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Petunia is a very decorative and easy-to-care flower. Many varieties allow you to grow it in pots or flowerpots, and in flower beds, decorate alpine hills or discounts. However, in growing this flower there is a very difficult stage - planting seeds for seedlings.
It often happens that we sow, grow, care for, but in the end we do not get such beautiful flowers as on the bag of seeds. Why this happens, and how to sow petunia correctly - this article is about that.
How to plant petunia correctly
Before you think about how to grow petunia seedlings at home, you need to decide on the variety of this flower and buy seeds.
There are a great many varieties, among them there are double and glossy flowers, of absolutely any shade and size. Varieties of petunia are divided into several groups:
- Bush multi-flowered petunia grows in the form of a small (up to 35 cm) bush, completely covered with medium-sized flowers (about 6 cm in diameter). These varieties are characterized by resistance to weather conditions.
- Bush varieties with large inflorescences (about 10-12 cm) are able to decorate the most exquisite flower garden; they look advantageous in flower beds, in flowerpots or decorative boxes.It should be remembered that large flowers can easily be damaged by strong winds or heavy rainfall. It is best to grow such varieties on terraces or in gazebos, where there is a canopy and protection from the wind.
- Ampel varieties Great for growing in hanging pots, but can also be used as a trailing plant. These petunias have long shoots decorated with many small or medium-sized inflorescences.
- Dwarf variety can be used in various garden compositions, for example, in rock gardens. The bushes of this variety are compact and very decorative.
The growing season of petunia is about 12-14 weeks. In the climate of most of the country, this flower simply will not have time to bloom if it is sown directly into the ground.
Features of seeds
Petunia seeds are characterized by the fact that they are very small in size - round grains resemble poppy seeds, only they are colored not black, but brown.
On sale you can find two types of petunia seeds for seedlings:
- regular ones, poured into paper bags;
- granulated, coated with a colored shell.
The cost of granulated seeds, of course, will be higher. But their advantage is that, thanks to the colored capsule, the size of each seed increases - it is more convenient to distribute them in the ground, since the seeds in granules are larger and more noticeable.
Some gardeners note one drawback of granulated plant seeds - the shell does not dissolve well in water, and flower seedlings have to be watered more abundantly than they need. If the granule does not completely dissolve, the seedlings may not sprout at all, or the sprouts and roots of the petunia may be damaged.
How to properly grow petunia seedlings
First of all, it is necessary to determine the timing of sowing crop seeds for seedlings. Most varieties of this plant bloom 2.5-3 months after the first shoots appear. Based on this, and also taking into account the climate in a particular region, the date for sowing seeds for seedlings is determined.
Another nuance is that hanging varieties have a longer growing season, so they need to be sown for seedlings earlier than others.
Selecting containers and preparing soil for seedlings
It is necessary to sow petunia seeds at home in fairly deep containers - about 10 cm. These can be wooden, plastic or ceramic boxes, pots, containers, the main condition is that the container for seedlings is not metal, and that the container can be covered with film or glass for seed germination.
It is best to use transparent plastic food containers: firstly, most often they are equipped with a lid, and secondly, in soft plastic it is easy to make drainage holes with a simple awl or a thick needle.
Holes for draining excess water in containers for seedlings must be present, since the plant does not like waterlogged soil.
For even better removal of excess moisture, it is recommended to use a drainage layer. This could be expanded clay or broken red brick. This material is placed at the bottom of the seedling container.
Land for petunia seedlings must meet several parameters:
- have neutral or weak acidity;
- be loose and well saturated with oxygen;
- have a light composition;
- not be too nutritious (this is necessary for the formation of a strong root system);
- do not retain moisture.
Of course, you can buy a special soil mixture for flower seedlings at a flower shop, but it’s also easy to prepare it yourself.
To do this, you need to mix turf soil, coconut substrate, humus, peat and sand. All components are mixed thoroughly. If the soil acidity is high, you can add wood ash or a little lime.
The finished earth is thoroughly crushed by hand, you can sift it through a sieve. Now the soil should be disinfected. To do this, the substrate is placed in the oven or microwave for 30-60 minutes or poured with boiling water.
A drainage layer is placed in containers washed with soapy water or potassium permanganate, and the substrate is poured on top. Carefully compact the soil to prevent small petunia seeds from settling. Water the soil generously with warm water with the addition of manganese.
How to properly sow petunia in the soil
Small petunia seeds are sown in slightly specific ways - there are several of them, each housewife chooses the most convenient method for herself:
- Regular (not granulated) plant seeds should be mixed with dry coarse sand. Now take two toothpicks, wet one of them with water and try to grab one seed. When the seed sticks to the toothpick, it is transferred to the desired place, and a second toothpick is used to detach the seed.
