Experimenting with Ranunculus: Winter growing & overwintering 2 ways

It’s that time of year! Ranunculus!
For those of us in zones 6 and above, we’re thinking about overwintering. But this year, I’m also attempting to grow winter ranunculus and I’ll take you on my journey.
Patreon: Looking for details that supplement this video? An article will be posted on my Patreon on complement this video and go into details of ranunculus growing, including other things I learned from my conversation with Henk Onings. For $5 a month, access gated content.
www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm
Buy ranunculus corms!: www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/r...
Overwintering in zone 6b (costs & "temporary" cover until more supplies arrive): • Video

[@andreasimpson1018]

I’m actually doing my own ranunculus experiment too. I started mine in late July in the coldest area of my basement. I kept them in my basement until mid September and then put them out in the garden. I got my first bloom this week! I also think this is a good idea because it will give them an extra season to multiply, it will make their storage time shorter, and will give them some extra energy for the next growing season.

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is great to hear! A few other growers in our fall group also had similar timing as you and got their first blooms in early October which is promising. It sounds like you got blooms earlier than 90 days too. I am curious to hear what the minimum dormancy period needs to be for the corms to put on a good flush in their next growing season. Henk wasn't able to give us a firm answer on that!

[@jenniferfahnestock450]

I"m addicted to the idea of off season ranunculus. I was going to do this last winter, but life took over. You've inspried me to set up an indoor growing space---meant for plants intended to grow to maturity.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Awesome!! I personally believe that this out of the box thinking also helps you when it comes to potentially providing flowers at a time when few others are able to 🙃

[@cbak1819]

Thanks for this video Jess .. I asked what you meant by winterizing and here it is. ❤

[@alisonburgess345]

I grew a superb crop of ranunculus (overwintered) in the greenhouse this year but they bloomed too early for me. I'm gonna try growing them outside in early spring under row cover with the hope of getting blooms in November/December (in Australia). They are SO beautiful and totally worth all this experimenting. Very interesting video Jessie. Stock is another flower I'm fiddling around with!

[@bareflowerfarm]

The irony! Getting a fabulous crop but getting it too early to pair with anything else lol!! But I am very curious to hear about how stock goes for you. I was a bit surprised that stock didn't do as well at my co-op this year, but I am gonna be back on the stock train this upcoming spring ;-)

[@ElderandOakFarm]

Ive had success overwintering ranunculus & anemones here in zone 6a in a littpe cheapo hoophouse. I have a video on my channel I posted tholis spring about my results & exactly how I grew them. I would definitely put a little slow release fertilizer in the pots, and plan to give them a water soluble fertilzer each week. Theybare super heavy feeders & Ive found that you will definitely see much better results with feeding them well... thats one thing I think I forgot to kention in my video- how I fertilized.

[@bareflowerfarm]

The fertilizer is solid advice. I will definitely do that!!

[@julietavarron7401]

Hi Jessie- I’m so glad I found your channel. I am in my 1st year of urban cut flower business and trying to soak in as much information/education and various platform…I just bought what was left available of ranunculus at your store. This will be my first try! 😊 cheers

[@bareflowerfarm]

Aww thank you so much for taking the time to write this and for purchasing corms! They will ship out on Monday. I wish you the best of luck. Will add in some extras of tecelote for you to try too 🤗

[@julietavarron7401]

@@bareflowerfarm thank you! Very kind of you indeed.

[@brendarosenau5880]

I have overwintered ranunculus here in zone 6b; both as a second year and single year crop. I cover them with hoops and Agribon19 to start off and have AG-30 for when the temps get down below 25*F. The second year crop diesn’t produce as good of blooms as the first year, but they still produce for me. I’ve grown mostly the Telecote series, and the corms grow to an enormous size for the second year!

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is great to know. I need to get AG 30!!

[@cbak1819]

I have grown in the fall my first try years ago, I started them in spring but they didn't do anything so I left them in part shade. They were shortish but really nice buds. Yellow I notice is more hardy.

[@AC-garden]

I did this last year. I’m in zone 6a. They grew a lot of foliage and some bloomed but the blooms were pretty small. I did leave them in the ground and mulched them heavy. This spring they bloomed super early for me.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Do you remember if you fertilized? I hear lots of differing experiences and I wonder if fertilizing plays a bigger role for these spent corms!

[@Neshliee]

What would you suggest when it comes to fertilizing? To fertilize when pre-sprouting or NO fertilizer? I’m currently trying to pre-sprout my ranunculus corms. They’re on week 2 1/2, no foliage, no mold, kept in a 45-55*F unheated garage. I have been watering every 2-3 days because the soil is dry (I also measure the moisture of the soil to be sure it’s not wet or too dry, but rather “moist.” I water with fish and seaweed fertilizer.

[@bareflowerfarm]

@@Neshliee no fertilizing until you see leaves! This is the case for all other flowers too (fertilize when you see the true leaves and not the cotyledon leaves). Have you seen roots on your corms? They should definitely at least have roots by now

[@AC-garden]

@@bareflowerfarmI didn’t fertilize, I probably should have but it just didn’t happen. I plan on trying it again this year. I do plan on fertilizing maybe with some Neptune’s harvest or some espoma brand fertilizer but not until I see a few set of true leaves. I’ll follow up on how it goes!

[@Neshliee]

@@bareflowerfarm most of my corms rotted, had mold growing on them, or dried up 🥹 I just started a new succession this past weekend. I’m hoping to be successful with at least one of them.

