Growing godetia from seeds
Sowing seeds
Godetia can only be grown from seeds. This breeding method is quite simple, even for inexperienced gardeners.
You can grow godetia through seedlings or sow seeds directly into open ground. It is recommended to sow seeds in open soil from the second half to the end of April. In the southern regions, the seeds of this flower are sown before winter. Regardless of when you sow the seeds, you need them for 30 minutes. immerse in a weak solution of potassium manganese. This will protect the seeds from various diseases. For sowing, you must choose a site with neutral or slightly acidic loamy soil. The site should also be well lit. Dig up the soil and water it, while it is necessary to add wood ash and mineral fertilizers, and also humus (5 kg is taken per 1 square meter). After that, it is necessary to sow seeds on the floor a centimeter deep, while taking into account that a distance of at least 25 centimeters should be kept between the bushes. To accelerate the appearance of seedlings, the crops should be covered with foil from above. If the seedlings are excessively dense, then thinning is necessary. This method of growing godetia is better than seedling, because when planting seedlings, some of them are damaged and die.
Seedling
Sowing for seedlings must be done in the last days of March or in the first - April. First, a drainage layer must be laid on the bottom of the containers and filled with loose soil saturated with nutrients. For convenience, it is recommended to combine small seeds with sand. After that, they are distributed over the surface of the substrate, and sprinkled on top with a thin layer of soil. The container must be covered with a transparent film. Every day it is necessary to remove the film from the container for a while in order to ventilate and water the crops. After about 1.5 weeks, the first seedlings can be seen. After this happens, you need to remove the shelter for good. A pick is made after the plants have a pair of real leaves.
The seedlings are carefully dug out, the soil is carefully removed, the overly long roots are trimmed. 3 seedlings are planted in 1 pot
Secrets of growing gatsania seedlings from seeds (with photo)
Seed propagation requires more time and effort. Seed material can be collected on your own, after waiting for the fruit to ripen, or you can buy it at a specialized flower shop. Experienced gardeners know how to grow gatsania from seeds, take into account all the subtleties and secrets of this work, which helps them get healthy seedlings. Below are tips for those who do not yet know how to sow correctly.
It should be borne in mind that after sowing, flowering can be expected in 3 - 3.5 months. Planting seeds is best done in the second decade of March. If you do the work earlier, you will have to take measures to create additional lighting, that is, use special lighting devices for plants. If you postpone sowing, then you can not wait at all for the formation of buds.
When sowing gatsania with seeds for seedlings in mid-March, shoots appear in 7-14 days, usually this time is considered the most optimal. The planting pot must be deep enough as the roots of this crop are quite long and grow straight. You can make your own potting soil or buy it at the store. The main thing to remember is that it should be light, well-drained, and contain nutrients. A soil mixture consisting of turf, peat, sand, humus, taken in equal parts, is suitable.A drainage layer should be laid at the bottom of the pot, which will prevent the accumulation of excess moisture, and hence the rotting of the seedlings.
Each seed is placed in a separate container so that a pick is not required, during which there is a risk of damaging the roots. If the seeds are placed in one large pot, shallow furrows are made in the soil. Seeds are laid at a distance of 2 cm from each other. After planting, the seed is covered with a layer of earth and the crops are moistened with a spray bottle. The plantings are covered with foil to create a greenhouse. In the future, caring for gatsania after planting the seeds will consist in airing the mini-greenhouse and moistening the earthy coma. The film is removed immediately after germination.
Young plants are fed 1 time in 10 days with mineral fertilizer. They carefully monitor the state of the earthen coma and irrigate as the soil dries out. The seedlings are kept in a room with a temperature of 20 - 25 degrees.
Before planting in open ground, gardeners carry out a procedure for hardening young plants so that they successfully take root and are not damaged as a result of temperature extremes.
Hardening begins gradually. At first, the plants are kept in a room with an open window, but without allowing a draft. Then they are transferred to a balcony or veranda for several days. Some gardeners harden the plants outdoors, leaving them under a canopy for several hours, gradually increasing the residence time to 24 hours.
After hardening, the seedlings are planted on a site that is pre-fertilized with humus and moistened. A drainage layer is laid at the bottom of the planting pits. Bushes are planted at a distance of 30 cm from each other. If the seedlings were grown in peat pots, they are placed in the hole with them. Otherwise, before removing the plant from the pot, the soil is moistened, so as not to damage roots and only after that they carefully take out the seedling from the container along with a lump of earth.
