Petunia: seed cultivation

21.03.2016 Petunias

Where it is better not to run around the shops in search of the “same” seedling, but to grow your own plant, and after all, when growing from seeds at home, petunia is no less beautiful and strong than with purchased seedlings. Many people think that planting petunia is a rather difficult task, but this is a false statement, you just need to know some rules for planting seeds and preparing the soil, in this case flowers in the country will be pleasing to the eye all summer.

When is the best time to start planting a plant in the ground?

To begin with, it is worth deciding on the time period when it is best to plant petunia in the ground. If you read the gardening literature, you can see many recommendations on planting seeds in the ground in the very middle of March, the fact is that by this moment the day is getting longer, which means that the seeds will have enough sunlight to germinate. But since the weather today has changed significantly from past times, the tips in the books are not always relevant, so in some cases, seeds can be planted earlier than recommended in gardening books. There are several reasons why plants can be planted a little earlier than the second half of March. To begin with, planting is carried out earlier if the windows of the apartment are directed to the south side, in this case there will be more lighting, then the seeds can be sown already in the first days of March. Also, sowing can be carried out in mid-February, but only if there is a good shelving unit with artificial lighting to obtain petunia sprouts when growing from seeds at home (video below).

If the windows in the house overlook only the north side, it is best to sow the first seedlings not even in mid-March, but at the very end of this month, the fact is that a lack of lighting will undoubtedly have a negative effect on the sprouts that have sprouted. Due to the lack of sunlight, plants often begin to hurt, sprouts will fade, the stems will become weak and brittle, and seedlings can stretch and die. Even if the seedlings can still survive, it will be impossible to get high-quality petunia bushes from such sprouts when grown from seeds at home according to the photo.

Of course, it is best to pull a little with the planting of seeds in the ground, in this case you will not have to worry about the sprouts received, since at the end of March the seedlings will have enough light for germination and further development, but in this case the flowering will be a little later than we would like. If plant If you began in March, then after only 12 weeks you can see the first bright flowers of the plant.

What is the best place to plant plants?

To get beautiful flowers of petunias when growing from seeds at home forum, you need to properly prepare the tanks and the soil for seedlings. And for planting seeds you will need any small containers, while they should not be too deep, you can take special boxes for seedlings. If such a box was not found, then a plastic bottle from under mayonnaise or vegetable oil is quite suitable, it is simply cut to the required size.

Next, you can begin preparing the container, for this, high-quality and light soil is poured into a clean container, the containers are filled only by two-thirds of the volume. After this, boiling water is taken and poured into the prepared soil, this makes it possible to eliminate all harmful insects that can remain in the soil if it was not purchased in a specialized store. But even such soil should be cultivated to be sure of its excellent quality and complete safety for seeds.The soil is left for about ten minutes, so that it can cool down during this time, and then you can begin to plant the seeds in prepared containers with soil.

How to plant a petunia

To plant petunia seeds in the soil when growing from seeds at home, it will be much more convenient to do this in peat tablets, but if there are none, they are planted in prepared containers with soil, and each seed is simply laid on the soil and pressed a little soil surface. It is very important that the seeds are not covered with excess soil from above, otherwise they will not be able to ascend. Today, such substances have been invented that help improve the germination of this plant, spray this substance on the seeds, which makes the seed a little larger in size, since a shell forms around each seed.

Unfortunately, just so the seeds will not be able to break through such a hard shell, so it must be moistened with water from a spray bottle. There are situations when even wetting the granules with water does not give any result, in this case you will have to manually remove the shell from the seeds with a toothpick, just crush the granule to release the seeds. This happens if the substance was of poor quality, or serious violations were made during processing.

To get high-quality sprouts of petunia at growing from seeds at home, when gardeners already know how to plant, but not everyone knows how to properly prepare seedlings. Therefore, it is worth recalling that after planting seeds in the ground, cups or other containers are covered with a film that will not release moisture, thus, a greenhouse is obtained.