[@patriciabunk8114]

I am trying some extra ingredients while pre spouting my Ranunculus. Greensand, grit, worm castings, coconut coir in potting soil. We will see how long it takes for presprouting outside.

[@mimlauj6869]

I have also left ranunculus corms in the ground and in pots after they have died back, only to have them leaf out again in the fall. But my season isn't long enough to see if I'd get a second set of blooms. The plants just die back again when frost hits in October 😢 but I'm super excited to see your results!!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Are you in a zone where you could potentially cover and see how they'll do? I definitely wouldn't bother if you're zone 4 or lower. But definitely zone 6. Zone 5 is like borderline.....

[@mimlauj6869]

@@bareflowerfarm yeah... Zone 4 😢

[@davidhires7403]

So after they die in fall from freezing do they come back again in the spring? I left mine in the ground all summer not knowing they would pop up in the fall. We just got really cold in Seattle and they died. Not sure if I should dig them up or keep them in the ground for spring flowers

[@mimlauj6869]

@@davidhires7403 hmmm, if you're in Seattle, they might come back, but it would depend on how wet your area is. They are prone to rotting in cooler temps. If you can, go dig around them and see how they're doing. If they've rotted, you'll know you can't keep them in the ground over winter.

[@mhubertcfi]

How cool that you got a fall flush! If nothing else, the corms are getting bigger. I am going to park a few straw bales over some ranuncs and Dahlias this winter but am most worried about voles. I'm thinking of spraying them all with bitter spray like you would use to train dogs 😅

[@bareflowerfarm]

Lol bitter spray... I'm finding that the rabbits are eating alot of my newer seedlings (like new yarrow that I put in) but haven't touched my volunteer ranunculus. They went to town in the spring on my baby ranunculus. Not sure if it's just they haven't found the ranunculus or maybe volunteer ranunculus don't taste as good? Ha!

[@lenavoyles526]

Our livestock guardian dog keeps our 34 acre farm completely rabbit free. I’m surprised I haven’t heard anyone mention this fringe benefit. For you professional growers, it might be worth investing in a dog. I’ve been amazed to have zero rabbit issues even in a vegetable garden in a very rural setting as a result of keeping the dog.

[@bareflowerfarm]

@@lenavoyles526 i have a dog! He is clearly not doing his job lol!! He does chase deer once in awhile though!!

[@kaitlinjohnson2915]

I’m so curious to learn how the growing indoors goes! I ordered ranunculus corms in the summer and then reassessed my garden space/plans and now I don’t know that I want to dedicate the bed space to them . Was going to sell my corms but maybe I will experiment with growing indoors. I grew them under lights a couple years ago for about 6 weeks until I planted outdoors and they loved my cool basement, but I wonder if they would flower well. Hmmmm….

[@bareflowerfarm]

So two things here: 1) I would definitely experiment growing indoors. At the minimum, you can learn enough to tweak for next year 2) You can easily hold your corms assuming you dont have high humidity. That's their biggest nemesis. But holding corms to start in the summer for a fall crop is a solid plan and one that I'm planning on doing. You want "eager" corms for the fall, so digging up spring corms for the fall apparently results in less robust blooms from what I'm told. Hope one of the two works out for you and the corms produce something for you!

[@redhairdontcare19]

If you mulch heavily you can probably put frost cloth or plastic right over it. Snow probably won't crush them, just insulate?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Unfortunately, I would still need to cover. We get quite a bit of wind here and it will dehydrate the leaves :(

[@Whipporwhill]

Is there a link to the Onings ranunculous info?

[@bareflowerfarm]

You have to email them and request their price/availability sheet. It’s crazy to me bc that availability literally changes every day! We are still in the 90s here in flower farming world 🤣

[@Whipporwhill]

@@bareflowerfarm I meant about the class you mentioned that they put on. 😊 I've ordered product from them in the past. Lilies & peonies, so I'm aware of their system. Ty! 😊

[@bareflowerfarm]

Ah! Sorry for the misunderstanding. Here is the link! us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/hHg-wt6zEf8IWFBQePDHdqea60DcqAKUCl14cVAhbSLFj5b1oJUrAl53fp1uMoNU.y9njUHZBsRaMIz1f?startTime=1691183041000 Password: 9#ASr&K5

[@daisybred]

Thank you for your video’s! Which flowerfarm channels do you (of anyone else ) recommend? Flowerhill Farm Cant eat the grass The gardeners workshop Pepper harrow flower farm Bloom and Grey Regeneritive Gardening

[@laurie-flowersbyljp5802]

I'm a home gardener but love to watch flower farm channels for inspiration. Here's a few more for your list: Northlawn Flower Farm, Sunshine & Flora, Cloudberry Flowers, Common Farm Flowers.

[@EvelynM-vlogs]

Shameless plug, you could always watch mine. I am a tiny urban flower farmer with 6yrs experience, but I only started my youtube channel this year as I did not see many growers on youtube flower farming successfully at my tiny scale.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I love all of those channels. Nicole + Ian & Serina are my OG favorites who got me into flower farming. A non-flower but growing related one is No Till Growers which I also love.

[@EvelynM-vlogs]

@bareflowerfarm see, I knew you would love farmer Jessi's "No Till Growers" channel when I recommended it to you! He's great.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes!!! I was trying to remember who suggested that to me today as I was typing in the comments. I love that channel so much, I'm a Patreon member of his lol!!