Fall Bulbs Inquiry

[masoct3]

Hello,

I have about 30 bulbs I want to plant. I have picked up some info that the ground should be 50 degrees or under so that there is not any problems growing still this year and with the bulbs having spring problems.

Has anyone buried bulbs yet?

What date is good to do? The warm weather keeps extending my plans...

Thank you!

[Dotch]

Bulb planting roughly coincides with the timing for fall applied anhydrous ammonia in agricultural areas where it is still considered an acceptable practice, that is the soil at the 6" depth staying below 50 degrees. That should be sometime during the last week in October. I'd like to put in some bulbs also. We're about 80 miles south of you.

Here's a local HSOforum containing soil temperature data from the St. Paul U of M campus. If you go to the soil temp/bare plot heading and look at the 10 and 20 cm depths on the graph it should give you a good idea when it would work best. Good luck!

http://www.climate.umn.edu/doc/observatory.htm

[MuleShack]

Last fall I had about 200 of them (yea i went a little crazy) and we planted them about mid October.

Had a very high success rate and the first ones were up in early April.

With the dry ground and only a week left of "decent" weather they should be fine to put in the ground now.

[Dotch]

Take what I said with a grain of salt. Muleshack makes a valid point and supplemented with this link to the U of M Hort Dept. release, you may want to get at it sooner than later in your latitude. That said, I consulted my own resident horticultural expert and she said we still have a few weeks yet, adding that as dry as it is here in SC MN, it is imperative that the bulbs be watered in expremely well. There is absolutely no subsoil moisture here and the ground will freeze deeper and soil temps will be colder with the dry soil especially if we have an open winter. Also may not be a bad idea to mulch over the top afterwards to help keep the ground from freezing any more deeply than it is likely to do should we get that open winter. One thing about waiting until later is that we've been getting by with it nicely. We've always been leery of planting bulbs too early as we've had problems which I suspect have something to do with the kind of falls we've had. Too warm and possibly too much growth. If you look at the last review on that U of M link, it was done in 2000. We've had longer, later falls and generally warmer winters and earlier springs since then. The 1981 - 2010 temperature & precip data reflect that change.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h120bulbs-spring.html

[masoct3]

Thank you very much.

Not sure if you do the river, but let me send back a link to you, regardless. It is the Army Corps of Engineers checking the flow of the big river.

http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/

What do the bulbs run as far as prices at the U of M? There is a HSOforum that sells just tons of them that I cannot think of at the moment...something like allbulbs or close to it. It's just amazing.

Peace

[MuleShack]

Last fall I had about 200 of them (yea i went a little crazy) and we planted them about mid October.

Had a very high success rate and the first ones were up in early April.

With the dry ground and only a week left of "decent" weather they should be fine to put in the ground now.

I should also add that I soaked the ground with water after planting and then they were also under about 4" of mulch as well. I planted them in the mulch rings under some of my tree's for color in the spring.

[half-dutch]

It more than anything depends on what kind of bulbs you have to plant.

Tulips can be planted almost as late as you can still get them in the ground and water them in good. I just planted my garlics and potato onions Tuesday, which is earlier than I put them out last year, but last year was probably an exception all around. It is way late for narcissi and crocus, also lilies. However, better now than never. Most hardy bulbs really should be planted as soon after you receive them as possible. That gives them the longest fall rooting period and that makes for better flowers.

I always mix in a generous amount of bone meal in the base of the hole. Also good advice above to water your holes and/or trenches heavily since there probably is no other moisture as deep as you can dig, unless it starts raining real regular here pretty soon.