The most real spring has already come: the day has been added for as much as 5 hours! And we, dear gardeners, have waited for this magical time of year. Just a little more patience, and a colorful hot summer will come, when there is a lot of everything, everything blooms, Matures, smells and pleases the eye. In the meantime, we continue to seedling Strada and sow tomatoes with peppers, eggplants, celery and much more. In addition, we, of course, can not give up the pleasure of growing seedlings of annual flowers to afford a kind of pleasant care of the cottager – to decorate your garden.
5 steps to quality seedlings
For a novice gardener, growing annuals is a problematic event: there are a lot of worries, and the flowers will die at the end of the season in any case. But real flower growers understand that no perennial plants will give such a long and varied flowering as elegant annuals. And for this, we love them, look for new seeds, cherish and cherish and deservedly enjoy the unique beauty of the entire season! Now it is not too late to sow interesting new hybrids of petunias for seedlings.
Farming techniques for growing Petunia seedlings are simple:
- First, purchase high-quality fresh seeds. This is the most important point, and if you do not follow it, you may be disappointed in the result. Our seeds are granulated, protected by a special antibacterial coating against fungal diseases. Store the seeds in the refrigerator until they are sown.
- Second, prepare transparent landing containers with lids. Wash them thoroughly with soap or potassium permanganate.
- Third, fill the containers with pre-prepared soil. We make a mixture for petunias from non-acidic peat, sand, leaf humus and turf in the proportion of 2:1:1:1. it is desirable to steam the Soil in a water bath. To do this, place it on a sieve, put it on a pan of water and then on the stove. Cover and steam for 40-50 minutes. You can bake the ground in the oven on a baking sheet.
- Fourth, sow superficially on leveled compacted soil. Watch for humidity: the slightest drying of the soil is harmful for young seedlings, but excess water is also not necessary. Cover the landing container with a lid. Let the seeds germinate in such a mini-greenhouse at a temperature of + 22…+25°C.
- Fifth, after the appearance of the third real leaf seedlings rasp and grow on a cool light windowsill. Usually the seedlings of these seeds are friendly, and the seedlings grow wonderful!
After the end of the threat period of return frosts, plant seedlings in the garden.
Features of new hybrids
The achievements of breeders are simply amazing! We want to tell you about unusual new hybrids that bloom continuously all the warm season until frost, and the flowering does not weaken, but only becomes more powerful. And here’s why: the so-called male sterility gene was introduced into plants.
This gene was identified a long time ago, but it was invented relatively recently to use it in hybridization. It does not allow the seeds to be tied, petunias do not spend their resources on this important process and are passionately given to continuous flowering. Such plants are more powerful — one Bush in diameter can reach 1 m or more when planted in a flower bed with fertile soil.
These hybrids grow well not only in ground flower beds, but also in hanging pots and vases. They are healthier than ordinary petunias, have a high resistance to gray rot, feel great and bloom profusely at temperatures from + 7 to + 40°C. The heat tolerance of these plants is amazing! A very nice bonus: newly blooming flowers hide faded corollas under them. This is very convenient, especially when growing plants in containers.
There are already many such hybrids. For example, the large-flowered series “candy” has 8 colors of corollas, and the diameter of the flower is up to 14 cm! Hybrid series “Italian” will please with 25 colors. Plants of basket series “Laguna” whip reach meter length!
In total, there are 10 new series and each of them has up to 25 hybrids that differ in shape, color and size of the corollas. For us, dear gardeners, a huge selection of colors and shapes for every taste and occasion.
We wish you good luck, bright flower beds and a beautiful summer!