Many people are interested in how to store tulip bulbs at home. It's not at all difficult to do this. Even beginners and inexperienced people can handle this. There are several proven methods that will help you admire the blooming flowers every year. In this article we will talk about them in detail.
How to properly prepare planting material for storage
It is necessary to remove them from the ground at the beginning of summer, after they have bloomed. There is no exact date for this procedure.
You should focus on the appearance of the leaves: faded and yellowed leaves indicate that the bulb has formed and it’s time to dig it up. Also look at the bulbs - brown scales indicate maturity.
Tulip bulbs should be sorted. After they have been extracted in the summer, they are distributed by variety and volume and placed in separate containers to make storage more convenient.
Damaged and diseased bulbs should be thrown away. The soil that remains is cleared away. Then they are washed and disinfected in a weak solution for half an hour so that they do not deteriorate before planting. 
Then they need to be dried by scattering them in the shade. It is better to carry out the procedure in a ventilated room - rain may interfere outside.
After 7 days, the dried bulbs are sorted again, removing the remaining stems and small embryonic bulbs. Then they need to be dried for a few more days.
The preparation of the bulbs is completed. Now you need to decide on a place where they will be comfortable in winter. It is very important to store planting material under appropriate conditions, otherwise it may deteriorate.
What kind of place should be suitable for storing bulbs?
Let's consider the places where it is recommended to store until spring. It is better to choose a cool room, such as a basement or attic. The place should be ventilated, out of sun, dry. 
Suitable humidity is no more than 70%. There should be almost no light, because underground the bulbs are in the dark. Only weak diffuse lighting is allowed to avoid disruption of physiological processes.
Basic rules for storing tulip bulbs
You need to know at what temperature to store tulip bulbs before planting. Best temperature is considered to be approximately 20°C, and in autumn - no more than 17°C. Since in the first few weeks the formation of flower buds, immediately after digging they must be kept at 24°C. Later the temperature should be lowered.
Let's look at a few secrets:
- You need to carefully remove the bulbs from the ground - any damage can cause fungal diseases;
- It is recommended to store in a regular box;
- It is better to pour them in one layer;
- you can sprinkle the planting material - this way the bulbs will not absorb unnecessary moisture;
- You are allowed to wrap each onion in newspaper - this will save you from damage.
Important!It is better to avoid cardboard boxes, as they get wet and the bulbs can become moldy.
Methods for storing tulip bulbs
Let's find out how to store tulips in winter.
Apartment
You can select a cool pantry, end or dark room where there is no dampness. The location should be away from batteries. It is also allowed to place the box on an insulated one. It is recommended to make a hole in the container for a thermometer so that you can control the temperature.
Cellar
It must be dry to preserve it. The bulbs must be sprinkled with sawdust, sand or. It is important to control the temperature. 
You can also store tulip bulbs in the basement after flowering in this way: pour light bulbs into the box, which consists of garden soil, and steam it for 1 hour using a water bath.
The bulbs are planted in this soil. They take root in it, but do not grow, since the temperature is too low for this.
But storage in the cellar has one drawback - they love to feast on the planting material. Therefore, if you ever notice these in your home, it is better to find another place for the bulbs.
Fridge
If there are few onions, they can be put in the refrigerator, where they are stored. Before this, each onion should be wrapped in paper and placed in a paper or fabric bag. 
Thermal chamber
The most suitable place are considered thermal chambers. They are ventilated and automatically maintain the desired temperature. But such a device has a high cost, so not everyone can afford to purchase it.
Did you know?In 17th-century Holland, tulips were very expensive - one bulb could cost more than a decent city house. Often the price simple plant ten timesexceeded the annual salary of an ordinary person.
Possible storage problems and their solutions
Problems can arise due to improper storage conditions, for example, when humidity or temperature is elevated. This can cause the bulbs to rot, become moldy, or germinate prematurely.
Many novice gardeners are interested in the question of how to store tulip bulbs after flowering. Videos on the Internet show how to do this easily.
When are the bulbs dug up?
Usually at the end of the first month of summer. U late varieties this moment moves forward a little. But you don’t need to wait until the leaves are completely dry. The bulbs fall apart and small children simply cannot be found. If the plant is located on wet soil, it may get sick.
Faded tulips must be dug up along with the bulbs and soil. All this stuff is transplanted into a box, which is subsequently transferred to the shade. After the leaves have completely dried, the tulips are separated from the bulbs and laid out to dry. In the northern regions, bulbs are dug from July to early August. First, the early varieties are extracted, then the late ones. It is very important to know how to store tulip bulbs at home after flowering?
