Balsam, or Roly wet - a popular plant grown not only in room conditions, but also in garden areas. Flowers are valued for a beautiful, plentiful, long flowering. There are many different types of plants. To acquire a new variety, you can sow seeds, and you can propagate balsamic cuttings and seeds. In the first method, varietal properties are preserved, and with seed propagation, you can get a plant out of variety.
Plant care
Balsam grows in any bright place, but feels best on the southeastern and eastern windowsills. In direct sunlight, it cannot develop normally, but it will not grow in a completely dark corner. In the warm season, balsams propagated by cuttings will feel great on terraces, balconies, loggias. They can be planted in the garden, placed in hanging planters in the gazebo, on the terrace. They are ideally combined with begonias, geraniums, petunias.
Watering, temperature
The most successful is the propagation of balsam by cuttings in the warm season. In winter, the plant is at rest, and it will take a long time to wait for the root system to build up, up to a month or longer.
When caring for young plants, watering should be intensified: balsam likes water in large quantities. In the room, plants are watered every other day. It is advisable that the pot is in a deep pan. All excess water from irrigation will go into it, and then the flower will absorb it all.
Plants grown outdoors are watered 1-2 times a day. It is important to ensure that the earthen lump is always wet. If it suddenly dries, the propagated balsamic cuttings will weaken and may die.
Feeding Features
Balsamine refers to those plants that bloom for a long time. In order for a flower to please its beauty from spring to autumn, it is necessary to feed it. Fertilizers are applied once every two weeks. The alternation of nitrogen and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers works well. In winter, fertilizers are applied once a month.
Transfer
Balsamins are perennials. Florists transplant them 1-2 times a year. However, it is best to renew the plant once every two years. To propagate balsam, cuttings at home take strong healthy shoots that have at least three leaf nodes.
When transplanting a plant, it is worth remembering several rules that will help to grow a beautiful bush. For transplantation, they take a pot that will be 1-3 cm larger than the previous one - the root system must completely fit into it. Do not take too much capacity, since the flower will not bloom until its root system fills the entire soil volume. This is taken into account when propagating balsam by cuttings at home - first, young plants are planted in small pots, then transplanted into larger containers. You can plant several cuttings in one pot. They can be of one or different varieties.
Priming
Balzamin loves light soil that can quickly be saturated with moisture, but without stagnation of water. If it is oversaturated with mineral fertilizers, nitrogen, then this will lead to abundant growth of green mass and poor flowering, or the plant will refuse to bloom at all. Therefore, when planting, they use either purchased soil intended for balsamins, or they prepare the composition on their own. For it, they take two parts of turf land, humus, leaf land, one part of peat and sand.
Topping
To get a beautiful lush bush, you need to pinch the plant, but this does not apply to dwarf varieties. Pinching allows you to form a beautiful, lush bush with lots of flowers.
To keep its appearance, it is necessary to constantly pinch. During the procedure, faded flowers, yellow and dry leaves are removed.
Propagation by cuttings
Propagation by cuttings of room balsam allows preserving all the varietal qualities of the mother plant, which is not always possible with seed propagation.
Propagating a plant is simple. To do this, choose a healthy plant. The top of a young twig about eight centimeters long is cut off from him, but less can be, the main thing is that there should be at least three internodes on it. The first pair of leaves is removed from the bottom: roots will grow in this place.
Prepared cuttings can be rooted in two ways: in water or in the ground. In the first case, it is necessary to draw so much water into the tank so that the water is where the roots will grow. Leaves should not be immersed in water. Capacity with cuttings put in a bright place. Rooting takes from one week to a month, depending on the type of flower and season. After the appearance of the roots, the stalk is transplanted into the ground. He is provided with abundant watering, fertilizing is made. In one and a half to two months, the first buds will appear.
Balsamins can be propagated by direct planting of cuttings in the ground. For this, the prepared twig is immersed in the ground for a third of the length. In those places where there were leaves, roots will appear, so it is important to immerse this place in the ground.
Cuttings planted immediately in the ground are placed under a film and placed in a bright place, but not in direct sunlight. In this way, they take root best in summer and spring, and rooting in autumn and winter is best done in water.
New Guinea Balsam
The preferred method of propagation of New Guinea Balsam is cuttings. But not so long ago it became possible to propagate the plant by seeds. When grown in this way, more stable immunity is observed in plants in the future.
Propagation by cuttings is carried out in the same way as described above, but in this species the root system grows more slowly than in other varieties.
After planting in the soil, the New Guinean balsamins do not need to form bushes - they perfectly branch themselves, forming beautiful lush caps.
Waller Balsamins
Waller's balsamins are a huge collection of beautiful plants with large flowers, unusual colors. They can be simple, terry, semi-double. Similar in color plants are formed into floral lines that are constantly updated with various new products.
In order to obtain all the qualities of the variety, to preserve its color, type and size of the flower, balsam is propagated by cuttings in water or soil. So you can save terry flowers, ampelous varieties. To grow such plants from seeds and at the same time leave the properties of the variety problematic.
An example for a difficult variety is the balsam Fiesta, which has double flowers and variegated leaves, as well as a wide variety of colors. It is not possible to get the same plant from seeds, therefore it is propagated only by the cuttings method. A little more useful about the reproduction of balsamins is presented in the video.
Garden Balsamins
In contrast to the propagation of New Guinean balsam by cuttings at home, it is easiest to obtain new types of garden plants from seeds, although for the safety of some specimens propagation is carried out by the cuttings method. The same method is used to obtain a large number of identical plants at minimum cost for seeds and their germination.
Seed propagation
Balsam can be propagated not only by cuttings, but also by seeds. Moreover, you can collect them yourself or buy seeds in the store. In the latter case, it is worth looking at the expiration date and taking into account that for the seeds of the plant can not maintain germination for a long time. For example, New Guinean balsamins retain their qualities for six months, and Waller balsamins for about eight months. Other varieties can germinate a year after the collection of seeds, but their germination will be about 50%.
Growing balsamins from seeds is recommended to start about a hundred days before the desired flowering date. The ideal time is March.
For planting seeds, soil is prepared from a mixture of peat, sand and vermiculite, compost, taken in equal proportions. The mixture must be treated against pests and diseases. Prepared soil is placed in containers; transparent plastic breakfast containers with a lid are ideal. Seeds are laid out over moist soil. Top it is recommended to sprinkle lightly with vermiculite or sand. At an air temperature of 22-24 degrees, seedlings will appear in two to three weeks. A transplant on their own capacities is carried out when the third true leaflet appears.
You can propagate balsamins with your seeds. To do this, collect seed boxes, dry and sow the seeds in the same way as purchased.