Summer residents appreciate petunia for its abundant and long-lasting flowering, rich palette of shades, and ease of care. Plants take root in all climatic zones and grow on depleted soils. They stretch in the light and react neutrally to drought. When growing petunia from seedlings, some gardeners have difficulties. Therefore, even before cultivating flowers on the site, lovers are advised to familiarize themselves with the little tricks of planting petunia seeds and the rules of agricultural technology.
Multi-colored petunia grown from seeds
Sowing petunias
Sowing is done in light, moisture-permeable soil. Petunia seeds are small, and they can be sown in two ways: superficially or lightly planted with dry river sand to a shallow depth so that the upper plane of the seeds is slightly visible. Deep sowing will prevent seed germination.
Petunia should be sown in rows, maintaining a distance between seeds of about 1 cm, and between rows - 4-5 cm. This scheme promotes good ventilation of young petunia seedlings.
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After sowing, you need to moisten the surface with micro-sprinkling using a sprayer, and then cover the container with glass or plastic film to prevent the seeds from drying out at the initial stage. While waiting for seedlings to appear, it is very important not to dry out the soil, otherwise the seedlings will die.
Sowing seeds correctly
Petunia seeds germinate only in the presence of light. If they are buried in the soil, or sprinkled even with a very thin layer, they will die.
It is best to put snow in a container and sow petunia directly into this layer. The snow will gradually melt, and eventually the seeds will end up in the substrate. If snow is not available, then the grains are placed on the surface of the substrate and watered with a spray bottle. This must be done carefully so that the seeds do not end up inside the soil. The box with seedlings must be covered with film. The container is placed in a warm (at least 25 ° C) and bright place.
To germinate coated seeds, it is best to use individual tablets. First of all, the tablets are placed in water and waited until they are soaked. After this, they are taken out of the water and placed in a container with high sides. One grain is placed in each tablet. For this purpose, use a toothpick or match. Water is dripped onto the surface of the seeds (using a pipette). The shell will soften and will need to be removed. The sprout will begin to develop faster. After sowing, the containers are covered with cling film or glass.
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Growing petunia in tablets has a higher germination rate. The tablets are also easy to care for and replant.
Seedling care
In order for seedlings to appear quickly and as quickly as possible, crops should be kept at a temperature of 20-25 ⁰C. However, with the emergence of seedlings, in order to avoid stretching the seedlings, the temperature must be lowered to 18-20 ⁰C, while simultaneously enhancing natural lighting with artificial supplementary lighting. For the first two weeks, I illuminate the petunia around the clock: to illuminate 0.7 m² of surface, two 30-watt fluorescent lamps are required.
The humidity regime must be balanced: petunia should not be either over-dried or over-moistened. That is, watering should be alternated with light drying of the top layer of soil. From time to time you should carefully loosen the soil between the rows. The complex of these measures helps to avoid damage to petunia seedlings by such a dangerous disease as blackleg.
First pick of petunia
When the grown seedlings begin to shade each other, it is necessary to carry out the first picking of the petunia into boxes in order to expand the living space for the petunia. If the sowing was done in cassettes, then in principle you can get by with just one pick. The distance between the plants in the box after picking should be about 5 cm both in the row and between the rows.
After picking, I water the seedlings with a solution of complex mineral fertilizer, which contains microelements, but the predominant component is phosphorus. This substance promotes the development of the root system. If you are worried that after picking the petunia will not take root well, you can use a rooter.
The soil is the head of everything
Soil preparation should be taken very carefully. If you have not prepared the soil for seedlings in advance, in the summer or autumn, then in February you will no longer be able to do this and will have to buy ready-made soil. It should be nutritious, light, loose, moisture-absorbing, with neutral acidity. The advantage of store-bought soil is that it does not contain pathogenic microorganisms that may be in the soil from our garden.
Prepare small containers for sowing seeds. Make sure they have holes to drain excess water. Place the containers in a tray and fill them to the top with soil. Moisten the soil with a spray bottle or watering can.
When it comes to sowing petunia seeds for seedlings, the soil is everything. Not only do you need to strictly observe the sowing time and the holding time in a warm place, you need to be able to properly prepare the land.
Of course, it is best to stock up on your own soil. To do this, in the fall it was necessary to prepare turf and leaf soil, humus, compost and river sand. It is enough to mix all these components in equal proportions and add mineral complexes for flowering plants.
If you don’t have your own soil, then you should go to the store and choose the most crumbly and structured soil. Also buy vermiculite and agroperlite. These soil improvers must be added in order to ensure sufficient air permeability of the soil.
Before sowing, purchased and your own soil must be calcined in the oven and spilled with a solution of “Fitosporin” or potassium permanganate. After the ground has cooled, planting can begin. The right time for this is morning or noon on “women’s” days of the week (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday).
Second pick of petunia
After planting in boxes, the plants will develop until they begin to interfere with each other. When this happens depends on temperature and light. It is important not to overcrowd plants: this can lead to elongation and loss of quality of seedlings. To prevent this from happening, you should carry out a second picking in a timely manner, but this time using seedlings. When picking into glasses, seedlings can be buried down to the cotyledon leaves.