How are the bulbs dug?
The plant's bulbs are replaced annually by new boxes. Then the seeds begin to germinate. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to break off the box immediately after the tulip has bloomed. Experienced gardeners It is recommended to dig up the bulbs in dry weather, but the sun should not burn. They should lie in the shade for a couple of days. They should then be cleaned. They need to be freed from lumps of soil. Try to weed out all the bulbs without roots and with dark spots.
The dried material will need to be freed from soil, leaves and roots. Then they are advised to treat them for half an hour in a weak composition of potassium permanganate. After which the sorted bulbs are laid out in wooden boxes in two tiers. If there are unsuitable nylon tights, then it is better to store the material there.
1. After digging, it is recommended to distribute the material by variety and size. They are laid out in a separate container. It is extremely important to sort out the large heads, they are the ones that will produce flowers in the spring.
2. It is recommended to remove the soil from each box. They can be washed and treated with a weak composition of potassium permanganate for half an hour. This will help preserve the tulips. If you see that the planting material is unsuitable, remove it immediately.
3. The cleaned and processed material must be sent to dry in the shade. It is better to place pallets with tulips in a ventilated area. But there should be no drafts inside.
4. After a week, the bulbs need to be sorted again. Stems, scales and unnecessary bulbs are removed. All rot is thrown away.
5. Then the dug tulips should dry for a few more days.
Storage areas for planting material
How to store tulip bulbs after flowering? Experienced gardeners do not recommend storing planting material in cardboard boxes, as air will not circulate in them. There is another disadvantage of such containers - it is dampness, which will provoke the appearance of a fungal infection.
If possible, it is better to store the bulbs in special chambers where the temperature is maintained automatically. Such devices are very expensive, so they are not very popular.
Planting material can be stored in ordinary apartment. You just need to choose places where you wouldn’t end up sun rays. The bulbs should be kept away from heating devices and drafts.
For efficient storage, the planting material is sprinkled with sawdust on top. You can also wrap each onion in newspaper. These two methods will help protect tulips from infection and disease.
Planting material is allowed to be stored in the cellar. It is enough just to cover the empty boxes with earth. Next, the bulbs are planted in it. By winter they will get stronger, but they will not grow further, as in the basements low temperature. But the boxes must be installed so that mice or rats cannot reach them.
In order for tulip bulbs to rest after the growing season, they need to be dug up, dried and stored for autumn planting. Some gardeners do not consider this agricultural technique necessary and leave the tubers in the ground. This is not entirely true. This approach does not have the best effect on the bulbs. Over time, they become smaller, multiply worse, and are affected various diseases and may not bloom. If you leave the nodules in the ground for more than 2 years, they go to a considerable depth and are difficult to find when digging.
Caring for tulip bulbs after digging in open ground
To save expensive varietal tulips, it is better to play it safe and dig them up, dry the bulbs, process them and return them to their original place or replant them in another area. Some varieties generally lose varietal characteristics if they are deprived of drying and rest outside the soil. Next season, from the non-transplanted bulbs, flowers will grow to a completely different degree of fullness and a different color. Sometimes flowering does not occur at all, and later the bulbs themselves disappear.
Tulip bulbs
Experts divide all tulips into 3 types: some need to be dug up annually, others can be removed from the ground after 2 years, and the third category can grow without digging up to 5 years.
- Terry late, lily-flowered, fringed, green-flowered, parrot, Rembrandt tulips - require annual digging.
- Triumph tulips, Darwin hybrids and simple varieties can remain in the ground without extraction for 2 years, although ideally they also need to be dug up annually.
- Kaufman, Foster and Greig tulips can sit in the ground for up to 5 years.
Important! Sometimes tulips lose varietal characteristics even with correct landing and care due to inappropriate growing conditions. Some varieties of Greig, Kaufman tulips and certain terry varieties are especially capricious in this regard.
Manufacturers do not set themselves the task of bringing out resistant varieties, since it is more profitable for them that gardeners purchase new bulbs every year to replace the missing tubers. Tulips need to be dug up for one more reason, so that their overgrown nest can be divided, the whole a large number kids on small space starts to miss nutrients, and this affects the quality of plants.
During subsequent planting, the gardener has the opportunity to plant flowers in dug up, loose, fertilized soil, creating the most favorable conditions for growth.
Pay attention! The timing of digging tulips in summer can be easily determined by their appearance. This procedure should be started when the leaves turn 1/3 yellow. At this stage, most of the nutrients have already been redistributed in the tuber, and the nest still retains its integrity.
