Ranunculus Update: Salvaging a failed crop | Using shade cloth & learnings from year 2

Ranunculus is turning into my new "stock"- a crop that I desperately want to grow well without a structure in a climate that is not suited for such a flower. Here's my learnings from year 2 and how shade cloth helped extend a few extra weeks for me!

[@brendarosenau5880]

I’m your neighboring flower grower in Somerville, NJ.🤚🏻👩🏻‍🌾 I’ve had success growing ranunculus ( mostly the Telecote series) for 3-4 years now. I plant them in raised beads in October and cover with hoops and Ag-19 frost cloth. They start blooming for me in March and are mostly done by mid May. Just like you’ve seen, I can tell when they are done for the season when the foliage starts yellowing , and the blooms open right up immediately (almost no “marshmallow” bud stage). I’ve started growing sunflowers intermixed with them this year to help get the sunflowers off with a bit of protection from pests while they are small, and they’ve provided a bit of shade for the ranunculus as they’ve grown. Just a trial run, but I definitely think I’ll do this again next year!

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is a great intercropping idea!! And thanks for the reassurance that success can be had growing them in our area without a big structure. I will follow your process to trial next year!

[@FlavorLoft]

I live near by and Will try planting telecote variety this year

[@suekrebs3497]

I'm in zone 5a, southern Wisconsin and grew a few hundred anemones and ranunculus this year. I started them inside in mid February and put them under grow lights (in the basement where it is cooler) until I planted them outside beginning March 21 and ending April 7 adding Espoma Land & Sea compost. My blooms began mid May and are continuing. I actually have 14 buds and blooms from one corm. I have been deep watering daily because our temperatures are close to 90 now (normal is 75). I am going to purchase shade cloth for next year in case it is this hot. I still have buds and blooms and it is supposed to cool down. It is fun to share these flowers even though it is a lot of work! I will be interested to see if yours winter over and planting with strawflowers is interesting. Usually I find a few anemones that winter over and did have 3 butterfly ranunculus winter over. I enjoy learning from you.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Wow, 14 buds from 1 corm, that's impressive!! Hopefully you can get a few more days of buds. A couple of days of 90 degree weather hopefully wont drop the soil temp too much!

[@DanielleDurgin-e9g]

Hi Jesse, I love your videos. Just a friendly note because you seem to be a really precise person. The singular form of if thrips is “thrips.” Kind of how one deer is a deer and a whole herd are also deer. “I saw one thrips and now I’m worried I’ll be overrun with thrips!”

[@bareflowerfarm]

Wow, I had no idea!! Thanks for letting me know :)

[@dzdffxddvbaiden225]

My gut tells me the temps are not the issue. They go into dormancy when soil temps reach 80 degrees regularly. Not air temps. To me it looks like deficiency or lack of moisture. This also makes sense as you are having pest pressure. Healthy plants usually have much larger foliage and bugs stay away until the soil temps get much higher. I would suggest either creating a short raised bed for next year or mixing in a Pugh compost to be at 50/50 native soil to compost for next year. And put them on drip for super consistent watering. Ah and aviv never grow well haha. My suggestion… amandine purple and half clone pergold. I’ll message you!

[@patsyden6276]

I am in a zone 4b, and last year I dug up my ranunculus, but I must have missed some, for I noticed some ranunculus coming up that I didn't plant this year. Thus is very interesting to me, last year I did add a layer of leaf mulch over the flower bed.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Ohh! Did you notice just foliage coming up? Or also buds?

[@SiriusScientist]

In in MA, zone 5b, and have just started getting blooms the last couple of weeks. Until this week I would have agreed completely with the shade but I have two raised beds of black and cafe that are out performing all my other varieties and I have no idea why. I wonder is some varieties are more sensitive than others. I planted amandine salmon in two locations (exact same source and pre sprouting) and the corms planted where I give shade cloth are definitely doing better and all those in an adjacent spot without shade cloth have open centers. Great video! I wish I had thought that way when ordering! I had exactly one butterfly ranunculus that flowered, out of the 30 or so corms I started. Not doing that again! (I’m not a flower farmer, I just enjoy having a cut flower garden and we have a lot of space)

[@bareflowerfarm]

So interesting on the variety piece! My cafe is finally blooming and I'm curious to see if they are going to bloom a bit longer. Interestingly, they have no aphids on them! I think sometimes splurging as a hobby growing is totally fine. It's a whole other story when people are doing this on a bigger scale, like spending $3-5 a corm for 50 of them!