After planting gatsaniya, the hole is covered with soil, tamped, and watered the flower.
The following selection of photos demonstrates how gatsania seedlings are grown from seeds, what containers and other necessary equipment are required:
Planting and caring for gazania
After the end of the last frosts and the establishment of warm days, you can start planting gazania in open ground. It is better to choose a place for flower beds that is well lit, a heat-loving African guest is not afraid of direct sunlight, she easily tolerates drought. The soil should be fertile and nutritious, well drained. Gatsania planting is carried out by following these steps:
- At a distance of 20 cm from one another, holes are made in which it will be easy to place pots with seedlings.
- Plants are placed in the wells along with the pots. If the seedlings were nevertheless grown in a common container, then young plants are removed from them using a long garden spatula and digging in the root along with a clod of earth so as not to damage it.
- After planting, the plants are watered.
- The space around the seedling is mulched.
Transplanting gazania into open ground
After gatsaniya takes root in the open field, it will easily tolerate a drop in temperature down to −5 ° C. In cloudy weather and at night, the flowers are covered with a film, and in the morning and in sunny weather they should be opened.
Watering the plant requires moderate, only after the soil dries out. After watering, the soil is loosened and weeded, covering with mulch. When deciding how to feed gatsania for abundant flowering, it is better to opt for specialized fertilizers for flowering plants. The procedure is carried out approximately 1-2 times a month.
Note! To achieve rapid bud formation and abundant flowering, wilted flowers are removed from the bushes. An annual plant after flowering and with the onset of cold days must be cut and burned to destroy the pests that have settled on it
You can save the flower until next spring by digging up the bushes and planting them in pots.It is necessary to store gatsaniya at a temperature of about 10 ° C in winter. The room must be bright. Plants are rarely watered, only after the soil has completely dried out. In spring, gatsania flowers are planted in a flower bed and their shoots are cut in half.
An annual plant after flowering and with the onset of cold days must be cut and burned in order to destroy the pests that have settled on it. You can save the flower until next spring by digging up the bushes and planting them in pots. It is necessary to store gatsaniya in winter at a temperature of about 10 ° C. The room must be bright. Plants are rarely watered, only after the soil has completely dried out. In spring, gatsania flowers are planted in a flower bed and their shoots are cut in half.
The collection of gazania seeds is carried out by putting on specially prepared gauze bags on flowers that have just begun to fade, otherwise the ripe seeds will scatter from the gusts of wind.
For your information! It makes no sense to collect seeds of hybrid varieties, as they lose their species characteristics.
Growing gazania flowers as a perennial, you must observe all the same conditions of care. In the fall, gatsania can be dug up and brought into the house. By creating suitable conditions, 14-hour lighting and a temperature of 22-25 ° C, you can not only preserve the plant, but also achieve its flowering in winter.
Gazania in a pot
Gazania flowers: growing, care, conservation as a perennial
Also, long-term gating during cultivation and care in the conditions of Russian winters can be preserved by transferring it to a closed room, for example, to a basement. In the spring, the plant is returned to the heated soil, observing the planting conditions described above. Towards the end of winter, the plant is propagated by division and transplanted into new land. Next, the pots are moved to a warmer and brighter room, starting to water more often in order to gradually wake up the perennial from hibernation.
How to care?
Caring for gazania is a simple matter. This is one of the most picky garden plants to care for. The whole care process comes down to regular feeding and rare watering procedures.
Watering
Gazania has excellent drought tolerance and can even withstand prolonged heat without problems. Despite this, these plants need moisture to form bright and large buds.
In the case of gating, the lack of regular watering is considered safer than excess water. This plant does not tolerate stagnation of moisture - in such conditions, the root system of the plant can rot, and waterlogging itself will lead to the development of dangerous fungal diseases.
Ideally, watering gazania is carried out only in arid regions or in summer - in such cases, the gardener should constantly monitor the condition of the soil in the plant's trunk circle so that it never completely dries out. This usually means no more than 3 abundant waterings per month. If there is a prolonged absence of rain on the site, then watering can be carried out even daily, however, in this case, a drainage layer is organized in the holes to remove moisture.