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Caring for petunia in glasses
After the second picking, you need to feed the seedlings with a rooting agent. Make sure that the soil moisture is consistently moderate, that is, follow the watering-drying regime. After watering, water should not pour out of the drainage holes. If this happens, it means the moisture was excessive. Regular waterlogging can cause petunia greens to take on an unhealthy yellow tint.
The surface layer of soil in the glasses must be loosened periodically. At this stage, it is no longer necessary to illuminate the seedlings. The optimal temperature for petunia at this time is approximately 20 ⁰C during the day and 16-18 ⁰C at night.
As petunia grows and develops, it can be fed no more than once every 10-14 days with complex mineral fertilizer, for example, Nitroammophoska at the rate of 20 g per 10 liters of water. In parallel with root feeding, you can spray the seedlings leaf by leaf with preparations containing microelements, for example, Brexil or Micom, at the same frequency.
If your soil and water are alkaline, then once every two weeks you need to acidify the water for irrigation with orthophosphoric acid at the rate of 3-5 cm³ per 10 liters of water.
When the plants close their leaves, space the glasses wider so that the seedlings do not compete with each other for light. In this position, the petunia will grow until it begins to flower and is transplanted into open ground.
Despite the fact that petunia is cold-resistant and can withstand temperatures of -3 ⁰C, replanting is carried out when the return frosts have passed.
If you follow my recommendations, your petunia will grow healthy and bloom beautifully and for a long time.
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All the best to you.
Where to start: choosing a variety
Blooming Petunia Grandiflora
Mainly cultivated forms and varieties of large-flowered hybrids are used. Large flowers of various shades with smooth, slightly wavy or jagged fringed edges look very impressive. They can be simple and terry. Petunias are represented by numerous varieties: low-growing, which have a height of 20-30 cm, and tall, reaching 70-75 cm.
There are 7 groups in the classification of petunias:
Petunia Grandiflora superbissima
1 Group 1. Grandiflora.
The height of these plants is up to 60 cm, spreading bushes with long stems. Flowers are up to 9 centimeters in diameter, with wavy edges of the petals.
2 Group 2. Grandiflora superbissima .
Plant height up to 75 cm, spreading bushes, weakly branched. Flowers are up to 12 cm in diameter, with smooth wavy edges.
Petunia Grandiflora fimbriata
3 Group 3. Grandiflora fimbriata .
These plants are compact, branched, up to 60 cm high. Flowers with wavy serrated edges of petals or with a fringed limb reach 8 cm in diameter.
4 Group 4. Grandiflora plena .
Plant height is up to 40 cm, width – up to 65 cm, spreading bushes. Flowers are up to 10 cm in diameter, with wavy, corrugated, jagged or fringed petal edges.
Petunia Multiflora
5 Group 5. Multiflora .
The height of these plants is up to 40 cm, the bushes are spreading and highly branched. The flowers are smaller and more numerous, up to 6 cm in diameter, the edges of the petals are slightly wavy.
6 Group 6. Multiflora of captivity (Multiflora plena).
These plants are up to 40 cm high, spreading bushes, highly branched. Flowers are up to 7 cm in diameter, the edges of the petals are fringed or wavy.
7 Group 7. Nana compacta .
Plant height is up to 45 cm, the bushes are compact and branched. Flowers up to 6 cm in diameter, with smooth edges.
Petunia Nana compacta
Grandiflora are groups of petunias with a small number of large flowers. Multi-flowered petunias Multiflora have smaller flowers, but they cover the plants with a continuous carpet. Petunia Floribunda an intermediate position between these two groups. Such plants produce medium-sized flowers in medium numbers.
According to their form, bush and ampelous petunias are distinguished, which are called Pendula . Cascading petunias externally represent a middle option between the bush and ampel form.
Ampelous petunia
Hybrid or garden petunias (Petunia) with large flowers have played a leading role in landscaping flower beds and balconies for many years. Therefore, small-flowered varieties could not seriously compete with them. They received the nickname “mini-petunias,” although from a botanical point of view, these plants are separated into an independent genus, which is called Calibrachoa.
Calibrachoa
They have everything to take pride of place among hanging plants for pots and baskets: the beautiful calibrachoa flowers are small, but there are fantastically many of them.
They are more resistant to atmospheric influences than their large-flowered “relatives”. In addition, the flowers of many calibrachoa varieties are decorated with filigree designs. The spectrum of their colors is much wider than that of large-flowered petunias, since it even includes the orange color, which is still absent from large “brothers”.
Choosing a landing site
Petunia in landscape design
Petunia is a light-loving plant. Mature bushes grow well in open sunny areas, but in the shade they stretch out and may not bloom. The soil in which petunias grow should always be slightly moist and not too alkaline. Petunia is unpretentious to soils, but on soil richly seasoned with humus or manure it will “grow fat.”
Petunia can be planted in open ground or in containers. These flowers grow well in containers with limited soil volume. Plants in pots, vases and hanging baskets can be used to decorate loggias, balconies and open verandas.
Petunias are beautiful both in single plantings and in combination with other annual plants.
In flower beds, borders and mixborders, petunias look great in combination with flowering plants: verbena, snapdragon, marigold, ageratum or rudbeckia. In carpet plantings, they can be planted next to various ornamental foliage plants, for example, coleus or cineraria.