[@Fabdanc]

I'm in zone 9a (Houston) and rununculus is a winter flower for us. We can technically over winter them... But you would need to make sure that they are somewhere that is really well draining or it's rot city.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I keep thinking all of Texas is dry and hot but obviously Houston is a bit different! I would think if you could keep the area covered or plant them in an area where something else gives them cover, you could overwinter! If you do it, please report back!

[@Fabdanc]

@@bareflowerfarm, I think the general rule is that Austin is the dividing line between hot & humid (east) and hot & arid (west).

[@catreeves963]

Here in NZ we aren’t able to import the fancy corms due to disease but we can import the French and Italian seeds, so we have all started growing from seed. It’s a bit of a faff BUT based on cost alone would be much cheaper than even your aviv corms. Could be worth looking into if you’re wanting to increase your margins? I don’t think you have to discard them either? I thought it was just the clones but I could be mistaken on that. Also, seed grown ranuncs still have big beautiful flowers

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is a really valid and great idea. I will definitely look into seeds - nobody here starts from seeds bc of ready access to corms!

[@catreeves963]

@@bareflowerfarm this is exactly why no one bothered doing that here too! Corms were readily available up until a couple of years ago. I’ve found also with the seed grown ranuncs they aren’t as prone to rot due to not having the tubers developed early on. We plant in the autumn here ( about a zone 9 equivalent) and it rains a tonne in the winter - the basic corms that we can get from aus totally rotted away - not even one survived - but all the seed grown varieties carried on like champs. The ‘problem’ with growing from seed is that we have to start them when the temps are still v warm and they really prefer to germinate in cool temperatures, which actually might not be a problem in your zone since you would probably start them middle of winter for spring planting. Would be great to hear how you get on if you give it a go next season 😄

[@nikkiholton6318]

Ranunculus are tough. This was year 3 for me. I said if they don't grow this year I'm not planting them again. Well they grew but I swear I think it took well over 100 days to get blooms. I pre sprouted in Jan. Got them in by the end of Feb. I'm going to pre spout Dec. Maybe even last week in Nov. It took a good month or more for them to sprout. I had tried over-wintering the prior 2 years....no luck...very minimal random blooms. I'm in zone 8a so I need to get mine in the ground earlier than u.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Oh yeah, zone 8a is even tougher for growing ranunculus without overwintering. I'm surprised to hear they didn't overwinter well. I would even presprout earlier - like late august and have them in the ground in the fall. In zone 8a they should be able to tolerate your winters with some light frost cover!

[@EmilyPorterfield]

I bought some ranunculus from you and it was in my second succession (out of 3). It did really well and I got lots of stems from every plant until the heat came. All of my ranunculus finished up about a week ago. I think I got my first blooms in February and it stretched almost through May, with 3 small successions. The weather here in NC has been all over the place. This was my first year growing ranunculus and I really liked it, except it's a pain to grow in my backyard because I have to block my dogs from it bc it's so toxic. Thanks for the great videos and information!! I enjoy your channel!!

[@bareflowerfarm]

That's great to know you had success especially in your first year AND in NC! Did you grow the ranunculus all outdoors?

[@mayfieldmanor5344]

I am enjoying your videos. I love how analytical you are! You might want to try leaving the sides open when you have the shade cloth on so that heat doesn't get trapped in the low tunnel. You might already be doing that. The air flow will help keep it cooler in there.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Makes sense!! And thank you :)

[@amyhulbert4828]

I had bad aphid pressure last year… this year I interplanted with garlic and cilantro and had no aphid pressure.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Great idea! I will totally do this next year and perhaps I won’t forget to grow cilantro in the process 😅

[@ElderandOakFarm]

I wonder if maybe they need Fertilizer & they took 100 days to start blooming because of that, & the cooler temps 🤔 just a theory. & they look pretty small for 100 days. Mine were started between Jan. 7th & Feb 4th & they all began to bloom at the same time- mid April, & are just now starting to slow down on production & some are getting yellow. Dave Dowling says they extremely heavy Feeders so I planted using a slow release organic Fertilizer- biotone & blood Meal & bone meal, then a liquid water soluble high in nitrogen every 2-3 weeks until may & then things for too busy. I have mine in a hoophouse though, so I'm sure that played a role, but its got shade cloth, & is significantly cooler than outside. We've had temps over 75 consistently for the past 2 weeks. I can't believe they're still so green! I just filled an update today actually, but it will not be posted til next weekend...