During watering, the soil is loosened near gazania - this will allow moisture to quickly absorb into the soil and reach the roots. The loosening process also removes all weeds that can interfere with plant growth and suck nutritious juices from the soil.
Fertilizer
Top dressing is necessary for these flowers for abundant flowering, but the amount and regularity of fertilization depends on the fertility of the soil in the area where gazania is planted. If your site has a depleted and infertile soil, then fertilizing should be applied once every 2-3 weeks, but if the soil is nutritious and rich in vitamins, you can feed the flowers no more than 1 time in a month and a half.
Gardeners are advised to fertilize gassing with mineral or complex fertilizers at the rate of 20-25 grams of fertilizer per 1 square meter of soil. It is best to carry out top dressing after watering, so that the fertilizer is quickly absorbed into the soil and reaches the roots.
Pruning
Gazan pruning is done every spring (usually in early March) to preserve buds and reduce the number of side green shoots. Usually, all gazania sprouts are subject to pruning - with the help of disinfected scissors, the shoots are cut to a height of 5 cm above the ground.
Wintering
Despite the fact that gazania is considered a perennial plant, its flowers are not able to withstand prolonged frosts and sudden temperature fluctuations. For the winter, this garden culture is usually dug up and placed in containers for storage at home. The next planting in open ground is carried out next spring - when the soil warms up and the nights become warmer.
When growing this flower at home, no additional effort is made for a painless wintering.
general description
Before you learn about all the features of growing, you need to understand what it is about. It is difficult to imagine a description of the gatsania flower without a photo, so they will be presented in the article below.
So, gatsaniya is an annual or perennial plant that does not reach a height of more than thirty centimeters. Gazania has basal leaves that are collected in a rosette, the stem is rather short, and in some cases it is completely absent. Leaves can be of two shades: gray-green and dark green. Quite dense, have a varied shape, covered with thick silvery hairs, which are located only on the inside of the leaf plate. These villi are very necessary for the plant, because they can protect it from the cold and retain moisture for a certain time if it is dry time.
Features of caring for gatsania when grown in the open field
Location. Gatsania has its own characteristics, for example, it is photophilous, therefore, choosing an open area in the garden for planting it, the gardener will definitely not be mistaken. This culture reacts well to sunlight, even direct rays will not harm it, on the contrary, it will bloom violently and delight with bright greenery.
The soil. Prefers all nutritious, well-drained garden soils. If the soil on the site is poor, it should be enriched, that is, organic fertilizer should be applied during digging.
Watering. Many inexperienced gardeners are interested in how to care for gatsania in the garden during dry, hot periods, whether it is necessary to increase the number of waterings. In fact, frequent watering of this crop is not necessary, since it is drought-resistant. In a dry, hot summer in the absence of rain, the bush should be watered every other day. Otherwise, it is enough to water the plant 3 times a month. After watering, be sure to loosen the area near the bush so that oxygen penetrates to the roots.
Top dressing. Caring for gatsania in the garden also includes regular fertilizing, especially if fertilizer was not applied during the preparation of the site for planting, you will need to add it several times during the season. Before budding begins, top dressing with full mineral fertilizer is necessary, it is especially effective in liquid form. After that, you need to feed the plant a second time after 2 - 3 weeks and a third time after the same period of time. A site with fertile soil should be fertilized once a month from July to September.
Shelter for the winter. The plant is not only drought-resistant, but also quite cold-resistant. Withstands temperature drops down to -5 - -7 ° С. It can be grown in regions with a mild warm climate as a perennial.
In middle latitudes, those who began to plant a flower, the question remains relevant, how to keep gating in winter, as much as possible? Experienced gardeners manage to save annual varieties until next season. To do this, in the fall, at the end of flowering, these specimens are dug up, transplanted into large deep containers and transferred to a cool, well-lit room with a temperature of 9-11 degrees, supplementary lighting is used if necessary.Care during this period should be to moisten the soil as it dries. In the spring, with the onset of warm days, the stems are shortened by ½, after which the flower is again planted on the site.
Another care. Faded baskets are immediately removed to preserve the well-groomed appearance of the bush and the formation of new buds.
Having created optimal conditions for growing gatsania flowers in the open field, the gardener does not have to worry about her well-being, the bush will delight with the beauty and brightness of the buds for a long time.
