Cyclamen is a popular plant that growers are increasingly growing at home. The most popular varieties are European and Persian. Room culture captivates with amazing flowers that will become a real decoration of the room. The Persian variety of cyclamen pleases with abundant flowering in the winter months, which is undoubtedly an advantage. Below is information that will help you become familiar with the features of growing and caring for flowers.
Description
Cyclamen (scum / alpine violet) is considered the most spectacular member of the Mirsinovy family. Specialists distinguish about 20 varieties of perennial. A herbaceous plant is distributed in the territory of Northeast Africa, Somalia, Iran and Spain.
According to legend, cyclamen brings happiness to its owner
The leaf plates painted in dark green tones are naturally endowed with a heart-shaped form. The foliage is located on petioles, the length of which reaches 30 cm. On the surface of the green mass, you can see a beautiful pattern of a silver-gray hue.
Flowers of a perennial herbaceous culture are distinguished by their pointedness, curvature and amazing fringed petals, creating the impression of a flock of exotic butterflies. Flowers can be painted in various shades:
- white
- maroon;
- purple
- reds;
- dark red;
- pink.
The flowering period lasts for 90-105 days. Depending on which variety is grown and what indoor conditions have been created for it, flowering begins to please the owner either in October or closer to winter.
Is it possible to grow cyclamen from seeds at home
It’s quite difficult to grow cyclamen / sackcloth at home. The plant needs to create favorable conditions for growth and development. Specialists in the field of floriculture have developed a number of recommendations that will help grow alpine violets from seeds.
- Planting stock needs preplanting.
- It is best to purchase soil for planting seeds in a specialized store.
- Tanks with crops need to be put on a well-lit window sill near adult bushes.
- Potted soil should be systematically moistened.
Adhering to the recommendations listed above, you can grow crap from seeds yourself.
Where to get the seeds, how they look
Seeds for planting are best purchased at a gardening store. Seed germination will depend not only on the producer, but also on the particular batch.
The packaging material should reflect information about the manufacturer, the name of the variety of perennial herbaceous crops, and a photograph of cyclamen during flowering should be printed. Having become acquainted with this information, you can understand how high-quality the product is and recognize the variety of the gibberish.
Note! Cyclamen from seeds at home can bloom less abundantly than those bushes that were purchased in the nursery.
Spectacular flowering culture
Artificial pollination method, how to get seeds from another flower
Flowers are difficult to reproduce at home. However, most gardeners still resort to dividing the tuber. Also, indoor culture can be propagated by seed. A cyclamen from seeds will not soon please its owner with flowering.
To get high-quality seed material of alpine violets, it is worth using cross-pollination. To do this, you need a soft brush with which pollen is taken from the flowers of some bushes and transferred to the stigmas of the pistils of others. If there is only one cyclamen bush in the house, then pollen is transferred from one flower to the stigma of another. The procedure should be repeated at least 3 times.
Cross pollination is best done in the morning on a clear sunny day. This will allow for the rapid formation of ovaries. During this period, it is advisable to feed the plants. For this purpose, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are suitable, for which you need to combine:
- 5 g of superphosphate;
- 2.5 g of potassium sulfate;
- 5 liters of water.
After completing manual pollination, it is worth waiting for the flowering period to complete and collect the boxes with the formed seeds. Seed can be colored in:
- dark brown tones;
- brown-orange hues.
Each seed looks like a small deflated ball that has lost its shape. Cyclamen seeds are found in bud formations that look like round containers. They arise in places where there were flowers.
Important! It is unacceptable to carry out the drying of the seed material after collection, as this may adversely affect germination.
When to start sowing
When propagating cyclamen seeds at home, it is worth choosing the right timing for planting. Floriculture experts believe that it is best to plant seeds in late winter or early March.
If containers with planting will not be carried out in a cool room, then the timing of sowing seed material may not be respected. However, given the specificity of the herbaceous culture, it is still worthwhile to land, not deviating much from the timelines recommended by the specialist.
Cyclamens: seed cultivation and home care
How to grow cyclamen at home so that it pleases with long and plentiful flowering? It is important not only to properly plant the seed material in the ground, but also to properly care for the seedlings.
Preparation of soil and material
Before proceeding to the planting of seeds, it is worthwhile to prepare the seeds. For this purpose, you need to fill the planting material with 5% sugar solution. Pop-up seeds without regret can be thrown away, and those that have landed on the surface of the bottom of the container will be required for planting. After the seeds have been extracted from the sugar solution, they must be kept for 24 hours in one of the means:
- Epin's solution;
- potassium permanganate;
- Zircon
Before planting cyclamen, it is worth filling the container with light soil. If necessary, you can independently prepare the substrate by combining a small part of the sheet soil and peat or vermiculite and peat. Also, the substrate can be prepared from:
- sheet earth - humus of wood sheet plates;
- peat or peat soil;
- Clay-free sand.
The sand is thoroughly washed and cleaned of unnecessary components such as silt or pieces of clay, shells. Sand dilutes the soil and prevents it from caking, thereby facilitating the penetration of oxygen into the soil.
Note! Growing cyclamen from seeds is a very fascinating process, which even inexperienced gardeners can handle if desired.
