Balsam, or wet vanka, is a popular plant grown not only indoors, but also in garden plots. Flowers are valued for beautiful, abundant, long flowering. There are many different types of plants. To acquire a new variety, you can sow seeds, or you can propagate balsams with cuttings and seeds. With the first method, varietal properties are preserved, and with seed propagation, you can get a plant of a different variety.
Plant care
Balsam grows in any bright place, but feels best on the southeast and east window sills. Under direct sunlight, it cannot develop normally, but it will not grow at all in a dark corner. In the warm season, balsams propagated by cuttings will feel great on terraces, balconies, loggias. They canplanted in the garden, placed in hanging planters in the gazebo, on the terrace. They are ideally combined with begonias, geraniums, petunias.
Irrigation, temperature
Balsam is most successfully propagated by cuttings in the warm season. In winter, the plant is at rest, and it will take a long time to build up the root system, up to a month or longer.
When caring for young plants, watering should be increased: balsam loves water in large quantities. In the room, the plants are watered every other day. It is desirable that the pot was in a deep pan. All excess water from watering will go into it, and then the flower will absorb it all.
Plants grown outdoors are watered 1-2 times a day. It is important to ensure that the earthen ball is always wet. If it suddenly dries up, then the propagated balsam cuttings will weaken and may die.
Feeding Features
Balsam refers to those plants that bloom for a long time. In order for a flower to please with its beauty from spring to autumn, it is necessary to feed it. Fertilizers are applied once every two weeks. The alternation of nitrogen and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers shows itself well. In winter, fertilizers are applied once a month.
Transfer
Balsams are perennial plants. Flower growers transplant them 1-2 times a year. However, it is best to renew the plant every two years. For propagation of balsam by cuttings at home, strong he althy shoots are taken that have at least threeleaf nodes.
When transplanting a plant, it is worth remembering a few rules that will help grow a beautiful bush. For transplantation, they take a pot that will be 1-3 cm larger than the previous one - the root system must be completely placed in it. You should not take too much capacity, as the flower will not bloom until its root system fills the entire volume of soil. This is taken into account when propagating balsam with cuttings at home - first, young plants are planted in small pots, then transplanted into larger containers. You can plant several cuttings in one pot. They may be of the same or different varieties.
Ground
Balsam loves light soil that can quickly absorb moisture, but without stagnant water. If it is oversaturated with mineral fertilizers, nitrogen, then this will lead to an abundant increase in green mass and poor flowering, or the plant will refuse to bloom at all. Therefore, when planting, either purchased soil intended for balsams is used, or they prepare the composition on their own. For him, they take two parts of sod land, humus, leafy soil, one part of peat and sand.
Pinching
To get a beautiful lush bush, you need to pinch the plant, but this does not apply to dwarf varieties. Pinching allows you to form a beautiful, lush bush with a lot of flowers.
To maintain its appearance, it is necessary to constantly pinch. During the procedure, fadedflowers, yellow and dry leaves.
Propagation by cuttings
Propagation by cuttings of indoor balsam allows you to save all the varietal qualities of the mother plant, which is not always possible with seed propagation.
Propagate the plant is easy. To do this, choose a he althy plant. The crown of a young twig about eight centimeters long is cut off from him, but less is possible, the main thing is that it has at least three internodes. The first pair of leaves is removed from the bottom: roots will grow in this place.
Prepared cuttings can be rooted in two ways: in water or in soil. In the first case, it is necessary to draw enough water into the container so that the place where the roots will grow from is in the water. Leaves should not be submerged in water. A container with cuttings is placed in a bright place. Rooting takes from one week to a month, depending on the flower variety and season. After the roots appear, the stalk is transplanted into the ground. He is provided with abundant watering, fertilizing. In a month and a half or two, the first buds will appear.
You can propagate balsams by direct planting cuttings in the ground. To do this, the prepared branch is immersed in the ground by a third of the length. Where there were leaves, roots will appear, so it is important to immerse this place in the ground.
Cuttings planted immediately in the ground are placed under the film and placed in a bright place, but not in direct sunlight. In this way, they take root best in summer and spring, and in autumn and winter, rooting is best done in water.
New Guinea balsam
The predominant method of propagation of New Guinea balsam is cuttings. But not so long ago it became possible to propagate the plant by seeds. When grown in this way, plants have a more stable immunity in the future.
Propagation by cuttings is carried out in the same way as described above, but in this species the root system grows more slowly than in other varieties.
After landing in the ground, New Guinea balsams do not need to form bushes - they branch beautifully on their own, forming beautiful lush hats.
Waller's Balsams
Waller's Balsams is a huge collection of beautiful plants with large flowers, unusual colors. They can be simple, terry, semi-double. Plants similar in color are formed into flower lines, which are constantly replenished with various novelties.
To obtain all the qualities of a variety, to preserve its color, type and size of a flower, balsam is propagated by cuttings in water or soil. So you can save double flowers, ampelous varieties. It is problematic to grow such plants from seeds and at the same time leave the properties of the variety.
An example of a complex variety is the Fiesta balsam, which has double flowers and variegated leaves, as well as a wide variety of colors. It is not possible to obtain the same plant from seeds, therefore it is propagated only by cuttings. A little more useful information about the reproduction of balsamspresented in the video.
Garden balsams
Unlike propagation of New Guinea balsam by cuttings at home, it is easiest to obtain new types of garden plants from seeds, although for the safety of some specimens, reproduction is carried out by cuttings. The same method is used to obtain a large number of identical plants with minimal costs for seeds and their germination.
Seed propagation
Balsams can be propagated not only by cuttings, but also by seeds. And you can collect them yourself or buy seeds in the store. In the latter case, it is worth looking at the expiration date and taking into account that for plant seeds they cannot remain viable for a long time. For example, New Guinea balsams retain their qualities for six months, and Waller's balsams for about eight months. Other varieties are able to germinate a year after seed collection, but their germination rate will be about 50%.
It is recommended to start growing balsams from seeds about a hundred days before the desired flowering date. March is considered the ideal time.
For planting seeds prepare soil from a mixture of peat, sand and vermiculite, compost, taken in equal proportions. The mixture must be treated against pests and diseases. The prepared soil is placed in containers, transparent plastic breakfast containers with a lid are ideal. Seeds are laid out on top of moist soil. Sprinkle lightly with vermiculite on top.or sand. At an air temperature of 22-24 degrees, shoots will appear in two to three weeks. Transplantation in their own containers is carried out when the third true leaf appears.
You can propagate balsams with your seeds. To do this, collect seed boxes, dry and sow the seeds in the same way as purchased ones.
