Cyclamen is a beautiful flower with bright and catchy flowers, unusual in their structure. Of course, this flower can be purchased in the store already beautiful and decorated with an abundant bouquet of inflorescences and buds. But it will be more interesting to grow a cyclamen with your own hands at home from seeds, although this is a completely difficult task.
But you can cope with everything if you study all the nuances and approach in detail the issue of the selection of seed. In addition, with this flower, one should not expect quick victories and flowering can be expected only after a year's period, which will take place in painstaking care of this plant.
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Where is the best place to buy cyclamen seeds?
If there is a desire to grow a beautiful and healthy flower, then initially you need to pay attention to varietal seed of this plant... Purchasing seeds from a reliable supplier is a guarantee that, in the end, exactly the plant that is indicated on the package will grow. It will be a shame to spend so much time and effort on growing an incomprehensible flower that suddenly appears in a pot instead of a cyclamen. In addition, the germination rate of seed from a renowned manufacturer is very high and reaches eighty percent.
And this means that it is better to purchase seeds for planting cyclamen for growing it at home in specialized stores that you have confidence in. And in no case should you buy seed from some new and unfamiliar suppliers, about which there are no positive reviews yet.
How to collect seeds from homemade cyclamens?
If one cyclamen is already growing at home, then you can independently collect seeds from it and from them already grow a new, independent plant. But in order for seeds to form, it is necessary to manipulate pollination.
How to carry out pollination to get seeds from a cyclamen flower:
Using a brush, you need to transfer pollen from one flower to another.- Flowers should be of different varieties for best results.
- Pollination is best done in the morning.
- To consolidate the result, carry out the pollination procedure several times in a row.
- Each pollination process must end with the application of fertilizer (potassium sulfate).
If all pollination conditions were met, then when the flowering process will end seed pods will appear instead of budswhich must be handled carefully. They cannot be allowed to burst. They need to be ripped off and wrapped in a napkin. The box will open itself, and the cyclamen seeds necessary for growing at home will burst out.
How to prepare and sow seeds?
Planting cyclamen seeds begins with the fact that you need to purchase or prepare all the material that may be useful when growing these flowers.
You need to prepare:
- Soil (the composition should include peat and leafy soil or vermiculite and peat in equal parts).
- A vessel with drainage holes.
- Drainage (polystyrene or expanded clay).
A drainage layer is poured into the vessel, and then prepared soil is poured.
To ensure quick emergence of healthy plants, flower growers have developed several techniques with which seeds are processed before planting. A beginner cyclamen lover can divide the seed into equal parts and try both methods to find the right one.
Option number 1
Seed material soaked in cold water For a three days. After this time, you need to dissolve three drops of any dishwashing detergent in a glass of water and pour this solution over the seeds.
In this form, you need to hold the seeds for a few more days, but every day, changing the solution. In this case, the water should not be warm, so as not to cause the decay process.
Option number 2
The second method is to treat the seed with special preparations. It can be the usual potassium permanganate, "Epin" or "Zircon".
Potassium permanganate must be diluted to a slightly pink color, a stronger solution can damage the seeds. Other drugs diluted with three hundred milliliters of water, three drops.
This seed treatment method is very fast because the soaking lasts no more than sixteen hours.
Now, after soaking procedures, it will be easier to grow from seeds, because according to experts, even the oldest seeds germinate after treatment with Zircon and Epin.
The treated seed is planted in a prepared container with soil. Seeds can be planted both in a dug trench and laid out on a substrate, sprinkled with earth. The main thing is to observe the rule that each seed should not lie closer than two centimeters and further than three centimeters from the other. And the sowing depth should be two centimeters.
How to care for cyclamen crops?
It is possible to grow cyclamen from planting material if the prepared containers are covered with polyethylene and placed in a warm room. The temperature should not rise higher than twenty degrees, since with such heat these seeds there is a period of rest.
We must not forget to ventilate the crops every day. An impromptu greenhouse must be opened for at least ten minutes.
If all the conditions were met, then in a month the first shoots will sprout from the seeds. But not all varieties of cyclamen have such germination. For example, Kiss and Apple may take six months to sprout.
The first shoots will mean that it is time to transfer the flowers to a cooler place. Seedlings sprouting from seeds are purple-pink bores. A tuber will grow from each shoot, in turn, a shoot with the first leaf is formed from it.
It so happens that the first sheet is covered with a skin that does not want to be removed. This indicates that the flower lacks moisture. So that the growth process of cyclamen does not stop, you need to carefully remove leathery formation with tweezers... To do this, the plant must be prepared by moistening the formation from a spray bottle and letting it soften for at least thirty minutes. But do not forget about watering, by increasing it, the plant will be able to independently get rid of the skin covering it.
The growth of young cyclamen seedlings after the first shoots will occur unnoticed by others. This is due to the fact that the plant grows a root system, and the growth of the flower above the ground is suspended.
You can transplant a flower into a permanent pot when the seedling has bushes with two or even stirrups of leaves. It will be under the most favorable circumstances in three months.
How to care for young cyclamen?
Transplanting a young plant into a permanent pot? you need to make sure that it is good drainage system... Cyclamens love abundant watering, but they will not tolerate stagnant water in their pot.
When the flower has reached the transplant period, it is transferred from a temporary container to a permanent pot.The plant is covered with earth in such a way that the entire root system is covered with it. If you transplant an adult plant, then you need to submerge the tuber only halfway into the ground.
Six months after transplanting, the cyclamen needs to be fed with fertilizers. For this purpose, any feeding for flowering plants is suitable. But experts recommend diluting all fertilizers not according to the parameters indicated on the package, but only using half dose of solution.
A young plant does not like drought and prefers constant watering. This maintenance regime must be observed for up to a year, after which the cyclamen becomes an adult plant and watering must be reduced.
How to propagate cyclamen with tubers?
Growing cyclamen from seeds is not the only type of propagation for these flowers. There is also reproduction by tubers, which, although dangerous due to the possible death of the plant, is possible.
Cultivation is carried out by dividing the tuber when the flower is at rest. For cyclamen, this period occurs in spring. The tuber is cut in such a way that on each piece had an active kidney, from which a new plant can form. In order to avoid infection and further death of the tuber, the sections must be treated with ash.
The divided tuber is planted in a light soil substrate in such a way that the living kidney is not covered with earth. This means that the tuber is only half buried in the ground. It is necessary to care for such seedlings as for an adult plant, watering sparingly.
Now we figured out all the stages of growing a flower and it became clear how to grow a cyclamen at home from seeds. You can start practical exercises and grow this unusual flower yourself.
