Through the efforts of breeders, petunias are becoming increasingly popular. They bloom with all sorts of colors for a long time, delighting others.
Lovers of decorative floriculture use petunias to decorate flower beds, balconies, arbors. Growing them is not particularly difficult. But still, there are secrets and tricks. Much comes with experience, but there are rules that both a professional and an amateur need to follow. In order to fully enjoy the beauty of the plant, you need to know how to pinch a petunia.
The essence of the method
Don't be afraid when you need to carry out certain manipulations with plants. There is nothing difficult in this. So, how to pinch a petunia? Using scissors or fingers, the top of the stem is removed. This leads to thickening of the remaining shoot. This procedure is required by many plants, including some varieties of petunias.
Amateur flower growers often call tweezing pinching. In fact, these are similar procedures. Only pinching is carried out with seedlings, and grown plants need pinching. What are the benefits of the procedure for petunias? Is it dangerous for the flower?
What is the benefit
In order to answer the question: "Do I need to pinch a petunia?", it is enough to explain what this method gives. As a result, buds swell on shortened shoots, the leaves acquire a more saturated tone. Over time, new stems with flowers will appear on the plant. Then the petunia will take on a magnificent and delightful look. If the procedure is not carried out, the plant will stretch up and produce few flowers.
First pinching (tweezing)
First, let's look at the information about tweezing. It is carried out with young seedlings that grow in separate pots.
It is important to carry out the first pinching before the end of the growing season. It is carried out according to certain rules. So, the best time is considered the period when the seedling has developed five or six leaves. If you miss this moment, the seedlings will stretch, and the bush will not acquire a spherical shape.
During tweezing, the central growth bud is cut out with nail scissors. The operation requires certain skills and knowledge, so amateurs prefer not to carry it out. If the grower's fingers are thin enough, you can do without scissors. The plant does not have coarse fibers, so the shoots break off quite easily.
Here's how easy it is to pinch petunias at the stageseedlings. After that, the cut of the plant should be sprinkled with crushed activated carbon or wood ash. You can also treat the flower with a growth stimulator. Seedlings will slow down their growth, but do not worry. The plant receives a new growth point, from which several shoots will appear at once. It will gain strength and delight with its chic look.
Repeated procedure
When the plant is planted in the ground, it can be pinched again. It is necessary to wait until it is accepted and begins to grow. This usually takes several weeks. How to pinch a petunia in the garden?
To form a compact bush, you need to leave four to five internodes on the central stem. The upper part of the shoot is removed with scissors. This will stop the petunia from growing. To make it return to growth faster, you can feed it with complex mineral fertilizers. Spraying with copper or molybdenum fertilizer will also favorably affect the development of petunias. It will also protect flowers from fungal diseases. However, the procedure does not end there.
After one or two weeks, the plant will get stronger and it will be necessary to shorten its side shoots. In order for the information to be more visual, it is worth watching the proposed video, which will replace step-by-step photos on how to pinch a petunia.
Experts advise choosing the thickened part of the shoot for shortening. Due to the fact that several branches will appear on it at once, it must be strong enough for them. If the escape istoo thin, it will bend or break under the weight of the new stems. In this case, practice is needed, which will definitely appear over time.
Flower after pinching
After the procedure, you will have to mentally postpone the moment of flowering for two weeks. However, instead of one flower, many buds will appear. Yes, and their size will be larger.
It's not enough to know how to pinch a petunia. In order for the shrub to remain thick and flowering, it is necessary to remove wilted flowers in a timely manner. To do this, they are pinched off along with the pedicel. If testicles form, they will take some of the strength from the plant. Then the flowering will not be so abundant.
Pinching and breeding
Now it has become clear how to pinch a petunia for abundant flowering. However, it is worth mentioning another benefit of this procedure. So, cut stems are used as an excellent planting material. Shoots enough to root. Over time, they will please the flowering of practical homeowners. How to do it?
To do this, you need to deepen them into a container with a mineral component called vermiculite. It contains many growth elements, including potassium and magnesium. The substance is organic, since it is taken from the earth's crust, so you should not worry about its environmental friendliness. Vermiculite must be pre-moistened. The stalk should be cleaned of leaves, retaining only a couple of the top ones. The stem must be deepened into the mineralsubstance up to these leaves. Then it is covered with a translucent cap, such as a cut plastic bottle. Moisture will not rapidly evaporate. Cuttings take root quite quickly - in seven to ten days.
Thus, along with pinching, you can propagate your favorite petunias. New plants will bloom a few weeks later than the mother plants. You can keep them for yourself or give them to another petunia lover.
An alternative to pinching
When it became clear how to pinch a petunia for abundant flowering, it is difficult to imagine that this method was used commercially. It is unlikely that the grower will spend a lot of time manually processing several hundred seedlings. For this purpose, preparations have long been developed that prevent the stretching of young plants. They also stimulate the development of lateral stems.
Interestingly, hybrid and elite varieties of petunia usually do not need pinching. They are still seedlings treated with special substances that contribute to abundant growth and flowering. But if there is not enough light for the flower, or the air temperature is below normal, it can grow. In this case, cropping is indispensable.
Pinching, especially for amateur varieties, is as important a procedure for plant development as planting seeds and picking. Frivolity in this matter is unacceptable. If everything is done correctly and in a timely manner, you can enjoy abundantly blooming petunias. They definitely won't be worse than the ones we see on magazines.pages.