To save the bulbs, you need to dig them up correctly. Choose a dry, sunny day for work. The best tool to use is a pitchfork. They use them to pry the nest from below, slightly retreating from the landing site, and lift it to the surface. It is not recommended to cut off strong leaves; they will still be able to feed the bulb. If the soil was wet and stuck to the tubers, carefully clean it off. After this, the bulbs need to be washed with water and inspected to determine if there is rot or suspicious spots on them. If such areas are found, they are cut out to healthy tissue.
Weak solution of potassium permanganate
Before storing the material, it is soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or any fungicide for 30 minutes. After this, the bulbs are dried in cardboard boxes, spread out in one layer. In order not to confuse the varieties, the boxes should be signed, indicating the name of the tulip, because before planting it must take certain time and it can be easy to forget where everything is stored.
Where to store tulip bulbs until autumn in a city apartment
Before bookmarking long-term storage the tubers need to be sorted. Those that are suspicious are placed in a common box to reduce the risk of infection transmission healthy bulbs. It is possible that the nodules with signs of disease will remain until planting; treatment with fungicides is quite conducive to this, but even if some of them rot, healthy bulbs stored separately will not be harmed.
Some people use nylon nets for vegetables to dry planting material; they are convenient for hanging tulip tubers in the attic or barn. The drying place should be well ventilated, but not have direct solar lighting. After 2 days, the old covering scales are removed from the bulbs, the remaining roots and dried leaves are removed, and the nests are separated if they have not disintegrated on their own. After this, calibration is performed. Bulbs would be ideal round shape, the diameter of which is not less than 4 cm.
Storing tulip bulbs
Smaller bulbs should then be planted separately from larger specimens. Most likely, they will not bloom in the first year after planting.
It is also important to know how to store tulip bulbs until autumn? The condition of the plants next year and their ability to flower will depend on this. When storing tulips after digging for the first month, you need a temperature of at least 23-24°C. For parrots and fringed varieties the temperature should be close to 30°C. The optimal humidity level is 70%.
Bulb storage
In addition, the room must be well ventilated. Homes are ideal for placing mezzanine tubers, space under the bed, and pantry shelves. If there are a lot of bulbs, they can be stored in an ordinary wooden or plastic box, again, placing it in one layer. It is during this period that flower buds form in the bulbs, so it is important to maintain the temperature regime. Starting in August, it is advisable to lower the temperature to 20°C, and at the beginning of September - to 15-16°C. Such temperature chart This is what the Dutch adhere to when growing this crop in greenhouses.
Since it is easier to maintain a certain temperature in large volume, you can build a special box, internal surfaces which will be covered with paraffin, and place it on the balcony. In this case, you need to constantly monitor the temperature using a thermometer (you will need to make a window in the wall for it). There should also be small holes on the sides of the box for ventilation.
For your information! A heat chamber is ideal for preserving tulip corms at home, but it is quite expensive. However, if there is skillful hands, many men will be able to build such a device themselves by studying information on the Internet.
8 tips for preserving tulips before planting in the fall
It is especially valuable for beginners to receive advice experienced flower growers who have been successfully growing tulips for several years now and regularly replanting them. Practical experience allows such people to confidently give recommendations to other summer residents, which helps to preserve especially valuable and beloved varieties of this crop. So why not put them into practice? Here are some such tips:
- To ensure that the bulbs are well preserved, they must be handled with care during digging. The slightest damage makes them vulnerable to pathogenic microorganisms.
- When storing in a damp room, it is recommended to sprinkle the nodules with sawdust, which will absorb excess moisture.
- To prevent the bulbs from germinating ahead of time, the storage should be dark.
- When properly stored, tulip nodules must be provided with access to air. It is strictly forbidden to keep them in plastic bags.
- Some gardeners suggest wrapping each bulb in newspaper before storing. This technique helps to avoid excessive moisture loss in a dry room and protects the tubers from temperature changes.
- If the planting material was purchased too late, or for some reason the summer resident was late with planting, the tulips can be stored until spring on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, wrapping each bulb in a sheet of newspaper and placing it in a fabric or paper bag.
- Planting material laid on winter storage, once every 2 weeks they sort and inspect. Moldy tubers are washed in potassium permanganate and dried at room temperature for 2-3 days, and then returned to storage until March.
- If you have a basement, the bulbs can be laid out directly on a dry shelf. They need to be inspected periodically and the temperature controlled. IN winter time The thermometer in the basement should read just above 0°C.