Thanks to such a system, plants will be constantly in conditions of high humidity, and they will not have to be watered too often. Also, those seeds that have just begun to germinate from seeds will not need watering, which means that each sprout will have the right to life. It is very important that after the first shoots the container should be placed in a warm room with good lighting, it can even be a windowsill, but the air temperature should not be lower than twenty-three degrees.

When can I start "walks" and airing small sprouts?

As mentioned above, when sowing the canopy, it is necessary to observe a fairly high temperature regime, the thermometer should show at least 23 degrees Celsius, but when the first sprouts appear in the light, the temperature of the content of such seedlings can be lowered to eighteen degrees. In this case, the seedlings can be removed a little further from the heating or simply moved closer to the windowsill. Such manipulations can be done, but this is not a mandatory part of growing a plant like petunia. If the air temperature is slightly reduced, then the sprouts will not stretch upwards, this will help to get a smaller, but voluminous flower bush.

Continuing the theme of "Petunia: seed cultivation at home ”, it is important to know that as soon as the sprouts have just sprouted, they must go through several days of hardening and getting used to living conditions without a greenhouse. Of course, the greenhouse is a great place for seedlings, because it is very humid there, but this is good for seeds that constantly need moisture, but the seedlings themselves should grow outside the greenhouse. Another minus of the constant stay of plants in greenhouse conditions is that increased humidity over time leads to the formation of mold on the soil surface, as well as petunia when grown from seeds at home, the disease can overtake in a greenhouse, for example, such a disease occurs. like a black leg.That is why in books on gardening they write that the greenhouse must be ventilated periodically, for this it is enough to first open the film for five minutes or remove the glass, this time is increased every day, after which the greenhouse is simply cleaned.

Transplant or Dive Small Sprouts

As already mentioned, petunia is grown from seeds at home in tablets, but in this case it will also be necessary to pick a plant, since in one soil all seedlings will develop too closely and they will begin to die. As soon as the plant begins to break through the shell of the seed, it will immediately have two small leaves, these leaves are called seven-leaved. These leaves are not at all similar to those that are already present in an adult plant, but the real leaves of an adult plant will appear a little later. Many do not know what these leaves are for, but it is in them that beneficial substances accumulate that the plant uses for growth and development, so you need to handle them with extreme care. As soon as another second or even third pair of leaves is formed on the stem, it will be possible to begin transplanting the plant into another container.

To carry out this procedure and get beautiful petunia flowers at seed growing at home, pinching is too early, but transplanting the plant to another place will not hurt. If you do not transplant, then the plants will eventually begin to take valuable useful substances from each other, which will lead to the death of all seedlings. So that the sprouts do not oppress each other, for each it is worth highlighting a small container with soil. To make a pick, it is not necessary to do it by hand, since the sprouts are too fragile and small, it is best to transplant the plants into the ground with a coffee spoon or a special spatula for indoor plants.

When transplanting, it is important to preserve not only the root system itself, but also the earth around it, this will guarantee that the plant will not be damaged during the transplant and will more easily survive the pick. When the transplant begins, each plant is planted in the soil with cotyledon leaves, this will enable the plant to take additional roots from the stem, which will form a more branched root system, which means that flowering will be more vibrant and vibrant. I would like to note that this plant can be propagated not only by seeds, since petunia, when grown from seeds at home, is propagated by cuttings as well as sowing.

Decrease in air temperature after change

Speaking of Petunia (growing from seeds at home), it is important to know the following. After picking a plant, it is necessary to carry out the procedure of hardening flowers, since after planting the plants in the ground, at night the air temperature may drop slightly. Already a sufficiently large seedlings must be prepared for this, so the air temperature will periodically need to be lowered from fifteen to 10 degrees Celsius. To start, the seedlings will have to withstand such a temperature drop for ten minutes, but over time the number of minutes will need to be increased, if you keep the plants in such temperature conditions constantly, they will be stronger, and with a sharp change in temperature after planting in the ground, they will not reacting to this is painful. In addition, low air temperature will not allow the plant to stretch strongly up, which means that the bushes will be of lower growth and "round".