These colorful, iridescent flowers like to breed on their sites, even beginners and inexperienced gardeners. For them, the most honorable and central places on the flower beds are often singled out, expecting to see a carpet of multi-colored petunias, common or double -colored, in the summer.
Of course, in order for this expectation to come true, it is necessary to observe a number of conditions regarding the seeding time, seedlings, their landing in the ground and other important points. In short, it is extremely important to know how to properly grow petunia seedlings and how to take care of it in the future.
Growing petunia seedlings
Most of all young florists are interested in the timing of planting petunias for seedlings, since the success of the whole enterprise depends on this factor. If you want to grow chic seedling, which later when planted in the open ground will give a lush bloom, you need to start planting the seeds in February-March.
How to sow petunia on seedlings?
Now that we have decided when to plant petunia on the seedlings, let's talk about how to do it. Remember that all the seeds are laid out at a distance from each other directly on the prepared soil, which then does not need to be closed, but only sprinkle it and cover it with a film or glass.
The fertilizing of seedlings should be started when she pushes out and grows up a little. In this case, make sure that the plants are not too stretched to the height - this indicates a lack of light, and in this case it is better to limit the use of nitrogen fertilizers.
Seedlings of petunia in peat tablets
If you are not quite successful in growing petunia seedlings in a traditional way, you can plant drained seeds in peat pills . This will reduce the percentage of seed losses.
For petunia need a medium-sized tablet - about 3-4 cm in diameter. Before sowing, it is necessary to soak the peat in water until it swells completely. Then spread the seeds into the grooves, helping yourself with a toothpick or match. And in order for the seeds to break through the coating of the dragee, they can be moistened with water from an atomizer or a pipette, so that the shell is soaked.
When the seeds are planted, you need to cover the crops, creating a mini-greenhouse. It is important that the cover does not apply to peat tablets. The temperature in the room should be at least 25 ° C. The first shoots will appear after a week.
Seedlings Petunia - care
When there are shoots, the temperature of the content should be reduced by 5-7 degrees. Tablets should not be wet all the time. Water in the tray with peat should be poured in such quantity that it is completely absorbed, and there was no surplus on the bottom.
It is important to regularly ventilate the room in which petunia seedlings grow. Extra nutrition in the case of growing seedlings in peat tablets is not needed, because they contain all the nutrients in the required proportion. In the dive, seedlings grown on tablets also do not need.
When roots of plants start to make their way through the shell of the tablet, it's time to immediately plant them in pots, otherwise the roots will dry up and this will negatively affect the further development of flowers.
In the pots, seedlings are transplanted together with a lump. Plant can be made into ready-made mixtures specially created for this type of plant. Trying not to damage the roots, you need to put tablets with seedlings in pots, fill the space with soil, not deepening the tablets.
Moisturize the ground and wait until the plant develops to a full-fledged kind and begins to bloom. At this stage, you can transplant them into the open ground - the flowers will please you with their bright colors right up to the frosts.