Store corms until the onset optimal timing plantings that occur from mid-September to mid-October. More exact date can be called based on the region and weather conditions.
When to plant tulips
Compliance with planting dates plays an important role in growing this crop. Planting too early may cause the bulbs to sprout prematurely, which will be damaged if frost occurs. If they are planted late, full rooting will not occur, which means that flowering in the spring will occur later. The determining factor for planting is the soil temperature at a depth of 15 cm. By the time the bulbs are planted, it should be 8-10°C. It takes 20-25 days for the roots to grow thoroughly in the soil. The air temperature at the time of planting is usually around 0°C or slightly higher.
- Middle zone - from early September to early October;
- Siberia - from late August to early September (with warm weather a little longer);
- Middle Urals - mid-September, Southern Urals - early October;
- Stavropol Territory, Crimea, Kuban - towards the end of October.
Important! In Ukraine, tulips are planted in the fall in the same numbers as in the south of Russia. The timing for Belarus coincides with the timing of the Middle Zone.
It is also worth providing proper preparation soil and carry out the planting correctly. Heavy clay soil must be made permeable and nutritious by adding sand, peat, and rotted manure. The acidity of the soil must be adjusted so that this parameter is in the range of 6.5-7.8 pH. You can acidify the soil by adding peat; wood ash or limestone will help neutralize the acidity. Sandy soil well seasoned with compost and mineral fertilizers.
Pay attention! Cannot be used for feeding bulbous crops fresh manure. This causes plants to burn their roots and cause fungal diseases.
The dug up soil is leveled and furrows are marked for planting tulips. They should be shed for disinfection with a solution of potassium permanganate. For large bulbs, dig holes 8-12 cm deep at a distance of 12-15 cm from each other. Small nodules are planted denser and closer to the surface.
In light soil, the bulbs can be buried a little more, but in heavy soil, vice versa. Before planting in an area where water stagnates, a sand cushion is laid out at the bottom of the hole or a handful of expanded clay is poured. It is advisable to powder the onions wood ash, this will give them additional protection. When planting, they are lightly pressed into the ground so that there are no air pockets underneath them, and then watered.
Important! If the planting material is not uniform in size, you can make the hole slightly wider, place a large onion in the center, and several small ones around it.
After planting, the holes are sprinkled with fertile soil and the surface is leveled so that water does not stagnate in the flowerbed during the autumn rains. If there is no rain within the next 5-7 days, the plantings need to be watered, otherwise the roots will not grow well. To keep the flower bed bright longer in the spring, you can plant tulips with different terms flowering or place other early flowering plants nearby.
Transplanting tulips
IN northern regions After planting, tulips are mulched with peat or compost; the layer thickness should be about 4 cm. In the spring, the mulch is not removed from the flowerbed, as it prevents the appearance of a hard crust on the soil surface, which delays the appearance of sprouts and the penetration of moisture to the bulbs. If winters are too cold, you can add an additional layer of straw on top after the soil has completely frozen.
For your information! Many gardeners have adapted to growing tulips in plastic baskets with a lattice bottom. This planting allows you to quickly and easily form a flower bed and remove nests from the ground without fear of damaging the bulbs. An additional benefit of this method is that the plastic prevents rodents from reaching and damaging the tubers.
Tulips, earlier than many other flowers, begin to delight summer residents with bright buds and give spring mood. The abundance of varieties makes it possible to build spectacular and original compositions. Proper storage Bulbs of this culture allow you to subsequently enjoy its beauty.
Many people have a tulip among many plants in their flower garden. Not every gardener knows how to store the bulbs of this representative of the flora correctly. This process seems complicated to many, but even a novice gardener can master this science.
When to dig up tulips?
Almost all varieties of tulips require annual digging. Then you can count on getting large bulbs. Timely culling of diseased material is carried out. For two years, without digging, you can grow only the baby; the leaves of the plant have turned yellow by 2/3 of its length, and they begin to release it from the ground. A well-ripened bulb has scales that are light brown. This applies to almost all varieties. Before you think about it, you should clean them in a timely manner. Being late or, conversely, digging early will worsen the quality of the material.
They dug up a tulip. How to store bulbs?
For storage, tulips are dug up by variety, starting with the earlier ones. The main task of the florist is to prevent the development of diseases that affect these flowers. How to store bulbs in this case has great value. At the slightest
If a disease outbreak occurs on them, they must be discarded. After digging, you should determine where to store the tulip bulbs. It is better to use boxes with a mesh bottom for this, scattering them by variety in 2-3 layers. You shouldn’t add more, as this will quickly rot the bulbs and cause mold to form on them. The boxes are placed under a canopy for 1-2 days to dry the material. Nests of bulbs easily fall apart; roots, stems and scales must be removed from them, after which they are treated for half an hour in a solution of potassium permanganate. Sometimes tulips are dug up in wet weather. In this case, the bulbs should be thoroughly washed in running water, pickle, then spread in one layer and dry in a warm room.
