Which of us does not remember grandmother's geranium? This flower is the embodiment of domestic warmth and coziness; it has been decorating apartments for many generations. Among the decorative flowering plants, there are very few representatives, so unpretentious as geraniums.
In winter, home care becomes a little more difficult, but you do not need to be an expert in floriculture to grow a beautiful plant. By the way, if you still don’t know, it’s called pelargonium correctly. And to be extremely precise, this is a genus of pelargonium, which unites about 250 species of plants of the Geranium family.
Geranium - a home healer
This beautiful flower used to be on the windowsill in every house, today it is quite difficult to meet it. Many do not like its specific smell, others prefer decorative foliage plants. In fact, having a pot of geraniums at home is very beneficial. Essential oils secreted by the leaves can create a natural barrier to pathogenic bacteria and viruses. But that's not all, gardeners know how difficult it is to treat your home garden when aphids attack it. Especially often these parasites rage in the cold season. Therefore, the real salvation is geranium in the winter. Home care is minimal for her, and when placed next to other flowers (such as fuchsia, which is often affected by aphids), it protects them.
Geranium conditions, temperature
Almost the whole year, the flower feels normal at the most ordinary room temperature. It does not require greenhouse conditions and is generally surprisingly unpretentious. A little more attention requires geraniums in the winter. Care at home for it requires a cooler mode of detention, approximately +10 degrees. It is optimal to take the pot with the plant into a cool room, if this is not possible, then you can safely get along with the windowsill, it always draws cold from the glass. The main thing is to make sure that the leaves do not touch the window.
It is especially important to comply with this condition if you are growing a royal geranium, known for its beautiful flowers. It is she who is very demanding on the conditions of winter maintenance, at a high temperature (+20 and above) the plant can lose all buds. Therefore, +10 degrees is the maximum (you can lower the temperature to +4), which accepts geraniums in winter. Home care also involves providing good lighting, so the basement is not suitable. If you place pots near the north window, then additional artificial lighting will be required. A separate issue is watering the plants in winter, but we will talk about this a little later.
Alternative content
For residents of the apartment is often an insoluble problem providing a cool room for your beloved pelargonium. Empirically, another method was invented. The plant overwinters in the room, as close to the windows as possible, and with the onset of spring, as soon as the air temperature rises to +2, begin to take out the pots on the balcony. First take out for 2 hours, and then gradually increase the time spent in the cold. This option will provide excellent flowering of geraniums. In principle, the plant is unpretentious, which means it can bloom without such tricks, but no one will give you a 100% guarantee.
Lighting conditions
Quite a few indoor plants love sunshine as much as geraniums. How to care for geraniums at home, you can understand intuitively, observing the state of the flower. Many sources provide information that it normally tolerates the shadow. Indeed, the plant will not die, but it will look very bad, and flowering will stop. Even the leaves in the shade become small, unlike the luxurious water lilies of a healthy flower. By rearranging the pots in bright sunlight, you can see that the pelargonium in the eyes turns into a luxurious, abundantly flowering plant.
This plant is not afraid of direct sunlight, so you can safely put it on the balcony for summer or plant it in open ground. In the fall, you can dig up a grown bush and put it back in the pot. Only the ivy pelargonium does not like direct sunlight, so it is better to shade it. But a beautifully blooming royal geranium will be grateful for sunbathing.
Watering plants
Now we will talk about how to water geraniums. You probably already know how to care for geraniums at home, because this plant is so unpretentious that you need to try very hard to ruin it. But to ensure rapid growth and flowering is impossible without observing a number of rules.
Pelargonium is very fond of sunlight and regular watering, while making sure that there is no excessive waterlogging of the soil. The easiest way to adjust this mechanism is to pick up a good light soil and drainage system. Stagnation of water at the roots leads to the death of plants, especially quickly this process proceeds in miniature forms.
Caring for geraniums in winter requires watering restrictions. It is necessary to ensure minimal soil moisture and to prevent drying out of the roots. Geraniums should not be sprayed even in the midst of summer. She loves dry air.
