The balcony, decorated with flowers, looks very nice. Especially often for this use petunia, which is best planted seedlings. This is due to the fact that already in the pot you need to plant lush blossoming bushes.
Of course, you can buy ready-made seedlings, but it's best to plant petunia on the seedling yourself. How to do this we will tell in this article.
Time of planting petunias for seedlings
Begin to plant petunia can be already from winter. If in the room where you do this, there is a highlight, then you can start already in January or February. If only natural light is used, then it is better to do it in the first half of March. It grows about 2-2,5 months, so at the end of May - in early June you will have beautiful seedlings.
A large number of varieties of petunia are known, and for each of them there is a recommended planting period. Usually this information is indicated on the packaging with seeds. For example: ampelnuyu petunia should be planted on seedlings in January, as it needs to build longer shoots.
How to grow petunia seedlings at home?
Preparation
In the case of growing petunia, it is very important to choose the right soil for planting. It requires a loose, nutritious, medium acidity soil mixture. Absolutely not suitable for this plant alkaline earth. A suitable petunia soil can be bought in the store or made by yourself.
To do this, mix the land from the plot, which has overgrown the humus, decomposed peat and sand in a ratio of 2: 2: 2: 1. All components must be mixed and divided into two parts. The first is to sift through a large sieve, and the second through a fine sieve. Now you can start filling the tank.
We take a shallow container, disinfect it and make holes in the bottom. After that, we put crushed ceramsite into the pot as a drainage, then a layer of large sifted soil (1/3 part), and then - small drop-out, leaving 5-6 cm to the edge. The day before sowing, the soil must be watered abundantly.
If you want to avoid all these troubles, plant the petunia seeds in seedlings in peat pills . To do this, it is enough to stick a seed into the upper depression of the cup, put several peat cylinders in one container and pour water on its bottom.
Planting and caring for petunia seedlings
Mix the seeds with sand and sprinkle evenly the entire surface of the soil. It remains only to spray them and cover the container with glass. For germination, a temperature of + 20-23 ° C and a high humidity are required, which can be achieved by spraying the sents with warm water from the spray gun.
At the third week from the appearance of the germ, the glass should be gradually removed (this is called hardening) and reduce the temperature in the room to + 17-18 ° C. To ensure that the seedlings are strong, then in the second week, foliar top dressing with calcium and ammonium fertilizers should be performed, and a week later, they should be added again, but in a larger dose and in combination with a growth stimulant.
When two petunias appear in the petunia seedlings, they must be dived into individual containers with a diameter of 6-8 cm (for example: cups). In order for seedlings to have a well-formed root system, the seedling must be deepened to the first leaves at this moment. This will also help to avoid the development of fungal diseases on the plant. In the future, care for petunias will consist of spraying them every 2 days and applying complex fertilizers with nitrogen.
In the second half of May, seedlings can be planted on a permanent place. Knowing how to grow petunia seedlings, you will regularly enjoy its colors all summer (and even sometimes September) at no particular cost.