The tropical epiphyte of guzmania, home care after which has its own characteristics, is a shrub 40 cm high. Its main decoration is a bunch of long leaves, topped with a bright bract, and a small flower.
Flower of gusmania - home care
Proper care for guzmania requires certain knowledge. Create it needs conditions that are close to natural. Flower guzmaniya - how to competently care:
- When cultivating the epiphyte, illumination is important. It is better to place it in the eastern or western part of the dwelling. From the south, the open sun adversely affects the bush state, from the north - a lack of light can lead to a stop of budding.
- The optimum temperature is at least + 25 ° C in summer and + 18 ° C in winter.
- Epiphytic treatment requires systematic ventilation, but without drafts.
How to water Guzmania?
If gusmania grows in a dwelling, care at home for her involves regular watering. During the procedure, soft, settled water is poured into the outlet, the remnants merge. Gusmania watering is often required: every day or every other day in summer, in winter - 1-2 times a week. The epiphyte does not like copious moistening, it is better to dry the soil slightly than to let the water in the pot stagnate. In addition, the bush is required to be irrigated daily with liquid from a spray gun.
Guzmania - care at home - transplant
Exotic guzmaniyu transplanted after its acquisition in the store and at breeding. The rhizome of the tropic is developing slowly, so it can live in the same vessel for years. Often, they are already selling a flowering shrub, which means that after half a year its top withers and the flower dies, so it is important to make sure that it grows safely.
How to transplant guzmany at home care:
- Prepare a wide shallow pot (12-15 cm), lay on the bottom of the drainage layer 2 cm.
- Prepare a fertile soil mixture.
- Remove the plant, without damaging its roots, place in a vessel, sprinkle with prepared soil and compact.
- Pour the soil and spray the plant.
- When transplanting "children" after retrieving them from an old vessel, it is important to separate the root systems from the shoots. The maternal shrub dies after the blossoming and formation of offspring - it is thrown out.
Soil for Guzmania
The land for gusmania is used as a store for bromeliads. You can mix soil mixture yourself from equal parts:
- sod land;
- large river sand;
- finely ground sphagnum moss ;
- peat.
You can add a little bit of charcoal, ceramic chips, pine bark. Drainage is formed from expanded clay balls and shards. Before planting guzmanii any soil is advised to sterilize - hold on a water bath for 1.5 hours. This will destroy parasites and pathogenic microorganisms. The roots of the plant are weak, so when transplanting to compact the earth should be cautious.
Fertilizer for gusmania
Deciding how to feed guzmany, it is important to know that as a feed for it, fertilizers are used for bromilia. They should not contain bromine and copper, which act on the culture toxic. Concentration of fertilizer - 50% of the indicated on the package. The period of refueling of fertilizing: March - September, the frequency of feeding - once a month. Fertilizers should be applied simultaneously with irrigation, pouring the solution into the funnel of the leaf plates.
Guzmania - care at home - reproduction
Exotic gusmania multiplies by two methods:
- seeds;
- children.
When seed is cultivated, the soil for sowing is made up of equal volumes of peat and sand. The seeds are disinfected after 20 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After drying the planting material to flowability, distribute it along the surface of the substrate. Crops are covered with cellophane, in the greenhouse should be increased humidity. Germination of seeds is carried out in the light, at + 25 ° C, better with bottom heating. The seedlings will appear after 3 weeks, a month later they are dived into isolated cups.
Guzmania - the correct transplantation of "children":
- Blossoms guzmania for a long time in the summer, then dies off, for 2-4 months, feeding "children."
- Transplanted sprouts that have reached half the size of the mother's bush (~ 15 cm).
- Kom the earth in a pot is dried up to flowability, turn over on a cutting plane.
- A knife is separated neatly by the "children" from the mother's bush and put them into the water.
- One "baby" can not be dug from the ground, but remove the remaining bush with layers.
- The shoots are spread over low pots with soil, compact.
- The first abundant watering of the young in the funnel of leaves is made.
- Young shoots are placed in a cellophane hood or an empty aquarium covered with glass, they create a greenhouse at + 28-30 ° C.
- Every day, sprouts need to be sprayed, the soil should be moist at all times.
- The pot is put first in shading, after a couple of weeks - to a permanent place.
Why does not blossom guzmania?
Like most bromeliads, the basic ornamentality is attached to the plant, not the flowers themselves, but the catchy bract. It can be white, yellow, purple, mottled, purple. Period of flowering of gusmania: spring - summer, duration - 5 months. On the question of why the guzmania does not bloom in the home, the answer is unambiguous - recommendations on the content of plants are not observed, such as make-up, proper watering, wet microclimate. If for some reason the flowering is delayed, then it can be stimulated with "Ovary", "Bud" or apple wedges.
Fertilize the soil in a container with liquid make-up, cover the bush with a cellophane kulk until the buds are completely formed. If you use the method of lining fruit, they are laid out on the soil and make sure that the lobules do not rot - they are changed as needed. Sometimes guzmania is affected by fungal diseases, which prevent it from laying buds. It is necessary to use "Aktellik" to kill the mold and parasites and help the epiphyte blossom.
Гузмания has blossomed - what further to do?
Many growers have a question - guzmania after flowering, what to do next? After budding, a process appears on the bush. The previous outlet will gradually die off, but you do not need to delete it immediately. Yellowing the lower leaves can be cut off, and leave green. At the base of the plant, buds of renewal are formed, after 1.5-2 months after flowering they form 3-4 leaves and a weak root system.
The most important condition - the separation of "children" from the mother socket as late as possible, almost after the complete withering of the old plant. Then they can suck the nutrients from the soil themselves and get better. Transplant sprouts better in the spring, carefully separating them with the roots, landing in a container with a fertile substrate. By the autumn they will already have strong roots.
Гузмания - leaves dry
In guzmania, care at home for which is done incorrectly, sometimes the leaves suffer. Some problems and solutions:
- On the question - guzmaniya withered the tip, what to do, the growers advise not to panic. Most likely, it was a bract, its withering away is a normal process, it is necessary to expect the emergence of young shoots from culture.
- The lower leaves brown and dry. The reason is waterlogging, the epiphyte needs water. In the soil it is necessary to maintain optimum moisture, but do not overdo it.
- The tips of the leaf plates brown and wither. The reason is a lack of moisture, the bush needs to be sprayed every day, the pot should be placed on wet claydite.