Plant lovers have long grown at home many decorative species that can turn an apartment or a house into a real flower garden. One of them is tuberous begonia, whose wintering is often an insurmountable difficulty for beginners.
Some theoretical information
To begin with, the dormancy period of these plants begins approximately from mid-November and runs until the end of February. In addition, the behavior of young and old flowers is very different.
So, young begonias, the tubers of which do not differ in large sizes, can be kept all winter in a cool room, periodically watered. If this is not done, then the risk of drying out the root system is high.
Another thing is a mature tuberous begonia, the wintering of which proceeds somewhat differently.
Wintering of mature begonias
If the tubers of the old plant have already reached the required size, then after the dying off of the shoots they are left for the whole winter in the same pot. In the case when begonias bloomed all summer in the open ground, after the vegetative part dies, they are dug up, placed in the dry sand or peat for the cold season.
In this case, the tuber begonia, whose wintering was successful, at the end of winter is simply removed from the sand for the germination stage.
This is done around March, when buds begin to sprout on the tubers. To do this, overwintered tubers are pressed into a slightly moist peat substrate. It is based on high-quality humus, peat land and calcined river sand.
If the tubers are bad ...
But all of the above applies only to cases when the quality of tubers is all right. What to do when they are too small and flabby, and the plant itself was grown in open ground? After all, this often happens if the summer was too hot and arid!
In this case, you have to tinker, otherwise the tuber begonia, whose wintering will fail, will simply die.
After digging up the “dried” tubers, they must be placed in a household refrigerator. Since they can begin to germinate, you will have to carefully remove the sprouts from time to time. Having contained the seed material until March, it can be safely planted in pots.
If you do everything right, you will get powerful and healthy begonias that will delight you with excellent flowering. As a rule, already in the second year they will form large and powerful tubers, with the storage of which there should not be any problems.
Care
But no wintering will help when even the most basic rules of agricultural technology are not respected! So
how to care for tuber
begonia ?
Remember that this plant does not tolerate open to all winds and too sunny areas. They are planted only in well-fertilized, suitably drained soil.
If it has a low pH, then liming is necessary. After the tubers are planted in the soil, its surface is mulched with humus and sprinkled with wood ash.
In no case should you fill them with water, it is preferable to carry out watering in the morning.
But nevertheless, the beauty of flowers and their health depends on how tuber begonia will be stored in winter.