If you want to diversify your garden bed, this article is for you. After all, today I will tell you how to grow seedlings of tender eustoma. A beautiful ornamental plant with attractive flowers in pastel shades will definitely not leave anyone indifferent. Despite its southern origin, eustoma takes root perfectly in the climatic conditions of our country.
We grow seedlings
At home, eustoma seedlings can be grown in two popular ways. It all depends on your preferences and experience:
- Growing with peat tablets. The method is perfect for beginner gardeners who first encountered this procedure. Peat tablets allow you to achieve up to 20% higher germination of seed and facilitate the further maintenance of young plants. Peat tablets, of course, are not a budget pleasure, but the result is worth it, especially if you do not plan to grow large volumes of seedlings. To place peat tablets, you will need a suitable container. Remember that after soaking, the tablets tend to increase in volume up to eight times.
- If you are already an experienced gardener and you are talking about a large volume of seeds, it is better to give preference to traditional cultivation in plastic containers with a lid.
Planting scheme in peat tablets
If you prefer the first method, follow these rules:
- Distribute the required amount of dry tablets in the selected container. The quantity must be chosen according to the number of seeds prepared for sowing.
- To maintain the necessary humidity at the bottom of the container, you must first arrange a layer of vermiculite and only then lay out the tablets.
- Slowly pour a little settled warm water into the tablet holder. Keep adding liquid until the tablets stop increasing in size.
- Excess liquid will need to be removed, but a very small amount can be left.
- Pre-prepared seeds with tweezers should be placed in tablets, slightly pressing.
- It is not necessary to sprinkle the seeds.
- The container with tablets must be covered with polycarbonate. In principle, any other transparent material can be used.
- For a container with tablets, you will need to find a well-lit place with a temperature regime of 21 to 24 degrees.
Sowing in containers
If the usual method is chosen for growing seedlings, the procedure will be as follows:
- First of all, we need a high-quality nutrient substrate. It can be purchased ready-made at any garden center. For our purposes, soil for indoor violets is perfect.
- Before sowing seeds, a little soil must be passed through a sieve.
- We fill the prepared containers with a soil mixture to half the height, after which we carefully tamp.
- In order for the eustoma to germinate safely, it needs quite a lot of moisture, so the device of drainage holes can be skipped.
- The soil mixture must be well moistened, and pour half a centimeter of sifted soil on top and compact again.
- We moisten the new layer again and only after that we lay out the seeds, deepening with light pressure.
- After the seeds are distributed, moisten again and close the containers with lids so that about two centimeters of free space remain to the surface of the soil.
If you have consistently completed all the points, you can expect the first shoots about three weeks after sowing. Under particularly favorable conditions, this process can be reduced to ten days.
Growing eustoma seedlings is a rather laborious process, but the result will justify the effort.
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