Winter Daffodil Forcing
Hello! We’re gearing up for winter bulb forcing, and I’m looking forward to the change of pace and opportunity to focus on a smaller collection of plants. Tulips have become an important part of our winter income.
Our mums and lily forcing will carry us to late December when the tulips start blooming again. And then, we begin to welcome successions of daffodils, timed to bloom from right around Valentine’s Day until their natural season outdoors (April).
We force daffodil bulbs with water in hydroponic trays or 50-cell trays (smaller bulbs) with a little soilless mix in weekly successions.
For hydroponic growing, we add 2mL of Hydroguard to the water each week from the time we start a 2-week cool rooting period into the warmer growing phase at 60 to 65F (lasts just 9-14 days).
Daffodils, like many bulbs, must receive enough cooling weeks to allow for proper blooming. Some exceptions to this rule are paperwhite narcissus. They do not require a cold period to bloom.
Cooling weeks can be provided artificially through refrigeration at 50°F (9°C) in place of a natural winter in the ground. Try to keep the relative humidity below 75% to avoid early rooting. If the temperature is colder during the cooling weeks period, you may see shorter stems. Most daffodils require 15-18 weeks of cooling time before they can properly grow and bloom. Once they’re ready to grow, they often take less than 2 weeks to bloom in a grow space at 60°F.
Bonus: When you’re done forcing daffodils, you can plant them out in your gardens or field for flowers that bloom on the natural cycle the following year.
We import our daffodil bulbs and have our supplier begin cooling when the bulbs are loaded into their shipping container in The Netherlands. By the time they arrive here, they’ve already received 2 weeks of cooling. We continue to cool the bulbs at 50°F until we ship them to our wholesale buyers, which means that growers can “count” all the pre-cooling weeks that have already been achieved towards the bulbs’ “winter” (cooling weeks requirement).
Bonus: When you’re done with your winter forcing successions you can let your bulbs go dormant and plant them out in the the spring time. Because daffodils are pretty reliable perennial bloomers, they will come back the following spring with a natural blooming cycle. So, every season we order and force a few more varieties for our farm. Those bulbs are added to the field and gardens in the spring and our collection keeps growing.
list of daffodils and their recommended cooling weeks:
Accent 15
Acropolis 17
Attraction 15
Barrett Browning 14
Brackenhurst 15
Carlton 14
Cheerfulness 16
Delnashaugh 17
Dick Wilden 16
Dutch Master 17
February Gold 12
Fortissimo 15
Fortune 14
Geranium 17
Gigantic Star 14
Ice Follies 12
Ice King 16
Las Vegas 16
Loveday 15
Lucky Number 16
Marieke 16
Martinette 17
Monal 15
Mount Hood 16
Obdam 16
Orangery 15
Passionale 15
Pink Charm 15
Pink Pride 15
Precocious 15
Primeur 15
Salome 18
Sir Winston Churchill 16
Standard Value 16
Tahiti 16
White Lion 16
Yellow Cheerfullness 16
Mini Daffs:
Bridal Crown 14
Jetfire 12
Minnow 16
Thalia 16
Tete-à-Tete 13
Tete-à-Tete Boucle ( Double ) 13
Now, here’s something interesting. Daffodils, unlike tulips, can be encouraged to bloom even earlier, in November and December, if they experience a 2-week warm period at 17°C (63°F) before entering their cooling period. Larger bulbs (size 14-16+) are best for early forcing.
I love the control and predictability of bulb forcing. Daffodils are such beautiful plants. They hold well as cut flowers in storage and can be easily transported or shipped. There is a lot of untapped potential for this crop in our industry! Please share your questions and comments below.
Cheers!
