Petunias - unpretentious plants of the familySolanaceae. They have long earned the love of gardeners for long-term continuous flowering, a variety of forms and the widest range of colors. Some varieties grow in flowerbeds in compact bushes, others are hung with beautiful ampel, saluting with delightful cascades of the most delicate flowers.
Каждый бутон петунии распускается в течение weeks, blooms for 5 days and then fades. In place of the flower forms a tiny seed boll. Of course, the thought arises of how to collect the seeds of petunia and grow many beautiful flowers. It is very easy to make it, but you need to know some features of the plant.
How to collect petunia seeds
Petunia seeds ripen slowly:for full maturity, they need 3 months from the moment flowers dissolve. Therefore, when collecting seeds, you must take those that are at the bottom of the stem. Seeds ripen unevenly, on closer examination, on one stalk you can find completely dried, opened pods, still strong hard boxes and undisturbed seeds of green color. Dried boxes are easily scattered by mechanical action, so you must be very careful when collecting them.
There is one way of collecting seeds:petunias are placed on a bright place. When the first flowers have faded, a homemade bag (for example, a tea bag) is put on the green seed box. Now even if the boll opens, all the seeds will remain inside. But usually this is not required: petunia blooms very abundantly, and 2-3 boxes are enough to grow a large number of plants.
Looking at the beautiful, large and bright flowers, I want to grow the same. How to collect petunia seeds of terry and semi-double forms?
It is difficult to do because the terryis achieved by the rebirth of the ovaries in the petals. These varieties of petunias rarely form seeds, and it is easiest to propagate them by grafting. Surprises can occur in the cultivation of seeds collected from flowers of complex and unusual colors.
Most petunias landed on urbanflowerbeds and sold in nurseries, these are hybrids. Therefore, seedlings obtained from seeds can retain the properties of the parent plant only partly. They will grow well and will be beautiful in their own way, but their colors may be paler, and flowers - smaller.
Growing seedlings
The question of how to collect the seeds of petunia, was left behind. Now we need from small, like dust, seeds to grow strong plants.
Seedlings develop quite a long time.The first flowers appear after 3 months, so they need to be sown early, in early March. For them, good lighting is very important, so you need to organize the backlight.
Сажать лучше в контейнер, в легкий грунт на peat based. Seeds mixed with sand are scattered over the surface and moistened with a fine spray. Then it is necessary to close the container with glass or film and maintain the temperature of 22-25 degrees Celsius. After a week, the first shoots appear. At this time, petunias are released from the shelter, and the temperature is lowered to + 17-18 degrees.
After 3 weeks, petunias dive into peat tablets or individual pots.
These flowers are prone to rot, especially at the beginning of development. How to grow petunia seeds so as not to be affected by black leg fungus disease?
- Do not thicken the landing.
- Water moderately and only with settled water.
- To carry out prophylactic treatments with Fitosporin or similar preparations.
- Before planting, treat the substrate with a fungicide.
Petunias love good care.10 days after the picking, you can begin feeding. Flowers are transplanted into flower tanks 3-4 weeks after the picking, then gradually lower the temperature of the content to + 14-16 degrees.
To petunias fully developed, they need space. When thickened plantings, they grow worse and bloom later. It is recommended to maintain a distance of 30 cm between plants.
