prepare tools and fixtures. The knife is well sharpened, burned on fire. The head is cut vertically. The number of parts obtained depends on the size of the original bulb.

On each piece, not only part of the bottom should remain for the formation of new roots, but also live buds.

The cut sites must be disinfected and processed. Use for such purposes wood ash, brilliant green.After that, the pieces of onion are left for some time to dry, and then planted in the prepared nutrient soil. In autumn, ready-made, formed corms are dug up. Already next year they will give a large number of children, which are later used for reproduction and renewal of planting material. It is necessary to care for the delenki planted in open ground in the same way as for an adult plant.

Plant bulbs preferably upside down. Ground shoots with this method develop more slowly, flowering often does not occur, but the formation of children is stimulated.

How to work with seeds?

Over time, gladiolus bulbs lose their properties:

• go flat;
• give fewer babies to breed;
• throw out weak flower stalks in small numbers.

In this case, some gardeners resort to seed propagation of gladioli. This technique is considered risky, costly and unjustified, but still takes place. When growing bulbs from seeds, all the varietal properties of the mother plant are often lost, the cross-pollination that occurred during the flowering period is greatly affected. The result of such processes is unpredictable.

Most often, the method of growing gladioli from seeds is used by professional breeders for their scientific work and breeding of new varieties.

In gladiolus, after pollination, seed pods are formed, in which the seeds then ripen. According to their external characteristics, they resemble small flat plates, the size of which is 2 mm. After ripening, the seeds become brown in color. Under the shell, a barely noticeable embryo of the future gladiolus is visible.Up to 200 seeds are formed in each seed box. After ripening and harvesting, they are successfully stored at room conditions, however, the storage place should not be allowed to be too dry. In this case, germination is greatly degraded.

In March-February, the collected seed is planted in containers or boxes. During this period, the flowers need to provide a sufficient level of illumination, using fluorescent lamps for this. If this is not possible, the sowing dates should be postponed to the end of March.

Before sowing, the seeds are soaked for several hours in a growth stimulator. Containers and soil mixture are prepared in advance. The ideal option would be to mix in equal proportions:

• soddy soil;
• humus;
• river sand.

Flower growers also use a ready-made mixture, but in this case, calcined sand should be added to it. Gladiolus seeds are germinated and then sown in boxes or pots. Subsequently, they will only need regular moistening and careful loosening of the soil.

With the onset of warm weather, boxes with young shoots of gladioli gradually begin to be taken out into the street and hardened. Initially, they are left in the fresh air for a couple of hours, and then this time is gradually increased. So that the sprouts do not get sunburn, they are covered from direct rays.

After the threat of night frost has passed, you can plant gladioli in open ground. Although some florists leave them in boxes for the whole summer, while carrying out standard care procedures. As a rule, in the first year of life, a flower grown from a seed does not bloom. All his strength goes to the formation and development of a strong and he althy bulb.

In autumn, gladioli planted from seeds are dug up, small onions are separated from the stem and prepared for storage.The timing of flower harvesting depends on climatic conditions, but most often this is done in September. The following year, the collected bulbs are planted on the site with grooves. They may well already bloom, although professionals recommend cutting off the peduncle so that the plant has enough strength to further form the bulb. Caring for gladiolus grown from seeds is no different from growing them from bulbs or babies.

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