Before pouring the soil mixture into the container, you should first calcine it.
Each of the components of the soil mixture must be mixed in a reasonable amount. Too much of a component or fertilizer can adversely affect the structure of seeds and reduce the chances of emergence.
It is unacceptable to add components to the soil that continue to support the process of decay. Against this background, the process of subsurface heat evolution begins, due to which the seeds can “burn out”.
Seeds
The capacity for planting should not be voluminous, as plants need frequent transplants. When planting seed in plastic pots, you should take care in advance to make holes on the surface of the bottom of the container with hot nails. To this end, the nail is held for about 30 seconds over the fire. You can hold it with pliers, which will make it possible to avoid burns. The bottom of the pot is pierced by a hot nail in several places.
A drainage layer is poured onto the bottom surface, the thickness of which reaches 2 cm. Foam or expanded clay is perfect as drainage. After that, a layer of earthen mixture (about 7 cm) is poured into the pot. The soil is abundantly moistened.
Landing of seed material in the ground
The following is a step-by-step process of planting seeds of crap.
- Cyclamen seed must be sown on the surface of moist soil.
- A small layer of soil must be poured over the planting material.
- In order for the seeds to germinate, it is necessary to put a pot on the windowsill near adult bushes of alpine violets.
- The container is covered with a layer of film (opaque). The temperature in the room should be within + 22 ... +25 degrees. Compliance with the temperature regime will accelerate the process of seed germination. When the temperature drops below +18 degrees, the planting material will begin to rot in the ground.
- The film should be systematically removed from the pot for ventilation, and the soil mixture should be moistened.
- Shoots will soon appear, which are small nodules, from which loops of shoots with the presence of petals unfold. The loops are painted in bright purple tones.
Note! It is important to control the state of the upper layer of the earth - it should not dry out. That is why flower growers recommend watering every day, but use less water. At the same time, stagnation of water should be avoided.
How to plant cyclamen in another way? Some gardeners recommend, after planting the seeds in the soil mixture, to transfer the pot to a shaded room, which practically does not receive sunlight.
When shoots appear, problems can arise. The peel of the seeds may not be removed, which does not allow the leaf to fully unfold. As a rule, after a certain period of time, the problem resolves by itself. In some cases, assistance may be required. For this purpose, it will be necessary to cover the sprouts with a moistened cotton pad for 60-90 minutes. After this, the seed is well moistened. Now you can remove the peel with tweezers without damaging the sprout.
Cyclamen sprouts
Features seedlings care
Alpine violet seeds are characterized by slow germination. It is worth patience and systematically moisten the soil mixture, remove the film for the purpose of ventilation.
Before emergence, it is worth watering the soil from the sprayer. The soil after the wetting procedure should be moist, but not wet.
Note! To avoid rotting of tubers from waterlogging, you can fill in the water for irrigation in the pan. The temperature of the irrigation fluid should be room temperature.
The emergence of seedlings should be expected on 30-45 days after the seeds have been planted. As soon as the seedlings appear, the film is removed, and the pot is exposed to the place most illuminated by the sun's rays in the apartment. The temperature can be reduced to 20 degrees.
As soon as 3 leaf plates have time to form on the seedlings, it is worth raking them in separate containers. For transplanting seedlings, it is worth using a self-prepared soil mixture, which consists of:
- sheet soil;
- peat;
- a small amount of sand.
After the picking, it is recommended to sprinkle the tubers with a layer of soil. After 7 days, you can add flower fertilizer to the soil. Florists recommend for dressing use:
- 0.2% solution of ammonium sulfate;
- 0.1% potassium nitrate.
After several months of growing seedlings, you can plant each bush in a separate pot. It will take 14-16 months after the seeds have been sown to wait for the first flowering.
Recommendations regarding the timing of the dive
Experts recommend adhering to the rules of diving, which are presented below.
- Conducting 1 pick should be carried out at the moment when 2-3 sheet plate is formed on the bushes. In one pot you can place several seedlings at once.
- The second pick can be carried out after 6 months. Seedlings are placed in separate containers filled with loose soil.
Note! During the second pick, it is worth leaving the third part of the tuber underground.
Alpine violet needs systematic watering
Possible problems when growing a flower
Cyclamen is a decorative culture that prefers moderation in everything. The increased temperature in the room, the use of cold or too hot water for irrigation, overdried air can provoke the development of various diseases.
- Against the background of improper watering and too low a room temperature, the flowering period can be significantly reduced.
- Too high temperature in the room and waterlogging of the soil, causes the leaves to rot. Also, ignoring the temperature regime can cause thrips of flowers. The upper part of the leaf blades acquires gray-brown shades.
- Against the background of high humidity, perennial can be affected by gray rot.
- Defeat bushes with ticks. The invasion of parasites is indicated by the curled extreme parts of the foliage.
Important! If the alpine violet is damaged by parasites, it is worthwhile to treat the plants with insecticides and transfer the flower pots for a while to a cool room.
Bright bloom
Cyclamen is an amazing plant that delights its owner with abundant and very bright flowering. Using the step-by-step process of growing alpine violets from seeds, you can independently grow bushes at home.
