Tulips without the digging - The Ultimate Hack!

Anyone who has grown tulips in clay soil will understand why this is a GAMECHANGER! I took no dig tulips to the next level - instead of using an expensive planting medium like compost, I used a free resource. This no-till method is simple and effective for growing beautiful and PROFITABLE tulips. Watch to find out what I used that worked!
Want more information on this? Here's the article that accompanies this video and I discuss fundamentals of what tulips need & how that informed me of how to "design" my experiment with the various planting mediums I had on hand: / effortless-tulip-10204... Patreon members have access to this and dozens of other gated articles for just $5 a month.
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[@mirandaclark7789]

As someone currently elbow deep in compost, pulling tulips every day... This is genius.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I appreciate this. You gotta go through the pain to get it!! Now you know what to do for next year 😁

[@coloradotulips]

Definitely bears out the advice from Cornell University’s Flower Bulb Research Program July 2011 Newsletter! The university hasn’t been keeping up on the newsletters, but their past research has invaluable advice about bulbs! I’m so glad this worked out. I need to try this method myself. This really-world experience is so valuable to see!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Wow!! Shame on me for not having seen this incredible archive of research. You have provided me with many, many rabbit holes to explore and for more experimentation. Thank you so much!!

[@kaitlinjohnson2915]

This is awesome! I remember commenting last fall about how I saw PepperHarrow use wood chips on their tulips but leaves are even better! Much lighter for those of us without heavy machinery, for one!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes!! And the other thing about wood chips is that I’d have to take them out of the bed. The leaves are left in to decompose. Wood chips also can’t be buried under the soil as they would rob it of nitrogen. Just some considerations I had when I chose leaves!

[@laurieridgway1143]

Game changer!! Thank you for another great info packed video 🌷

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thanks Laurie!

[@lindat23]

Brilliant Jessie!!!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thanks Linda!

[@katipohl2431]

Amazing, covering the tulips with leaves. Topsoil did well.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes! I would expect topsoil to also do well, the top soil we get here is just so heavy!

[@Thehydrangeahouse]

This experiment was amazing!

[@lauradevries6864]

Thank you!

[@serenababy6358]

You gardened 2 weeks after a c-section 😮??!! It must be your super power cuz I was barely able to walk normally at that point! 😅 I have clay soil in Western CO and it's taking me forever to make new flower beds. I've been digging up a few inches deep and backfilling with compost from Home depot. Congrats on the success with tulips this season! I'm going to try your idea in my extra 2x8' raised bed this fall 😊

[@bareflowerfarm]

I got incredibly lucky! No complications and a really great OBGYN who happened to be on call and did a wonderful job on the c section. I'm not counting on being that lucky next time around lol! Making new beds can be incredibly tough. I would even skip digging the few inches and just build higher if possible. If it's high enough, I actually use wood chips as the very base layer, add food waste, some not so great quality top soil and then a layer of compost :)

[@michellebeatty7899]

I have an endless supply of leaves. This is awesome!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yay!! put those leaves to work next year! :D

[@allysonrogers9701]

Leaves 😮

[@blairhouseblooms]

Great video, Jessie! I have been using a thick hay mulch (6” ) but I am guessing I could actually use less SOIL below the hay on top to reduce the messiness even more and also reduce the labor to harvest. Good food for thought!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes!! That was my ah ha. The bulbs just need to be insulated enough so they don’t freeze thaw too many times. So if a medium that is less likely to get stuck can do that, it should work!

[@bethhubbs9937]

Straw or hay could be a good alternative in areas where leaves are not so plentiful. The southwest/western U.S. has areas where there just aren't a lot of deciduous trees. Some similarities to the Ruth Stout method for potatoes, yeah? Super interesting to use with tulips. Great video. I also appreciate all the comments from viewers. :)

[@user-sd9sm5mg5r]

Thank u for this

[@bareflowerfarm]

@@bethhubbs9937 Really good point about areas not having deciduous trees! I actually have never heard of the Ruth Stout method so I looked it up but yes! Similar concept!

[@darcydignan]

Another great video Jess! I think I’ll try this next year… hopefully I’ll have enough leaves. I guess I can always post I’ll take bagged untreated leaves this fall! lol!

[@bareflowerfarm]

It would be a win win for everyone if you took your neighbors leaves! :D

[@aongv]

Thanks for sharing! The clay soil and painful harvesting of tulips was the exact reason my husband and I decided to stop. Also, planting was a pain too. We have tons of leaves we use already - I'll show him this and see what he says! I really miss tulips....

