Greenhouse Practical Blog

Shane and Travis

October 26-28, 2012

Bulb Forcing!! During our weekend practical, the most important job was planting the Tulip and Hyacinth bulbs in preparation for over wintering. We kept the bulbs in the fridge so they would stay cold before planting. The over wintering process started with 6 inch azalea pots, bulbs and ProMix. Each pot was filled to the height of the bulbs so the tips of the bulbs could stick out of the ProMix and prepare for the winter climate.

In preparation for the bulbs, we had to prep the cold frame boxes in the tractor bay storage area. We re-levelled the ground out a bit better to make it even for the pots to sit on top of. We started off by putting 3 tulip bulbs in each pot until Mike showed up and told us we were doing it wrongL!!! This took us about an hour to correct our mistakes. He also said that if there were too many to correct that we could leave some of the tulip pots with 3 bulbs, so we did. He explained to us that each Hyacinth pot should have 3 bulbs because they are larger than the tulip bulbs, and the tulip pots should have 6 bulbs, 5 surrounding the outside of the pot with the fat side out and one in the center so it makes a full pot when they bloom. The reason for putting the bulbs fat side towards the outside of the pot is because the first leaf of the plant will sprout through that fat side! This is a very important process and we want to make it easier for the bulb to sprout! After all the bulbs were planted, they were labelled and watered. We did not over water the pots but we did give them ample amounts of water and left the tops of the cold frames off during the day while it was raining (Mike said that was okay).

 To stop the bulbs from being damaged or eaten by rodents, we added 2 rodent traps to the cold frames. We used a rodenticide called Ratak+.

They are small blue pellets that the rodents eat and die after one feeding.