[@bareflowerfarm]

Super, super valid. I do remember hearing they’re heavy feeders and if I’m to be honest, they only got one feeding with fertilizer. April was a blur between the newborn and tulips, so they were fertilized late and somewhat neglected except for cover 🙈. Thanks for all of the detailed info- super helpful! I look forward to seeing your update!

[@tinalee2423]

I'm a flower farmer in 7b - I have grown Ranunculus the past 3 years. I just don't feel like the amount of usable blooms for the price of the corm is worth it. Our temps here are just so unpredictable going from 40s at night to 70s during the day and I'm uncovering/covering constantly - time is money - the 16 ft bed I use for it could produce something much more usable and profitable so I will not be growing it again!

[@bareflowerfarm]

I totally hear you and have the same thoughts myself. My biggest issue is that after tulips, I need a "focal" or some sort of non-spike flower. When the ranunculus are blooming, I have foxglove, larkspur, sweet william, snaps and canterbury bells. Everything except for the sweet william are spikes! So because of this, I'm going to give it another go next year. The other thing is, I have seen folks by me successfully grow these without a structure so.... it should be possible for me at least! Your climate sounds similar to mine. One thing I'm doing is changing where I plant them. I have the row that is overwintering which I'll leave, but I plan on starting some in an area that gets afternoon shade. I'm going to try to get them better established indoors or in pots by the house before I transplant them out. I feel like they can pump out good blooms even with just 6 hours of morning/early mid day sun!

[@shelliecheers]

I have a question, why don’t you spray the flowers for pest?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Spraying the flowers, even if it is with an organic spray, can reduce the population of beneficial insects. These are insects who help take care of pests. This is just my personal philosophy, but I farm for sustainability reasons and therefore employ a no spray mindset :)

[@shelliecheers]

@@bareflowerfarm gotcha thanks

[@mhubertcfi]

I planted dahlias on both sides of my ranunculus to try to shade them to keep them cooler longer. I'm in WA state and my blooms are just starting. I don't overwinter dahlias or ranunculus but do plant them in really early so that they can spend a month or so growing roots.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Ah interesting! Do your dahlias produce foliage this time of year given how early you start them? I'd love to hear how this interplanting works out!

[@mhubertcfi]

They do but I think next year I will use sunflowers to get even better results. We've only had a few days above 90 which is unusual here as it is kind of desert-y. When the weather did climb I augmented with some high grass that I pulled and kind of tented over but for 80's the dahlias seem to be doing the trick. I have them mulched as well which also helps them stay cool. Another idea is have them against a fence (north) that has peas or something growing up?!

[@paulakreinberg1448]

strawflowers have corms?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Nope, they’re seed but I thought it he root systems could make a case for intercropping which proved successful bc the strawflowers did wonderfully well

[@cyhomer]

This is my first year growing ranunculus. I am still awaiting flowers. The plants look very healthy, but we have had a couple hot days and i am afraid i may go without flowers due to that. They get morning shade, midday sun, and then shade again in the afternoon. 🤞🏼

[@bareflowerfarm]

Good luck! It's always tricky to grow them and once in awhile you get that perfect spring. I hope yours bloom for you!

[@christinast6346]

I’m in Iowa zone 5b. I’ve tried growing ranunculus 3 years now. This is the first year that I got any blooms. A surprise heatwave took out all but 3 plants. Of the 3 plants the blooms are so so small. I would compare to dime size. I was for sure this was going to be the year and I bought and bought and bought all the expensive corms. At this point I’m not sure it’s worth growing again.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I totally feel you! It's just such a gorgeous crop. I feel if one could procure corms for a relatively cheap price, then it's not terrible to try to experiment and get right. And once you figure that out, then you can move onto the more expensive corms :)

[@sallyazzato3481]

I'm trying! Zone 5 in PA, some of my corms were from you! My foliage looks awesome but no buds yet- definitely using shade cloth

[@bareflowerfarm]

Crossing my fingers that you get some buds!!

[@nicomyth]

Interesting hypothesis! I will need to shade mine next year and see if I get a better petal count. Though my retail customers love the open centers because they are similar in look to poppies. 😊

[@bareflowerfarm]

Open centers still look great! And I agree, my retail customers don’t care 😁

[@ambethk77]

Never grown ranunculus, but I know that dahlias become open-centered when they experience too much heat here in the south. I would imagine it's similar.

[@bareflowerfarm]

That makes alot of sense!!