Growing thuja from seeds

Conifers growing under the window in the garden are not only beautiful, but also elegant and very impressive. You can try growing evergreen thuja yourself. It is durable and will live for several decades, delighting with its beauty. Thuja belongs to phytoncidal plants that are able to heal the surrounding air. It is drought-resistant and patiently tolerates waterlogging, winter-hardy and not afraid of hot summer, photophilous and at the same time grows well in the shade.

Content:

• Methods for planting thuja from seeds
• Growing thuja by cuttings
• What is the care of thuja

To grow thuyu It is not at all difficult, as it may seem at first. In the nursery, you can buy ready-made planting material. But it is much more interesting to grow thuja on your own, starting from a tiny seed or a small cutting, and then watch how it grows and gains strength.

Methods for planting thuja from seeds

Thuja seeds are extracted from cones. Woody buds from the mother plant can be harvested from September to December. They need to be carefully laid out in a dry place with diffused light. The bumps will dry out, open up and give us their seeds. Sowing thuja seeds is carried out in different ways.

1. You can sow seeds in shallow clay indoor plant pots. But they do this not immediately, but after they have previously lie down for a day on a damp litter or wet sand. The seeds should not be buried deep, it is better to lightly sprinkle them with earth, needles or sawdust.

Any soil is suitable for thuja, but it is better that it be interspersed with peat and humus. A good drainage layer must be laid on the bottom of the pot. Water the seeds as the soil dries up in the pot.

With proper care, the first timid shoots appear in a month. Seedling material is planted in the ground in a permanent place in the spring with the onset of warm days. The distance between individual plants should be about 3 meters.

2. You can sow thuja seeds in another way. After collecting the cones and removing the seeds from them, you need to put them in a bag and store them in a cool room until the real snow falls.

So we waited for the end of autumn, fluffy snow covered the ground. At this time, you can take out the bags with our seeds, spread them on the ground and sprinkle them with a large layer of snow. There they will winter until spring.

With the onset of spring, the seeds are sown on the ridges, keeping a distance of 10 cm between the holes. The seeds are lightly sprinkled with earth, and on top - with coniferous sawdust. The ridges moisturize well. With this method of planting seeds, the germination rate reaches almost 90%.

After 33-35 days, seedlings appear that protect from the bright spring sun. Plants will grow on the ridges for 3 years. Throughout the entire period, the ground under them is loosened, mulched and moistened as needed. In the 4th year, grown plants can be planted in a permanent place.

Growing thuja by cuttings

Many types of thuja can be propagated green or already lignified cuttings... Cuttings begin at the end of April, until the buds swell or at the end of June after the end of the growth of young shoots.

Thuja cuttings must be carried out correctly. To do this, it is necessary to cut woody shoots up to 40 cm long, and cut into cuttings so that each cutting has a heel (a piece of the mother's bark). The harvested cuttings are treated with heteroauxin, kept for 12 hours and planted in a nursery to a depth of 2-2.5 cm.Before planting, the soil is mixed with peat and sand, well moistened.

The main condition for the fertile growth of cuttings is a humid microclimate without waterlogging of the soil.

After rooting, the cuttings are hardened. The nursery is often opened, ventilated, and watering reduce. For the winter, young plants are covered with fallen leaves or spruce branches, and in severe frosts - with a transparent film. In the spring, the insulation layer is removed, and the plants are weeded well.

What is the care of thuja

Thuja care throughout the growth period consists in loosening and moistening the soil. Weeds are constantly removed around young seedlings, and soil is dug up around adult plants.

Twice a year, in spring and late autumn, plants need feed... It is better to use organic fertilizers, nitrogen is also possible, but in small quantities.

To achieve a beautiful form of thuja, pruning... In the first year of life, young plants are pruned only if the shoots are growing strongly. A real decorative haircut is carried out at the age of 2 years, in the middle of autumn and summer with the end of the growth of shoots.

To make the plant look beautiful and have a certain shape, the haircut must be done correctly. For such work, special pruning shears are used, with which they cut off the upper part of the annual shoots of thuja from above and from the sides.

By planting thuja in different variations, you can create an interesting design in your garden. You can use year-round green plants as a backdrop or create a green hedge out of them.