Petunia is probably the most popular flower for decorating a country plot, a veranda or just a flower bed in the yard. Her growing begins with the purchase of seeds and their germination in seedlings, or with the purchase of ready-made seedlings . In any case, when you already have a luxurious petunia seedling, it remains only to transplant it to a permanent growth site. And about how to plant petunia, just this article will tell.
How to plant a petunia?
There are two options for planting petunia seedlings - in open ground or in flower pots . In any of these cases, you should always follow these rules:
- The weather on the day of transplantation should be overcast or you can land after sunset;
- dive the seedlings with a clod of earth from a seedling pot;
- the pit under the seedling should have a depth and width of at least 10 cm;
- after transplanting the plant must be watered;
- for better rooting and retaining moisture, the land around the flowers should be covered with peat or humus.
We plant petunia in the open ground
If you want to plant petunia in the flower garden in the open ground, make sure that the night temperature does not fall below zero, and freezing does not threaten the delicate flowers.
Be sure to find a sunny area for petunia, since this plant is extremely photophilous. At what distance should you plant petunia: depending on the variety, planting seedlings should be at a distance of 15-20 cm for small-flowered and 20-25 cm for large-flowered varieties.
If other flowers are growing on your flower bed in addition to petunia, you need to know what you can plant with petunia. A good combination is obtained with such flower crops as begonia semper florens, snapdragon, gillyflowers, marigolds, pansies and primroses. Also, joint plantings with bulbous - lilies, irises, tulips, hyacinths look good. In the flowerpots, petunia is ideally combined with fuchsia, pelargonium or balsam.
Planting petunia in the pots
Unbelievably beautiful look pots with hanging petunia. They can decorate the porch, balcony, window, loggia, terrace. Considering how many petunia bunches put in one pot, you need to take into account the fact that the distance between the central stems of plants should be at least 15-20 cm, otherwise they will simply "strangle" each other.
In addition, with the calculation of the number of seedlings for a single pot the following clue will help:
- bush plant species need 1-2 liters of soil per root;
- cascade and ampel varieties need more land - about 3-5 liters per root;
- powerful varieties such as "Typhoon" and "Tornado" require 7-15 liters per root.
You do not need to fill the pot with ordinary garden soil, because it is too heavy for tender petunias. You can not constantly loosen it, and the cracks formed after irrigation will adversely affect the breathing of the roots of the plant.
Choose a loose, light and moisture-permeable primer. For example, it can be a mixture of peat, biohumus and river sand. Adding perlite and vermiculite will make it even more friable. Another variant of the soil is a garden soil with peat and baking powder in a proportion of 3: 3: 0.5.
Petunia care after transplant
This plant needs a simple care, consisting of timely watering, parodic fertilizing and removal of wilted flowers. In this case, watering petunia is necessary only in dry weather and only after sunset. To water a flower it is not necessary, it is enough to water a radical circle.
The first feeding of petunia is made 9-11 days after transplantation. Use nitrogen-containing fertilizers, you can use nitroammophosco.
During the formation of buds for a more abundant flowering it is better to use fertilizers with a high content of potassium and phosphorus. For example, it can be superphosphate or potassium salt. Also, petunia can be fed with wood ash - it contains all the necessary components.
It is important to provide petunia with iron so that it does not become infected with fluorosis. When the first signs of the disease appear (yellowing and falling leaves), you need to spray the plants 3-5 times with an interval of 2-3 days "FeroVitom."