- Another method involves the presence of snow on the site. White snow will be an excellent background for dark petunia seeds. Snow is laid out on the surface of the soil and seeds are placed on it. When the snow cover melts, the seeds will be firmly pressed to the ground and distributed at the required interval.
- If granulated petunia seeds are used, it is most convenient to place them with tweezers. Planting pattern – 3x3 cm.
- There are special cassettes for small seeds. When using such cassettes, one flower seed must be placed in each cell.
- If the seedlings Petunias are grown in peat tablets, they are first placed in a plastic tray and watered with water. When the tablets swell, you can transfer one petunia seed into each of them.
- You can pre-germinate flower seeds. To do this, they are laid out on a moistened paper napkin and placed in a plastic bag. The napkin must be periodically moistened so that it does not become dry, and the bag must be opened several times a day to ventilate the seeds.After 3-5 days, sprouts will appear, which can be carefully transferred to containers with soil. This method is especially good for granulated petunia seeds - the shell will gradually dissolve and the plant will not be harmed.
After the seeds are sown, they need to be sprinkled with water from a spray bottle. It is best to add a little manganese to the water for irrigation in the first few days to disinfect the sprouts.
There is no need to sprinkle the petunia seeds with soil - they will take root well and sprout. As a last resort, if in doubt, you can sprinkle the seeds with the thinnest layer of crumbly sand or soil mixture for petunia.
Now the boxes are covered with lids, glass or film and placed in a very warm and bright place, where a constant temperature is kept at 23-25 degrees. If necessary, you should immediately use illumination with a phytolamp or a simple fluorescent light bulb.
It is very important to remove condensation accumulated on the lid every day - drops can drive seeds into the soil. Once a day, wipe the film or glass with a cloth, thereby ventilating the seedlings.
Further care for petunia seedlings
If the petunia is planted correctly, the first shoots should appear in five days. This means that the hardest part is over – the seeds have sprouted. Every day it is necessary to open the containers with seedlings, gradually increasing the ventilation time. This is done until the plants shed their seed coats - then the seedlings are opened completely.
To strengthen the plants and promote their rooting, the containers are placed in a cooler room with a temperature of about 18 degrees for several days.
This is done so that the petunia seedlings do not begin to grow, and all its forces are directed towards the development of the root system.
Fragile sprouts need to be watered very carefully using a spray bottle. This should be done as needed - both waterlogging and lack of moisture are detrimental to petunia seedlings.
For the first 1-1.5 months, the seedlings will grow very slowly, and this is normal, because the root mass of petunias is growing.
During this period, additional lighting is especially important - the lamps should be turned on from early morning until late at night, especially on cloudy and rainy days.
The appearance of the first pair of true leaves indicates that it is time to plant the petunia seedlings. This stage is very important, since diving prevents excessive stretching of the stems and helps strengthen the roots.
Sometimes petunia is planted several times, with each subsequent transplant increasing the size of the seedling containers. After each picking, the seedlings are placed for several days in a place protected from the sun, where the temperature is slightly lower than that to which the petunia is accustomed.
Now comes the phase of active growth of petunias. At this stage, plants quickly grow green mass, additional leaves, twigs and stems appear. You can start forming a bush and remove unnecessary shoots by pinching out the central or side stems.
Very often, petunia blooms before its seedlings are transferred to the ground. It is recommended to remove the buds, otherwise the plant will weaken and the bush will stop growing. To see the shade of petunias, you can leave one flower on each plant - this will help to properly design the flower bed.
With further cultivation it is necessary to carry out regular feeding petunia. This is done for the first time 10 days after the dive and repeated every 10 days until the petunias are transferred to a permanent place.
Complex fertilizers for flowers based on nitrogen are used as feed, but the concentration of this substance should be moderate.
Approximately two weeks before transplanting petunia seedlings to a permanent place, the seedlings need to be hardened off. To do this, containers with plants are taken outside or onto a balcony with open windows. Choose warm days for hardening, but avoid wind and direct sunlight.
That's it, petunia seedlings are ready for planting in open ground!
About, how to plant petunia for seedlings, whether this or that method of preparing seeds is correct, gardeners have been arguing for decades. There are many options for planting this flower: some sow the seeds directly into the ground, while others harden them in the refrigerator for two months. Everyone has their own methods, but the result should be the same - beautiful and bright flowers in the flower beds, delighting the owner until the first cold weather.
To better understand the information, you can watch a video on how to properly plant petunia on your site:
