Winter Forcing Shrubs In An Apartment

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

What plants will please with their flowering in winter and how to prepare them

Not all shrubs that delight us with their graceful flowering are suitable for forcing. However, the list of them is quite large, and there is plenty to choose from for both a beginner and a professional.

Of the tree crops that delight with their flowering in early spring, the absolute majority can be distilled, but one should not start distilling too early, since during this period the plants are in a state of deep dormancy and may not tolerate excess heat, and without it we cannot get the flowers ourselves.

Such plants, which naturally awaken in March-April, are usually kept in rooms, maintaining a minimum above-zero temperature there. This is the only way to "force" the culture to bloom in February or March, 30-40 days earlier than the natural time.

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much more interesting to work with plants that bloom in May. If you strictly follow all the conditions of distillation, you can get flowers on such crops in October or November, when everything outside the window is already quite gray and dull.

However, in recent years, professionals have greatly decreased interest in crops with falling leaves. Most often, they do not distill whole plants, but compositions from branches of various crops, which look very attractive in large vases. Most suitable for creating blooming bouquets in the middle of winter are such crops as cherry, peach and apricot. It is very easy to make such crops bloom ahead of time, and even a beginner will not be difficult to get a blooming bouquet for the New Year.

A completely different direction is the forcing of whole plants. For beginner lovers of early wake-up, nurseries produce special plants that are grown in pots. They are often smaller than their natural brothers and sisters, and it is much easier to handle them, and they take up little space. Therefore, even in an apartment, you can start forcing a real bush.

It is clear that you need to buy such plants in the fall, at this time they sleep and do not have leaves. Immediately after the purchase, the shrubs should be transplanted: choose a voluminous pot, pour nutritious, greenhouse or compost soil into it, adding sand or clay substrate to it, plant the plant and water it well. After that, the shrubs directly in the pots must be transferred to the garden and buried in the ground to the edges of the container. Such a simple technique will avoid cracking the peas in winter.

But in such a fit, alas, there are also disadvantages. So we will simply deprive ourselves of the possibility of distilling the plant in the year of purchase and transplantation, since the pots will freeze into the ground, and it will be very difficult to get them out of there. If your plans include forcing the plants just before the onset of winter, then the pots with plants should be taken to some secluded place in the garden and not buried in the ground, but covered with a thick layer of dry leaves. As a result, the pots will not freeze into the ground, but, most likely, will freeze to each other. But they can be removed and separated in a warmer room.

By the way, when choosing a shrub, try to get one with a lot of flower buds, they are usually thicker. This will give you the opportunity to expel the plants this year. However, in this case, they should not be transplanted, they should be well-rooted. If you transplanted a purchased seedling, then it is better not to risk its health and postpone forcing until next year.

A few words need to be said about pruning, as many questions are asked about this. I want to note that most often those plants that are intended for forcing do not need pruning or pruning. However, the bushes must be carefully examined and weak shoots removed, as well as those that are completely devoid of inflorescences, and those shoots that will bloom should be shortened.

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It should be remembered that forcing plants should not be transferred from the street directly to a warm room. This can be detrimental to them, as it disrupts the processes of natural awakening.

Plants should get used to the warmth gradually; the onset of calendar spring should be imitated. To do this, the plants are first transferred from the cold to a cool room, where the temperature is kept at zero degrees or slightly lower, and then, after two or three days, they are already moved to a warmer place with a minimum above-zero temperature.

Do not reuse a shrub that you have already kicked out next year. It is advisable to expose it to forcing after a year or even two years later, so that the plant experiences less stress. In this case, it will live much longer.

After forcing, the bushes must be heavily pruned, with the exception of azaleas, they are quite hardy and winter well in the ground. After trimming the plants, they must be transferred to a cool place, but with a positive temperature. Keep them there with frequent airing, especially if there is a thaw outside. In such weather, the vents should be open all day and closed at night. In such a room, plants should be kept until the danger of night frosts disappears. Only then can the bushes be transplanted into the garden.

Do not forget that after distillation, the plants are severely depleted, they require attention and care. Care consists in additional watering, spraying shoots with warm water in the morning and evening hours, and from about mid-summer also in additional dressings about twice a decade. If you carry out all these activities, you will get shrubs with a large number of strong young shoots. By the way, their length must also be monitored. All weak shoots must be cut off by a couple of eyes in the fall, and those that have grown excessively large by 7-8 eyes.

For the next summer, it is necessary to maintain the frequency and intensity of watering and feeding, and in the fall, after 1-2 years, you can start distilling again.

Read the next part. Shrubs for distillation →

Nikolay Khromov,

Candidate of Agricultural Sciences,

Researcher, Department of Berry Crops,

GNU VNIIS im. I. V. Michurina,

member of the R&D Academy

Photo by Olga Rubtsova