[@aongv]

Also, took me 2 years to recover from my c-section. You said you were working 2 weeks after? WOw!!

[@bareflowerfarm]

I didnt even get a chance to mention but will in a future video that you can just dump the tulip bulbs into the bed without meticulously placing them upward. That combined with this easy harvesting really does make tulips so wonderful AND a profitable crop to grow! I hope this can work for you!

[@bareflowerfarm]

​@@aongvI got lucky that it was an uneventful surgery. My daughter just wouldn't come out after 4 hours of pushing and they had turned the epidural off so I asked for a c section before it needed to be an emergency c section. Funnily, my husband literally said to me- "are you sure you want a c section? you told me to remind you all of the tulips you have in the ground" 😅

[@aongv]

@@bareflowerfarm your husband is hilarious. Lol glad you did great. And love the tulip tips!!!

[@vivherman2296]

Amazing! So, can you plant in the same dirt in that container this fall? I've read about tulip blight and needing to continuously move your beds around. I've got plenty of leaves!! Loving this method!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Great question! You absolutely want make sure you take out the soil or rotate your crop to avoid tulip blight/fire. The recommendation is actually to wait a full 7 years before planting tulips in the same spot to be 100% safe. I see other growers waiting 3 years. I plan on using these beds as a way to “make compost” since I bury food waste. I will have lilies coming up after and when they’re done, all the bulbs will get removed, I’ll take out the soil and actually use that as “compost” to lay on top of other areas and then rebuild the soil in the containers with more food waste and restart. Hopefully that makes sense. Will prob make a video on this 😅

[@jennifermitchell2493]

Amazing, what a great gift of learning you’ve shared! Ps how many bulbs did you get in that raised bed? And is there anything else in there or going to grow there once tulips are done?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you! I estimate it was around 750 ish tulip bulbs per bed. Probably couldnt have fit more but I was careful to clear the perimeter since it is more subject to temp fluctuations. I already have lilies in there via lasagna planting. More in a separate video :)

[@thiabrabson2533]

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

[@robertbates6494]

I like this method. BTW- I was at Costco and Whole Foods and they were selling 15 tulip bouquets for $10 which came from Canada. How is that even possible the math doesn’t add up. Do you have any ideas?

[@michellekoch8303]

Thanks for this! Question : were the bulbs purchased pre-chilled and planted recently, or planted last fall? Have a great year of blooms.

[@bareflowerfarm]

They are planted last fall and were prechilled. Prechilled because I force the majority of my tulips indoors - this work work for non chilled too!

[@Newgardener9b]

Do you have a video where you talked about how to create a logo? This is my first year selling flowers and I’m not sure how to make a logo and where.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hi There! I don't have one on logo develop specifically, but have you heard of Canva? Three is a free version where you can go into it and whip up a logo! One thing to point out- it's OK for your first logo to be your first iteration. I find that businesses evolve and grow overtime, giving you permission to also evolve your logo. So don't feel like you're "stuck" with whatever logo you come up with and can't change it. You totally can! Don't spend too much time on it in year 1. Just get one up and focus on growing and selling. As you get more successful, then you can invest in a professional to help you with a more "mature" logo :)

[@HeatherColler-lq2gf]

What do you do with your tulip bulbs after you cut them off? Thank you!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Compost aka the deer eat them 😅

[@donnabauerofbrilliancebyde1178]

Where do you buy your tulip bulbs

[@bareflowerfarm]

Little Farmhouse Flowers

[@robertbates6494]

I like this method. BTW- I was at Costco and Whole Foods and they were selling 15 tulip bouquets for $10 which came from Canada. How is that even possible the math doesn’t add up. Do you have any ideas?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Canada is actually a HUGE cut flower production country. They have a ton of greenhouses that grow tulips and export to the US. Many of these big greenhouses benefit from extreme economies of scale. They're buying in bulbs at prices none of us could get and growing such mass quantities (and therefore selling huge volumes) that they can do this dirt cheap pricing. However, I've heard that the quality often times can't compete against locally grown. Two things to observe: 1) Bulb size and therefore bloom head size. Often, these greenhouses aren't planting 12+ bulbs resulting in smaller blooms 2) They are picked prematurely and the tulip never opens to the extent they should This, in addition to Dutch grown tulips, do make it difficult for the smaller scale grower to sell tulips and this is why I talk so much about controlling the cost/labor side of growing. We have a ceiling in terms of how much tulips can fetch per stem but that is often not enough to offset the huge labor cost. I hope this makes sense!