Plant nutrition
Like all decorative flowering plants, regular enrichment of the soil and indoor geraniums are in need of regular enrichment. Home care involves fertilizing from March to August. It should be remembered that a large amount of potassium and phosphorus is required for flowering, while an excess of nitrogen is detrimental to pelargonium. From its oversupply, geraniums can stop growing. With a lack of nutrients, geranium will suffer from leaf chlorosis. She does not tolerate fresh fertilizers (manure), so you should use complex preparations for flowering plants, which are available in large quantities.
It is not necessary to feed for four weeks after transplantation, as well as in the winter. The last, autumn, fertilizer application will provide the vegetative part of plants with everything necessary for growth until spring.
Transplantation
It is necessary to select the optimal size of the pot, as its small volume stimulates flowering. But if you see the roots that protrude through the drainage holes, then it's time to pick up the pot more. If the growth of a young plant occurs very quickly, then you have to transplant several times a year, while the season does not matter much. Each time a pot is required only 1.5 cm larger than the previous one. Plant the plant immediately in a large pot - doom it to disease. Clay pots are the best choice , but keep in mind that the earth in them dries faster.
Bush formation
Often people are disappointed when they grow an ugly plant with broken shapes. This is actually a feature of pelargonium to be reckoned with. Trimming regularly. If this is not done, the plant will stretch out and bloom less readily, in addition, uncut geraniums are prone to various diseases.
Zonal varieties are most in need of pruning, and it must be calculated that at least 3 months must pass from this procedure to flowering before a flower bud can be formed. They usually trim in the fall using sterile tools. Do not forget to ask friends who need indoor geraniums. Home care, reproduction are not complicated or burdensome, and just at the time of pruning, you can share the cuttings.
Plant propagation
As already mentioned, cuttings are used for this. Some gardeners recommend choosing a time for planting, namely August-September, but in fact, this is the procedure for planting young plants. In general, it is possible to plant throughout the year, an unpretentious geranium provides this opportunity. Minimum care for a plant such as geranium is required. At home, reproduction, flowering will pass without problems if you pay enough attention to your green friend. No special skills are required from you.
In order to grow a new flower, you need to take a fresh stalk 10-15 cm long. For the smallest varieties, a stalk about 2 cm long can be used. No more than 4 leaves are left on it and a couple of hours are allowed to lie in the open air to dry out. After that, they plant it in a small glass and put it in a warm and bright place for rooting. After about three weeks, the first roots will appear, after which it will be possible to transplant the young geranium into a more spacious pot.
Home Geranium Care , Disease and Treatment
Many diseases and parasites bypass the geranium side, but there are pests that do not care for its peculiar smell. Most often, whitefly settles in pelargonium. If there are few parasites, then the plant is treated with soapy water and covered with a film, but if the lesion is serious, then you will have to resort to chemicals, of which there are a lot. Appear on geraniums and spider mites. You can fight them only with the use of special drugs.
A fungal disease that is very common on this plant is the so-called black leg. It affects both young and adult plants, and the cause of the appearance is waterlogging and poor drainage system.
The plant grows poorly - what is the reason?
In some cases, gardener's mistakes cause plant diseases. If leaves fly around from the branches, the lower part of the geranium is exposed and flowering is delayed, then it most likely does not have enough light. A huge, lush bush with a complete absence of flowering is usually obtained with an excess of fertilizer. If the lower leaves turn yellow in geraniums, then you need to pay attention to watering. Surely it is irregular, or the soil is too sandy, quickly drying out. If the leaves dry and the watering is normal, then the air temperature may be too high.
To summarize
As you can see, caring for home geraniums is a snap. Diseases, reproduction, watering and fertilizing - which causes so many difficulties for gardeners when breeding capricious tropical flowers, is not a problem when growing pelargonium. Care is intuitively simple; medications for treatment are freely available for sale. The only moment that can cause some difficulty is trimming and forming a beautiful bush. For the first time it is better to resort to the help of an experienced grower.