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Water in Trench....ugh not good
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Posted by redsox Z6 KY (My Page) on Tue, Nov 3, 09 at 10:02
| My Husband dug a deep trench for me for tulips but we have not had a real frost yet. So while the tulips wait in the garage, the trench is empty. The reason we dug it so deeply was because our clay soil is so hard and compacted. It was very difficult even for him to dig it out, forget about me.
The idea is that we will amend the soil below the bulbs, otherwise the roots would have nowhere to go. While waiting for the frost, we had quite a bit of rain. The trench filled up with rain and it did not get absorbed in some places, some water was still in there a day later.
I never did this soil "test" before because honestly, I know what our soil is like, like a brick. So we always amend when planting. My roses seem to perform well and are not chlorotic, with the exception of Reine des Violettes. Is there anything else we should be doing? Overall, we are happy with the garden performance. I should add that we had some incredible rains this spring and summer, and the roses still did fine. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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| Drainage of one inch per hour into saturated soil is good drainage. One-half-inch per hour is fairly poor but usable for many plants including roses, if mounded up a bit. |
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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I know what you mean by the clay, I have the same conditions.
But why do you need to wait until a real frost? Even if they sprout some leave they are usually cold hardy enough. |
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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| The instructions said to wait for a hard frost. When they start growing like that, it saps the strength from the bulb and detracts from the Spring bloom. I know very little about bulbs, that is just what it said. We cut our irises down to the ground last weekend (newly planted this spring, passed on from a friend) and they had grown new leaves. Oh, well. |
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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| If you wait until it's generally cold you can plant your bulbs and don't have to wait until a frost. Cool night and day time temps with over cast skys like we've had with all this rain has cooled the soil down enough so that bulbs planted now should not sprout until spring. I've never had a problem with fall planted bulbs sprouting until spring. Getting them planted now gives them an opportunity to grow some roots before the soil freezes. |
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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| I've planted tulip bulbs anywhere from Oct to Jan. 1 (with a blizzard approaching!) Doesn't seem to make any difference, except that some tulips will bloom a bit earlier and some a bit later. I'm under the impression that if you have cold winters, you don't need to worry much about tulip bulbs. At least, I never do here in KS. It is places that have warmer winters that have trouble getting their tulips to bloom, but they can refrigerate the bulbs for a few weeks before planting them and get them to bloom that way, I understand. I dig an 8-10 inch hole, replace a couple inches of dirt, mix a little fertilizer in that dirt,and plant the bulbs about 6-8 inches deep. Then I just sit back for the next several years and enjoy my springtime tulips. Tulips are pretty good at fending for themselves (as long as they don't sit in water). Too bad they don't survive for more than a few years. One tip you might want to consider. I think tulips look better in clumps rather than in a straight line. I try to plant 5-6 bulbs in a small circle and a foot or two away plant another circular cluster, etc. You can plant pansies in between the clumps (pansies are cold-weather plants). Or I plant mums in the open spaces in between the clusters. That way as the tulips decline and start looking awful, the growing mums cover up some of the unsightly foliage, and in the fall, you will have lovely mums blooming. But everybody probably has their own way of doing these things. Good luck with your tulips. Kate |
RE: Water in Trench....ugh not good
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| "As for anything else you should do " ... always do a drainage test before you plant anything. I garden in glacier slurry, which is tightly compacted stones. In my first year, I found that I didn't dig big enough or deep enough rose holes. Now, if a rose hole drains overnight .. yes, I know it's slow ... the roses do just fine. But if there is still water in the bottom of the planting hole the next morning, I dig deeper and wider and water test again. I do amend the soil that I use to backfill, but drainage does make a difference in the performance of the plant. Only two of my first roses have done as well as those that I planted later with bigger planting holes and with a drainage test. Lyn |
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