Petunia is considered one of the most sought-after and beautifully flowering annuals grown for decorative purposes for decorating flower beds, balconies, summer cottages. It is easy to grow in an ordinary city apartment.
One of the most effective ways to propagate this plant is cuttings of petunias. They are easy to breed, just save a few he althy bushes in the fall, and get to work in the spring. The main thing is to be patient, buy soil and plastic containers for seedlings.
Propagation of petunia by cuttings of mother liquor
So, in order to get enough flowers without serious material costs, select several petunia bushes of the variety you like in early September and transplant them into a flower pot. Plants can be put on the wintering on a window sill well lit by the sun. Preliminary cut off too long branches of the bush. The plant will do well at temperatures no higher than+12 °С. In the spring (from the end of February to May), cuttings of petunias are made. Apical shoots are cut from bushes in a pot, so that each has at least four leaves. Then the extra leaves are removed from each fragment, leaving the top two each, and the branches are shortened by half. As a result, the size of the handle should be about 6 cm.
Cuttings of petunias: rooting biomaterial
In order for the cuttings to take root, it is necessary to create optimal conditions for them. The room temperature is required from +21 °С to +24 °С. And the room should be adequately lit. The cuttings are placed in peat soil, deepening them by about 2 cm. The seedlings are placed at a distance of about 1.5 cm from each other. After planting, the box (plastic container) is covered with a film or glass. The cuttings are sure to moisturize well, but do not flood. You can stimulate the growth of petunias using preparations such as "Heteroauxin" or "Kornevin". Tip: it is convenient to root flowers in containers with transparent sides through which regrown roots will be visible. Seedlings grow within 14-20 days, during which time they are gradually accustomed to fresh air, slightly opening the polyethylene. Rooted plants are transferred to containers using a mixture of sand and fertile soil (1: 5). After transplanting, the pots are placed in a shaded place for 7 days. The cuttings are regularly watered and sprayed with settled water from a spray bottle.
Cuttings of petunias: care of seedlings
To orderto make the petunia bush more beautiful, they pinch the plant. Do this over the fourth (fifth) sheet. Tip: The cut top shoot can also be used for cuttings. If necessary, the procedure is repeated after two weeks. A month later, the cuttings grow and become ready for transplanting into containers with a large diameter (11 cm). As you can see, petunia cuttings are a fairly simple procedure that allows you to get beautiful flowers that fully preserve all the properties of the mother liquor. Caring for such seedlings is no different from seedlings bought in a store or grown from seeds. Petunia loves warmth and good lighting, is drought-resistant, but needs abundant watering with a long absence of moisture. The soil prefers sandy or loamy, fertile and well-drained. For long and abundant flowering, feed it regularly, every 10 days, starting 7 days after planting in open ground and ending in August. It is advisable to use a complex fertilizer for flowering plants with a predominance of potassium.