How to care for tulip bulbs?
Sorting is carried out in July. The bulbs are dried for 4 weeks with good ventilation and a temperature of +23-25°C. In August, this indicator should be reduced to +20°C, and a month later by another 3 degrees. This determines what quality the tulip will be and how to store the bulbs in the future. Excerpt temperature regime extremely important. It is during the storage period that the formation of a replacement and daughter bulb, a peduncle and the flower itself occurs inside them. If the temperature regime is violated, in most cases during flowering the “blind” bud is forced out. Knowing how to store bulbs is the most important part of successfully growing them in the garden. If they are sent to winter storage for spring forcing, it is important to choose the right place. The room should not be too humid (mold may appear). But also excessive dryness And high temperatures have a negative effect on the bulbs. Tulips are very poorly stored in a hot room; they dry out. Some varieties of these flowers fit well on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, but this is an extreme case.
After flowering, a summer resident who grows tulips may have questions about whether it is necessary to dig up flower bulbs, how and what to do with them next. If you want to preserve the varietal properties of flowers, especially the fringed, parrot or green-flowered groups, then you need to dig up tulip bulbs annually. Varieties of tulips that do not require annual digging are: Darwin hybrids, Simple early, Triumph, Foster, Kaufman and others. However, it is better not to take risks.
When to dig up tulips
To form a strong bulb, the flower head must be cut off 3-4 days after it opens, without allowing the seeds to set. Leave the length of the peduncle and leaves maximum length so that the outflow of nutrients necessary for the bulbs occurs. You cannot dig up tulip bulbs immediately after flowering, as they will become smaller and the flowering power will decrease. next year. It is best to do this in conditions middle zone in early July, and in the northern regions in the second half of July.
Another guideline for digging up tulips is when the stem and leaves wilt when the top of the stem becomes soft.
Start cleaning from the very early varieties(Kaufman, Foster, Darwinian hybrids, Triumph, Parrot class). 
How to dig up tulips
Dig tulips dry sunny weather. Be extremely careful with small bulbs - they go deep into the ground. If you don't dig them up at all, over time they will be lost deep in the soil, especially in sandy soils. When digging up tulips, place the shovel strictly vertically to prevent damage. You cannot pull the stem, it will come off and the bulb will be lost in the ground.
If you have to dig up tulips in damp and humid weather, wash the bulbs under water and then dry them.
What to do with tulip bulbs after digging
Storage boxes flower bulbs disinfect copper sulfate. The bottom of the boxes should have holes for air circulation.
After digging, immediately sort the tulip bulbs, removing any obvious signs of damage, place them in boxes (do not store them on the ground to protect them from diseases and pests) and do not forget to insert markers with the name of the variety. Remove boxes with bulbs from the sun. After 2-3 days, when the bulbs have dried, you can clean them from roots, soil and unnecessary scales. If you do this right away, you can damage the bottom. You cannot use waste in compost. To prevent diseases, fungicide treatment can be applied in the first 2 weeks. To do this, tulip bulbs are soaked for 2 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
In this form, large tulip bulbs are stored for 20 days indoors at a temperature of 23-25°C. At low temperatures, buds do not form and there will be no flowering next year. From August to (mid-September) you need to gradually lower the room temperature to +13-15°C. But small tulip bulbs should be stored before planting, on the contrary, at a lower temperature so that they do not dry out. Store in semi-darkness, alternatively, first in the attic and then in a dry basement.
It is strictly forbidden to store collected tulip bulbs in a bucket - the lower ones will rot.
Let us remind you that in dacha utility rooms There may be mice that will be very interested in tulip bulbs, so we recommend periodically checking the planting material. In August, tulip bulbs can be planted for growing. 
How to make it easier to dig up tulip bulbs
Plant tulips in baskets with small cells, then the bulbs cannot get lost in the ground. I took out the basket and that was it. You can also plant them in plastic containers (5-6 l), making holes in the bottom for the roots. After the tulips bloom, without waiting for the stems and leaves to turn yellow, remove the balloons from the ground and plant other plants in the same place. Thus, you will get a flower garden without loss decorative qualities. Move the container with tulips to another more unsightly place for further withering of the above-ground part.