How to grow geranium from seeds

Once geranium was very common in the poor areas of Paris, ennobled the atmosphere of a squalid dwelling and received the name: "the flower of the French poor." Today, the popularity of this amazing indoor plant is off scale throughout European territory, and a geranium stalk costs no less than an orchid twig. Therefore, it makes sense to grow geraniums yourself from the seeds of a plant, which is done quite simply.

Content:

• What should you expect?
• How to process seeds?
• Where to start?
• How to care for seedlings?
• What conditions should be created?
• What else can you advise?

What should you expect?

By purchasing geranium seed and sowing it for seedlings, you can expect the most incredible result, because the properties of the variety are usually lost with such a reproduction of this plant. But new options are obtained, the decorative qualities of which can both unexpectedly please and unpleasantly upset.

If you feel in yourself the spirit of a researcher-breeder, with a sinking heart striving to make small discoveries without fear of the unknown, then it's time to buy geranium seeds. For a conservative who does not want to take risks, cut from the mother plant will do. cuttings, which are guaranteed to literally repeat its original characteristics.

Expensive hybrid pelargonium seeds with great pictures on the packages promise the compliance of the source material with the declared qualities, but whether it will be achieved can be checked. The color variety of modern hybrid varieties is literally dazzling in the eyes, offering a two-tone color of inflorescences, as well as lilac, purple, yellow, but somehow traditional pink, white and red geraniums are more familiar and dearer.

How to process seeds?

Inexpensive geranium seeds, it is advisable to undergo additional processing, violating the integrity of their shell, in order to help get out of physiological dormancy. For this purpose, the seeds are immersed in hot water or actively rubbed with sand. Although it is not necessary to do this.

Growing geraniums from seeds is not very difficult. Geranium seeds germinate well, they germinate together.

But it makes sense to ask the question of how to grow geraniums from seeds. After all, each plant has its own individual characteristics and needs that you need to know about.

Where to start?

In order for your plants to bloom earlier, you can start planting geranium seeds as early as February.

Someone prefers to initially sow seeds in a common container, while someone will immediately choose individual containers for each seed. The choice is yours. From the common container, the sprouts will then need to be cut into separate pots, while those planted separately at once, the plants will subsequently require transplanting only 1 time to a permanent place.

The soil for planting, treat with a solution of potassium permanganate or hold it in a microwave oven for 5 minutes. This is necessary for soil disinfection. Then sow the seeds, cover the containers with foil or put them in a mini-greenhouse.

How to care for seedlings?

After about a month, the first two true leaves are already formed on the shoots. At this time, if you have planted all the seeds in one container, the sprouts must be opened.

Plants must be taught to the sun gradually.It is also worth considering the fact that a drop in temperature and abundant watering can destroy the sprouts. Geranium is prone to the blackleg putrefactive disease that can quickly kill plants.

Geranium seedlings bloom early enough, your seedling growing in a small cup may soon please with flowering.

For the summer, it is better to take geraniums to a loggia or balcony, they love fresh air and good lighting. They do not require special care further: water them as the earthen coma dries out, feed them with fertilizers for flowering plants during watering.

What conditions should be created?

I hope now, having learned how to grow geraniums from seeds, you will decorate your window sills, balconies and loggias with self-grown plants. Geranium is quite resistant and drought tolerant, relatively resistant to pests and diseases. A young plant grown from seeds acquires additional properties as a result of initial adaptation to the specific conditions already proposed.

Geranium can be used both indoors and outdoors in flower beds and hanging containers. You can admire the lush flowering until the frost.

Direct exposure to the bright midday sun is not desirable, so as not to remove then burnt leaves from the stems, but sufficient sunlight for abundant flowering is necessary.

What else can you advise?

You can sow geranium seeds at any time of the year, but a short daylight hours need to be extended with fluorescent lamps on average up to 15 hours per day. Deprived of a sufficient amount of light, the stems will stretch out, become thinner, the plants will not form flower buds.

To protect the seedlings from black leg disease, you need to periodically add a weak solution of potassium permanganate to the water. You can not spray geranium, watering, direct a stream of water strictly under the root, do not pour, but only slightly moisten the soil.

Do not hurry transplant plant in pots with a large volume: as practice has shown, geranium blooms more actively when the roots are cramped enough, but within reason, of course. It is better to take natural soil with the addition of sand and humus, which geraniums will like more than a peat mixture from a store with a slightly acidic reaction that is unpleasant for this plant.

To form a more lush geranium bush pinchusing cut shoots as propagation cuttings. When replanting seedlings grown from seeds, the sprouts must be held by the leaves so as not to damage the delicate and weak stems of the sprouts.