Growing crocuses at home
All gardeners look forward to the end of winter, because as soon as the snow melts, primroses begin to appear in the gardens. Crocuses are among the first to bloom. They are also called saffron. Bright small flowers have been delighting with their diversity for several millennia. There are about 100 species of this plant. It is used not only for decorating flower beds, saffron is used in cooking as a dye and spice. The medicinal properties of crocuses are also known.
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Crocuses can be grown not only outdoors. If you need a flower by a certain date, you can grow it at home in a pot; it is enough to create habitual living conditions for it.
Selection and preparation of bulbs for planting
Crocuses belong to the iris family, reproduce in a bulbous way. The larger the bulb, the earlier the plant will bloom. Therefore, if you want to get a bouquet of crocuses, it is advisable to choose the same size bulbs. Of the whole variety of crocuses, not all species can bloom in indoor conditions. Dutch hybrids, which give large beautiful flowers, have proven themselves excellent.
For forcing at home, it is not recommended to use natural decorative varieties, since the flowers will be small and inconspicuous.
If you want to get flowers for the New Year, choose early crocus varieties for planting, and if by May 1, then it is better to plant late ones. The best quality bulbs can be purchased at the beginning of the planting season at any flower shop.
In order for the plant to bloom earlier, you need to provide it with the usual conditions. Indoor crocuses must go through a cooling and rooting process. This usually takes about three months. Preparing the bulbs in this way guarantees flowering.
Do crocuses grow on your site? Wonderful. You can now transplant them into pots. For this bulbs selected varieties dug in early summer, dry well and sorted. When sorting, large and healthy tubers are selected, which will be placed in storage. For a week they are stored at a temperature of about +34 degrees, then it is reduced to +20 degrees.
After a couple of weeks, the temperature is lowered by a few more degrees and maintained at about +17 degrees until mid-August. After these procedures, the bulbs are sent for storage in a dry, dark place with a temperature of +4 to +9 degrees. A refrigerator is ideal for this. The bulbs are wrapped in thick paper and kept in the cold for a month.
Crocus planting
Selected healthy, intact crocus bulbs begin to be planted in pots approximately three weeks before the expected flowering. Indoor saffron loves loose neutral soil, which is well saturated with oxygen and perfectly permeable to water.
Unlike other plants, crocuses do not require nutrients. They can be grown in sand, a glass of water, expanded clay. But this method is only suitable for one-time flowering. If you plan that this flower will grow constantly, then it is better to plant it in a nutrient mixture. A mixture of coarse sand and turf or leafy soil is perfect. This substrate will feed the flower buds.
To prevent rotting of tubers, you can pour soil on the bottom of the pot, then sand, and deepen the roots of the bulb into this sand. To the top, they also fall asleep with sand.
Indoor crocuses are usually planted in wide, shallow pots, leaving space between the bulbs and between the bulbs and the pot. It is advisable to plant bulbs of the same variety and the same size in one pot. So the flowers will grow at the same time and will be of approximately equal height.
When planting, it is important to pay attention to drainage. The soil must pass water well so that it does not stagnate in the pot and cause root death.
Bulbs can be completely buried in the ground, or you can leave the top on top. After planting all the tubers, the soil must be tamped a little, watered and stored in a cool, dark place. It is desirable that the temperature is not lower than +5 and not more than +9 degrees. In such conditions, crocuses are kept for about two months.
Indoor crocus care
After two months, well-rooted bulbs will sprout. When the shoots have reached a length of 5 cm and are fairly firm to the touch, the plant is ready to bloom. The pots are transferred to a bright, but protected from direct sunlight, place. If the temperature of + 10-15 degrees is observed, then in two weeks the crocuses will bloom.
It is undesirable for the temperature to exceed the recommended values, as the flower will fade very quickly.
During the flowering period, saffron does not need much leaving... He calmly reacts to the dry air of apartments, does not need spraying, watering should be moderate as the soil dries out. There is no need to fertilize the plant at this time.
When the crocuses have faded, you can save the bulbs until next time. To do this, they are watered until all the leaves die off, then they are dug up and left for storage. Thus, you will provide yourself with beautiful primroses on your windowsill.