This beautiful perennial of the Solanaceae family is native to the tropics of South America. But even in our latitudes, it feels excellent, delighting the eye with long flowering, pomp, brightness and an abundance of shades of large flowers. It's about petunias.
Of course, you can also buy ready-made seedlings of this southern beauty in the store, but if you want to surprise your friends with an unusual color or the look of some special hybrid, you will have to learn how to grow petunias from seeds yourself. It is not very difficult, but some nuances will have to be taken into account, and we will help you.
Selection of petunia seeds
Petunia seeds themselves are very small, so many gardeners prefer pelleted options. On the one hand, because of their size, it is more convenient to sow them, on the other hand, there is a risk that, if there is not enough moisture, the shell will dissolve poorly and interfere with seedlings. There is no clear advice here, the choice is yours.
Choice of landing dates
On average, a healthy petunia should flower 10-12 weeks after sowing. Therefore, the timing of planting petunias for seedlings depends on when you want to see flowering plants.
When to sow petunias for seedlings? You can start planting petunias for seedlings at home as early as the middle of winter. However, provided that you have an additional light source for the full development of sprouts. With its shortage, young plants will be thin and frail, unable to fight diseases.
If you rely only on the windowsill and the sun, you will have to wait until the beginning, or even the middle of spring, when daylight hours increase enough to help the seedlings gain strength. However, here it is also important not to delay the timing, otherwise the flowering will noticeably move back in time.
Preparing seeds for sowing
Before you actually sow petunias for seedlings, you should take care of choosing the right soil and suitable containers, as well as the location of the future "kindergarten".
First, prepare shallow (about 10 cm) wooden or plastic boxes. Disinfect them with any antiseptic, and put an additional piece of paper on the bottom of wooden containers.
Then, placing a little expanded clay on the bottom of the boxes to prevent the seedlings from rotting, fill the containers with prepared sifted soil at 2/3 of the height.
The soil for seedlings of petunias can be different, here are some options:
- ready-made soil mixture bought in a specialized store;
- a mixture of fertile soil and hydrogel (previously soaked in a suitable fertilizer) in a ratio of 1: 1;
- a mixture of humus, turf, lowland peat and sand in a ratio of 2:2:2:1.
Sowing petunias for seedlings
How to sow a petunia for seedlings? Before planting the seeds, the prepared soil should be spilled with boiling water or calcined in the oven to kill possible pests (especially if you prepared the soil mixture yourself). It would be useful to additionally shed the soil with a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate.
Petunia seeds (it is more convenient to use thin tweezers or a toothpick) are sown on the surface of treated, cooled and moist soil, do not sprinkle soil on top. If you use pelleted seeds, then in order to successfully dissolve the granules, you should additionally spray them already on the ground with water from a spray bottle (not from a watering can! Otherwise, the seeds may sink too deep into the ground).
There are several other ways to sow small seeds if this one seems complicated to you.
Then cover the container with transparent polyethylene or glass to create greenhouse conditions for seeds (and then young sprouts). This option will save you from the need for daily watering and the option of damaging newly hatched shoots. However, it is necessary to ensure that the condensate does not accumulate in excess - the glass (film) should be turned over to the dry side every day, and the emerging crops should be ventilated (starting from 5-10 minutes a day and gradually increasing this time to 15-20 minutes).
To facilitate germination, it is sometimes advised to plant coated seeds in peat tablets with a diameter of 3.5-4.5 cm. They are initially soaked in water, after swelling, excess water is drained and, placing the tablets in a tray, in the same way, one petunia seed is laid out on the surface of each . For better dissolution of the shell, you can additionally drop water from a pipette on top of the granule. After a few minutes, you can "help" the seeds by gently smearing the softened shell. Then the peat tablets are placed in a tray and, in the same way as in the case described above, covered with a transparent lid and placed in a bright and warm place.
If the seeds were fresh, and the sowing technology was followed, wait for the first shoots on the 3-4th day. For older seeds, the whole process may take longer (up to 10 days).
It is not worth waiting for seedlings for more than two weeks - even if the seeds sprout, the sprouts will be greatly weakened, and it is unlikely that you will be able to get healthy plants!
Petunia seedling care
Petunia seedlings are very small, so in the first days after they appear, they need very careful care.
Light mode.
