Storing lilies in the winter at home

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Lily is a favorite of flower growers. But from the point of view of care, she is quite demanding and whimsical. Those who decide to grow this capricious plant often have the question of how to properly store lily bulbs dug out of the ground in winter so that they retain all their basic characteristics at home and, most importantly, germination for the next year.

Conditions to be met

In order for the plants to give new shoots next year without any problems, it is very important to know how to store lilies dug out for the winter at home.

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Here's what to endure:

1. Provide air access - this is necessary so that mold does not appear on the nodules.
2. The humidity should be kept at a medium level to prevent early frog pasture.
3. It must be remembered that excessive dryness also leads to damage to the bulb. It may simply shrink and lose all of its moisture needed to drive the frog out in the spring when it emerges.
4. Provide a suitable temperature range.

How to prepare a bulb for wintering

Before you start storing lily bulbs throughout the winter at home and when sending them to the refrigerator, you need to prepare them correctly for this. To do this, perform the following actions:

1. After the flower has bloomed, you do not need to cut off the stems with leaves from it. If this is done, then the bulbs simply will not be able to gain the necessary strength for overwintering.
2. When the green part fades, it is simply removed. And they do this manipulation in late autumn.
3. After flowering has passed, it is necessary to let the tuber rest for 1, 5 months.

When you need to get an onion out of the ground

In order to give the bulb to gain strength, but at the same time not to freeze it in cold soil in late autumn, it is necessary to carefully monitor the temperature indicators. It is very important not to dig it up earlier, but also not to overexpose it in the ground.

As soon as the first cold weather began and, possibly, the first frosts fell on the ground, it is necessary to get the bulb out of the soil. It is the first frosts that are the main signal to perform this manipulation.

When the nodule is removed from the soil, it must be shaken off the ground. But before doing this, you must:

1. Cut off the stem at a height of 5 cm from the soil surface.
2. Then, using a tool, make a groove around the bulb in the ground. Do this very carefully so as not to violate the integrity of the lily.
3. Only then will it be possible to remove it from the soil.
4. When the earth is shaken off, it is necessary to wash the bulb under running water.
5. Then it is dried in a dry place with constant air supply. When several bulbs are laid out to dry, it is necessary that they do not stick tightly to each other and do not touch. Otherwise, rotting may begin at the point of contact. Sometimes experts recommend moving the bulbs with moss.
6. Also at this time it is necessary to very carefully examine all the nodules. This is done in order to avoid placing a spoiled onion infected with any diseases in the same box with whole and healthy ones.

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In order for the bulbs to dry as quickly as possible, they are placed in a dark and cool place. It must be understood that if they are dried in a warm place, then mold and mildew are more likely to form on them.

When the bulb is completely dry - this will be visible on the dry outer layer, it can be sprinkled with a powder based on the fungicide. And after this manipulation, each onion must be wrapped in paper or newspaper. Everything is folded together in a cardboard box, in which it is necessary to make side holes on all sides. This is done to provide fresh air. Since it is quite difficult to store lily bulbs in winter, it is very important to provide them with all the necessary conditions at home.

If possible, then you can send them to the basement, where there will be a suitable low temperature and dark enough. In this case, you can create the most optimal conditions for the plant. It will not germinate prematurely and will not be attacked by a wide variety of pests and fungi.

But even such an environment does not guarantee everything a lily needs. It is very important to continuously monitor the temperature. If it fluctuates in the direction of decreasing or, conversely, rises, then you will have to open the ventilation hatches or move the bulbs to another, more suitable place for them.

What is bad for bulbs

When storing lily bulbs, it must be borne in mind that their worst enemy is:

1. High humidity. It causes the growth of fungi, which ultimately will simply spoil the plant and it will not sprout in the spring.
2. Excessive dryness dries out the bulb from the inside, depriving it of its vital juices, as a result of which the plant also dies and will no longer give an arrow in the spring.
3. Temperature fluctuations, even if they are insignificant and cyclically repeated once or twice, can have an extremely negative effect on the plant in the future. If this happens several times, the onion is almost 100% likely to dry out.
4. True, such an option is also allowed that when the temperature fluctuates, the bulb will simply germinate ahead of time. Therefore, in the future it will be impossible to plant it in the ground, since it will not survive the low temperature with the sprouted shoots.
5. In the absence of ventilation, fungi attack the bulb and lead to its death.

Cold storage

It is in order to ensure the correct storage conditions that the bulb is placed in the refrigerator. There you can achieve the following indicators:

1. Good ventilation. This is accomplished by wrapping the bulbs in cloth or paper. And in this case, it is necessary to periodically open it or change the paper or fabric.
2. The temperature indicator here will be at around 0 to +4 ° С. This is good enough for the plant. Moreover, the temperature indicator will remain constant all the time and its fluctuations will not be observed.
3. Since storing lily bulbs during the winter at home is quite problematic, it is the refrigerator that allows you to withstand moisture from 70 to 40%.

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Thanks to all of the above parameters, it is this method that is chosen by those gardeners who are constantly planting a plant. Therefore, if you need to choose a way to store the best lilies in winter, and do it at home, especially in a city apartment, then you can hardly think of something better than a refrigerator.

Bulb resuscitation methods

If suddenly, for some reason, the lily bulb has dried up, then you can try to revive it. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that the earlier measures are started to restore the deteriorated condition, the more likely it is that it will be possible to return the plant to normal.

You can try to wrap the onion, from which the dry scales of the top layer have previously been removed, in a rag moistened with a warm solution of weak potassium permanganate. If you control the moisture content of the tissue, then after 2 days the lily will recover and be able to give full-fledged offspring.

All this must be taken into account before you start storing the lily bulbs that were dug up for the winter for storage at home. Only with proper storage can you achieve a good harvest.

Bonus

It is necessary to take into account the following feature in the storage of bulbs:

1. Be sure to dry the bulbs well before storing them.
2. Treat with fungicides - this prevents the formation of rot and fungus.
3. To exclude the temperature difference - that is why it is better to send it for storage in the refrigerator, where the temperature will be in the range from 0 to +4 ° С.
4. Check the bulbs periodically to exclude the development of fungi and diseases on their surface.