Petunias are common flowers that adorn urban flower beds, loggias, balconies and summer cottages. Florists love them for their abundant blooms throughout the summer. Ready-made planting material is expensive, so the skill of growing these unpretentious flowers in general will never be superfluous.
Preparation of capacity and soil for seedlings
Prepare a box or plastic container with holes in the bottom. Form a drainage from expanded clay or small gravel. Fill with earth to the top, as Petunia seeds do not require deepening. There are no special requirements to the composition of the soil, you can buy a universal mixture for seedlings in a flower shop. However, you can cook it yourself by taking 2 parts of turf land, 1 part peat and adding some wood ash and large river sand. Pour boiling water over the resulting soil mixture in order to get rid of larvae of pests and fungal spores.
By the way, experienced flower growers recommend sowing petunia seeds in peat tablets, this greatly facilitates the transplantation of a flower — a flower bed or planter — to a permanent "place of residence", because it is a transplant that is a vulnerable point for growing petunia, sprouts are difficult to take root, many of them die. In one tablet, you can sow 2-3 seeds (if you have no shortage of seeds) so that later less developed shoots can be removed, leaving the strongest and most viable.
Sowing seeds
Petunia seeds should be sown on seedlings in February. Then, with favorable development and growth, it will bloom by the beginning of summer (i.e. after 70-90 days). The February landing requires additional illumination in the form of fluorescent lamps. Otherwise, you will get extremely weak seedlings and very poor flowering of adult plants.
Active seed germination requires a certain amount of light, so apply surface sowing without shelter with a layer of soil. Sow the seeds on the surface of the previously moistened earth and cover the box (pot) with glass or a transparent plastic wrap, thus forming a miniature greenhouse. In order for the seeds to germinate safely, it is necessary to create a temperature in the greenhouse of at least + 25 ° C. Periodically open the glass (film) for a few minutes in order to infuse fresh air to the seeds and to prevent mold.
Watering
Before seed germination and during newly-hatched leaflets (cotyledons), water only with a spray gun set to spray mode. Watering from a watering can or bottle can erode the seeds, damage the extremely weak roots of small shoots. In addition, watering from a watering can is difficult to normalize, and even slight stagnation of water in a box (pot) can provoke rotting of seeds, and subsequently thin and vulnerable roots.
Seedling Care
2 weeks after the emergence of the sprouts, remove the glass (film) from the box. Now the seedlings should be kept at an air temperature of +16 to 20 ° C. When sprouts form 2-3 real leaflets, you can transplant them into separate small pots or plastic cups, one plant each. A transplant to a more spacious box will also work, ensuring a distance between individual sprouts of 10-12 cm.
Try to transplant each plant with an earthen lump to prevent damage to the root system, which is still very weak at this stage. By the way, if after a transplant you do not see growth for a long time (sometimes within a month), i.e. the appearance of new leaflets, do not despair - this is normal. Just all the forces of the sprouts are given to the formation and strengthening of the root system. As petunias grow, temper them, i.e. if possible, take it out in sunny weather to the street - to the courtyard, to the balcony or loggia.
Open transplant
When warm weather is established outside, transplant already grown plants with open ground to a permanent place. Requirements for the soil: it must be sufficiently loose and nutritious, not contain solid impurities. When transplanting, take care of the earthen lump formed around the root system of the sprout. It is not advisable that it breaks up, petunias react very painfully to damage to the roots and may die in the very first days after transplantation, or they will "come to their senses" for a long time without developing.
You can fertilize the soil in which you planted petunias, sprinkled with peat or humus on top. Further care for the petunias is extremely simple and consists of regular watering every other day or every day, depending on the weather and the "place of residence" of the flowers - they grow on a sunny plot or on a shaded one. Abundant flowering will be your reward for your care and patience.
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