The location of containers with future seedlings should be bright, otherwise you won’t even get seedlings. In the first days of growth, lighting can be almost round-the-clock, in the future, 11-12 hours of daylight will be enough for the plant. With a lack of light, you should use backlighting (phytolamps, fluorescent or LED lamps, which are installed at a height of about 20 cm above the seedlings), with an excess of direct sunlight, periodically shade the site or temporarily remove the boxes to another place.
Temperature regime.
The temperature of keeping trays with germinating crops should be about 22-25 ° C (hybrid petunias are especially capricious in this regard). If the temperature is lower, the plants may not sprout; if it is higher, they are more likely to get sick. As soon as the sprouts appear, to "harden" the plants, the temperature of the content should be reduced: to 18-20 ° C during the day and 14-16 ° C at night. This can be achieved, for example, by moving the trays with seedlings further from the battery.
When the first true leaves appear, you can finally remove the protective film (glass)!
Watering petunias.
The moisture regime is also very important for seedlings: excess moisture can contribute to plant rotting or infection with a fungus (black leg), and a lack of moisture can cause petunias to dry out.
In the first week, it is enough to spray the soil with seeds 1-2 times a day with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Emerging shoots will require daily watering.
Water for these purposes is suitable for soft, settled, without chlorine, at room temperature, you can take melted water. You can water the seedlings in the "lower" way (through the pan), you can pour water along the inner walls of the tray, or you can inject it drip from a syringe right under the roots of the seedlings.
In cloudy weather, it is best to water the seedlings in the morning, and in sunny weather - in the evening!
Feeding seedlings of petunias.
Very weak seedlings 1-2 times over the entire period can be sprayed with a growth stimulator. 6-7 days after the appearance of the sprouts, you can feed them with mineral fertilizers (repeat this procedure no earlier than 10 days later).
Petunia seedling picking
The correct petunia seedlings are ready for picking at the stage of 2-3 real (not cotyledonous!) leaves. This time usually comes 3-4 weeks after sowing.
In principle, picking plants at the stage of cotyledon leaves is also possible. This can be especially true in case of black leg disease, when it is necessary to isolate healthy plants from diseased ones!
Picking is the transfer of seedlings from one common to separate, larger containers for their better development. For picking, prepare for each seedling a separate container with a diameter of at least 7 cm, with holes for the outflow of excess moisture at the bottom. With a wooden stick or dessert spoon, carefully pick up a clod of earth with roots under the plant and transfer it to the "new house", where there is already part of the fresh soil, preferably already moistened and enriched with humus or granular fertilizer compared to the initial one. The seedling is placed in the hole so that the cotyledons are visible above the soil level.
By the way, if you sowed the seeds in peat tablets, then you can safely skip this stage of care, which is important for beginner gardeners who are afraid of severely damaging the root system during this process. Seedlings are placed in new pots directly in the "parent" tablets.
1.5-2 weeks after picking, the plants are considered to be "adult" enough to continue their hardening. Young petunia can be gradually transferred to a temperature regime of about 15 ° C at night and 18 ° C during the day. This can be achieved by regular ventilation of the room or temporary, but systematic removal of seedlings to the open air. Plus, every 14 days, you can fertilize with complex fertilizer for flowers (according to the instructions).
Growing petunias: pinching
At this stage, the appearance of an already grown plant is formed. If we want to see our petunia as a beautiful branching dense bush.
Planting seedlings of petunias in open ground
Before planting in the ground, petunia seedlings should already be hardened enough to spend outdoors day and night.
In the middle lane, planting should be done after 12-14 weeks from the date of sowing the seeds (usually this period falls on the end of May - the beginning of June).
If this is not a balcony flowerpot, but a garden plot, choose a well-lit place with fertile loamy soil, dig it up and apply fertilizer. Try to disembark in the evening (when the sun is not so active) or in cloudy weather.
The distance between plants during planting depends on their variety (from 20 cm for small-flowered petunias to 30 cm for ampel varieties), and the depth of the holes should be at least 10 cm.
Pre-seedlings are well shed in pots, and then, together with an earthen clod, they are transferred to a prepared hole.
The land between the plants can be mulched with humus or peat, and the plants themselves must be protected from direct sunlight in the early days!
So, congratulations - the seedlings of petunia flowers have successfully passed all the stages of their development, and it remains only to wish you abundant and colorful flowering!
We hope you are convinced that growing petunia seedlings at home is not difficult, although it requires certain skills and abilities.
