How do I dry out tulip bulbs after digging?

Right now I have them on newspapers on the kitchen floor - how do I know when they are dry enough to bag up or something? (Onion bag?) I used to just let them sun dry outdoors, but they got rained on and moldy too many times.
Sharon

When the skins feel dry to the touch or the soil clinging to them has dried completely and falls away easily they should be ready to store. Onion bags are ideal, and hanging them ensures good air circulation. I've done the same thing so many times leaving them to dry in the sun only to have them rained on. I choose the safe route (indoors, or in the barn) these days too.

Drat! Did it again! Rained 1/10" last night on another batch that didn't make it indoors yet. Suppose I will put these on newspapers and sun dry today, and then wisk them inside before any more rain comes. Thanks,
Sharon

I've set bulbs under a brooder reflector http://lazy54farm.com/supplies/brooderreflector.jpg with either a brooding light or even a lightbulb. It makes them warm enough to dry quickly, but not hot enough to cook.
The reflector can be purchased at most hardware, or farm stores, surely tractor supply. It costs less than $5.
I dried mine in the basement, put the bulbs on one side at night, turned them in the morning, and by the afternoon all dry.

I'm glad I found this thread. Hope I'm not hijacking, but I need to know how to store them till fall. I don't want to be out there diggin' now if I can help it. I'm trying to clean out a bed and completely re-do it. I hope to plant in Oct or Nov.

Its best to store them so they get good air circulation. I like using onion bags, and hanging them. A garage or out building works well.

Do I use sawdust or something in the bag?

I don't use anything with them, just the bulbs in a bag. Best not to risk anything holding moisture around them, they like to be bone dry when dormant.

Ok, I'll be looking for an onion bag. I think I even have one in the fridge now almost empty.

I put everything in vitamin water case boxes (sides about 2"-3" deep)--onion bags definitely don't work in our humidity--they (and any other dry and dormant bulb) need to be spread out and best not be touching either--and definitely in the ac house

I reuse literally hundreds of tulips every year - digging the up in summer and replacing them in the fall. I lay the out flat on pot bottoms and put them in my garage to dry out. When they are fairly dry I separate them (sometimes the clusters are huge!) That gives me a chance to "liberate" earthworms and return them to the garden. The I put them in those brown lunch bags you get in the supermarket with a dusting of rotenone, and either leave them in the garege in those bags or put the bags in the basement. I just don't want to bring creatures into the house. They've never rotted - some of them have doubled or even tripled over the years.

By the way, I bring my calla lilies and non-hardy lilies (the ones I grow from seed) into the house in pots, and will occasionally find in spring that a family of worms has spent the winter in the pots! They just stay there all winter!

Donna

Donna

Well, I'm guessing that the difference in weather (temp as well as humidity) between Houston and Illinois explains a lot here. I do remember that when the nurseries around here start selling bulbs in the fall, they keep them outside the heated building (sort of like in a garage) in card board boxes. I guess it doesn't matter that they are touching because by then they are completely dry. Fortunately I have a spare room where I can put them to dry.

I hang up bulbs in old pantyhose to store them. Works like a charm.

It may not be necesssary to dig up Tulips, it depends on variety. Most bulb catalogs do not specify which ones will survive winter. With a few it depends where you are.

That's a good point UUallace but it seems to me alot in the south have problems perenniallizing them. In my climate all the spring bulbs stay in the ground.

I always understood that the issue was not temperature, but moisture. Tulips have their botanical origins in Turkey, where the climate is sandy and dry. If you plant your tulips in places where you never water, they will come back nicely. Also, Darwins ans species tulips are supposed to perenialize more easily. The species turkestanica actually inceases for me yearly.

Here's a link from Old House Gardens. Please go down the page until you see the section on water.

Donna

Your link didn't come thru, Donna.

I wish Tulip breeders wouldn't have bred them to death, the old tulips you'd grow (I'm talking maybe 40 years ago) didn't seem to have any problems if you left them in the ground.
My Grandmother died over 20 years ago, but her yellow and red tulips still come up in her yard every spring!
(This is in Wisconsin)

Tulipa species are usually 4 to 12 inches high with up to seven flowers per stem.
Here is one source:
http://www.colorblends.com/Tulip/Aladdins-Carpet/

Lakesidecallas,

Well, that's because I didn't post it - DUH!

http://www.oldhousegardens.com/howToFall.asp

Donna

I think its both tempurature and moisture. I have alot of the new species and they all perennialize. Have to dig up and thin all the time.

Tulips left int he ground in the south (minimum 7b or higher) do not last. Ground gets too hot, and according to my horticulturist brother, the bulbs literally "bake" down here. For us, it's just reorder more from the growers each year. I don't even bother planting them, as one of two things happens - early heat spell or late freeze wipes out the flower petals too quickly.

Chuck

My red and yellow tulips are the most reliable also. Spring Green does well also. I like the idea of planting in a more permanent, raised bed just for tulips that doesn't get watered; although in Iowa we do get a lot of rain naturally. I usually end up digging them when the tops are dry just to get out all the weeds. I have learned the hard way not to plant them in heavy soil, or a waterlogged spot.

So I guess I should dig up my tulip and hyacinth bulbs too?!