Origin and names
photo of gatsania
Many people ask gazania or gatsaniya what is the correct name for the flower? You should know and remember that both names are correct. Among the people, it is also called African chamomile. After all, it originates in Mozambique, a hot and exotic country, from where it was brought to the territory of Europe, and later nicknamed “Nomad from Mozambique”.
Europeans have their own name for this flower, which sounds like "Mittagsgold" or "midday gold". She received the second name due to the fact that her petals open at the zenith of half a day.
If you take proper care of the midday sun, it will delight you with its lush bloom for a long time.
Astrovids include a wide variety of representatives. Among them, it is worth noting the unusual and mesmerizing beauty of gazania, which belongs to this family. Agree that it is a more "improved" copy of the garden aster. This is one of the most spectacular plants that are found among the many representatives of the asteraceae. As a rule, they belong to Asteraceae perennials.
In nature, except for Mozambique, it is found in the vast territories of Africa and Australia.
Gazania flower description photo
Distinctive feature! As soon as clouds appear in the sky or the sun sets over the horizon, the shy woman hides the petals in the buds.
motley gazania
The midday sun is a low plant that reaches no higher than 30 cm. At the roots there is a so-called rosette, from which leaves immediately grow. Some of the representatives have a stem, but only they have a very small one. The edges of the green foliage are jagged and come in a wide variety of shapes. The lower part of the dense leaves has silvery funnels that perfectly retain moisture, and also help fight cloudy and cold days.
Thanks to the taproot, which goes deep into the soil throughout its life, gazania is able to extract water from the soil.
Flowering begins in mid-summer and ends with the onset of the first light frosts. Sometimes there are flowering bushes, even in spite of the snow that has fallen. This feature is inherent in varieties with villi that protect them from slight cold weather. The formation of peduncles (25 cm) occurs in the outlet.
Each of the inflorescences lives no more than 3 weeks. There are about 6-9 baskets on the bush, which open alternately, which allows you to enjoy flowers for about 3.5 months. In the baskets, reed flowers are collected, located at the edges, the central part is decorated with tubular flowers in which seedlings are formed.
African chamomile gazania has a wide variety of shades that vary from white to deep red. With the help of dark spots that adorn the petals, the flowers look quite unusual and unforgettably beautiful. They are located at the base and form an original pattern that resembles a peacock's tail.
As soon as the buds wilt, be sure to cut them back to allow new buds to bloom.
Care features
In order for gatsania to grow well and please with its appearance, it is necessary to choose the right place for planting, namely: sunny and with well-drained soil. This flower is quite thermophilic, but it tolerates frosts up to minus 5-7 degrees. This flower needs moderate watering.After this procedure is carried out, you need to loosen the surface of the soil and at the same time remove all weeds. In order for the flowering to be more abundant and duty, it is simply necessary to remove in time those inflorescences-baskets that have begun to wither. It will be good if you mulch the surface of the soil. This will help to significantly reduce the number of waterings as well as weeding. For normal development, such flowers need timely feeding. In the event that you planted gatsania in a soil saturated with nutrients, then it will need to be fed once every 4–6 weeks, for this, a complete mineral fertilizer is used (for 1 m2, they take from 20 to 25 grams of a substance). If the plants were planted in poor rocky soil, then feeding will have to be done 1 time in 15-30 days.
Bloom
The flowering of such a plant is observed in June – October. After opening, each inflorescence-basket withers only after 20 days. When it is dark or cloudy outside, the reed flowers curl up, while they cover the yellow core, consisting of tubular flowers. In some cases, growers may complain that the plant does not bloom. The most common reasons for this phenomenon are: little light, excessive watering, or late planting of seedlings in open soil. If everything is done correctly and on time, then the flowering will be long, lush and spectacular.
Diseases and pests
The one who has grown such a flower knows that it is not susceptible to disease. However, if gatsania is grown in conditions that are not suitable for it, then it weakens, and it may well be affected by gray rot. In this case, the affected bushes should be dug up and destroyed, and the remaining ones should be sprayed with a solution of phytosporin.
Of the pests for the plant, aphids, snails and spider mites are dangerous. The snails are removed from the bushes by picking them up by hand. To cope with a spider mite, they use: actellik, ditox or fufanon, and to destroy aphids they use: acarin, fitoverm, inta-vir.
