Ampoule bacopa is part of the plantain family. In addition to her, here are included more than a hundred species of various plants. The birthplace of this plant is considered South America and the Canary Islands. However, it can also be found in the tropics of Asia, Australia and Africa. She came to home and gardens in 1993. Now it is actively used as an ampel plant, as well as as a groundcover. Grown in temperate climates. It has a second name - suter.
Description
Thin and creeping stems spread along the ground and can reach a length of 60 centimeters, but they grow very wide in width and can occupy large tracts of land. The leaves are quite small, can have an elliptical or ovoid shape. They have various shades: from saturated green to olive. The hue of the flowers and their shape varies depending on the selected species. Flowers can be of different sizes, bell-shaped or tubular, but the variety of shades is simply impossible to list: lilac, red, purple, white, blue and many others.
Bacopa blooms for a long time, but in certain periods. For the first time, after a blooming flowering, there is a lull, but then the souther is again covered with small flowers and pleases the gardener's eye. You can not call the plant a perennial, but it is very simple to propagate it. You can grow bacopa not only in the garden, but also at home.
Sowing seeds
For bacopa ampelous growing from seeds is the primary way to propagate the plant. This is a fairly simple method of growing, in addition, bags with high-quality planting material can be purchased at any flower shop that is in your city.
To grow seedlings, seeds are planted already in March, but first you need to prepare the soil. To do this, take a peat substrate, which, like seeds, can be bought in a store, it is placed in the oven for four hours at a temperature of one hundred degrees. After this, the substrate must be cooled by placing it in a container with transparent walls. Before planting the seeds, the soil must be moistened, it is best to do this by spraying from a spray bottle. Do not deepen the seeds, but just slightly press them to the ground. After that, the container must be covered with a thick film or glass. Place the future seedlings in a place where the air temperature will not drop below twenty degrees, and also ensure the entry of sunlight.
The first shoots may appear in two weeks, and the entire germination period may be delayed for a month.
Seedling Care
When you figured out the cultivation of ampelous bacopa seeds (when to sow and how), you need to move on to seedlings, which are already ready for transplanting. This process is no more complicated than seed germination. The main thing is that with the advent of the first shoots, make sure that the substrate does not dry out. In addition, carefully, using a wooden stick, loosen the soil around the seedlings. When three true leaflets appear on the seedlings, you need to make the first pick and plant them in different peat pots, the diameter of which should not be less than or more than five centimeters.
When you see that the seedlings are accustomed to a new place, you need to purchase mineral fertilizer in the store and feed the flowers. Only dilute the supplement at half the dose of what is written in the instructions. Seedlings should be in a room where the air temperature ranges from 22 to 26 degrees.
The seedlings that you plan to take to the garden require a second pick. Prepare the pots even larger, and when planting, deepen the seedlings by one knot. This is to strengthen sustainability. After a week, the seedlings should fully take root in a new pot, it is ready for re-feeding. Now mineral fertilizer needs to be bred in a full dose. Remember that it should contain a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. And also you need to prepare a flower for life on the street. For this purpose, in the daytime, the air temperature is reduced to 15 degrees, and in the evening and at night even to 13.
Remember that the second pick is required only for those seedlings, which then go to the street. Indoor bacopa can immediately be planted in an ordinary pot or a cache-pot.
Disembarkation time
You can plant a bacopa in the open ground in the middle of May, when you will be sure that the frosts will not return. But before that you need to harden the plant. To this end, pots with seedlings are taken out to the street and left for some time. Every day you need to increase the amount of time spent by the seedlings in the open air. This period must be increased until the seedlings spend all 24 hours on the street.
Landing technology
For planting seedlings, choose such places on your site where there will be a lot of sunlight and there will be practically no wind, and even more so drafts. Of course, you can plant a plant in a place where there is a lot of shade, but in this case you do not need to expect lush flowering from it. In general, with a small amount of sunlight, the bacopa loses its decorative effect. Its shoots are very drawn out in search of the sun's rays, and the flowers are practically absent.
If you listen to what gardeners say about bakop ampel reviews, then it is completely unpretentious in choosing the soil. However, it is better to choose fertile soil with a high content of humus. Before planting, calculate the distance between the holes, it should be from 10 to 25 centimeters from one plant to another. Since Suthera is a tall plant, she needs a lot of space.
Garden care
As for flower care, no new actions are planned for gardeners here. The flower needs timely watering, loosening the earth, weeding, top dressing, as well as pruning. And do not forget about protection from various pests and diseases. Facilitates the care of bacopa that it does not need to remove wilted flowers, the plant can self-clean. Watering is considered an important point, since it must be frequent and plentiful. Especially soil moisture should be monitored if it rains very rarely in summer and air temperature is kept at high levels. Every time after watering, try to loosen the soil in the root zone so as not to clog the air passages. Care should also be taken during weeding. It is better if you will remove weeds with your hands, and not use any garden tools.
Young plants are especially in need of regular feeding. To do this, you need to use familiar mineral fertilizers, which are recommended to alternate with organic. Experienced gardeners are advised to make solutions from bird droppings or mullein. You need to fertilize from the beginning of spring to September. In winter, any fertilizer will be inappropriate.
Home Care
The care and growing of the bakopy of an ampel house is practically no different from the garden option. The substrate in which the seedlings will be placed should include:
- Two parts of humus.
- Two pieces of sand.
- One piece of garden land.
- One part of peat.
Do not forget that when planting a plant in a pot, drainage should be placed at the bottom. This is especially important for the suter. Since its delicate roots are prone to decay, drainage should be especially thick. And in the process of growing, make sure that the soil is not waterlogged. Make it your rule to water a flower often, but not much, not rarely, but a lot. And of course, do not forget to loosen the earth after watering. Once every two weeks you need to add mineral fertilizer to the water. Try so that the solution does not fall on the leaves or flowers, it must be poured directly under the root.
Where to place
You know about planting an ampelos bacopa and caring for it, now you need to think about where the flower will be placed. At home, as in the garden, the bacopa should be located on the sunny side so that light always falls on its leaves. In the shade, a flower can also be placed, but in this case, the flowering period, which may simply not occur, is called into question. Suthera easily tolerates low temperatures and can withstand even a decrease to minus five. Thanks to this, it can be kept from early spring to mid-autumn on the veranda, balcony and other open areas of your home.
Pruning
In order to form lush bushes, gardeners periodically pinch the tops of shoots. And you also need to trim those lashes that have become too long. The tops that have been cut can be used to propagate the plant. Still pruning is carried out when the lower part of the flower begins to lignify, and flowering is sharply reduced. In this situation, the shoots need to be shortened by a third. The most suitable time for this procedure is considered autumn.
Pests and diseases
If you cannot provide the right care for your bacopa, then be prepared for the plant to be affected by gray rot or such types of fungi as mold or soot. Such diseases are especially common among those flowers that were originally too densely planted. If you find that Suthera was struck by fungal diseases, then immediately thin out its crown, and also buy a fungicidal preparation. The plant must be treated at least twice every two weeks.
In addition to diseases, there are insects that are especially dangerous for bacopa, or rather:
- aphid;
- whitefly;
- spider mites.
All of them settle on the plant and drink its cellular juice. Acaricidal drugs can enter into the fight against them. Processing should be carried out two or three times.
Other breeding methods
Ampelic flowers of bacopa can not only propagate by seed. You can also use cuttings. To do this, you need to trim the tops by ten centimeters. For rooting, they are placed in soil, which consists of equal parts of sand and vermiculite. The shank is placed five millimeters in depth so that one knot is underground. It is from it that the roots will begin to sprout. And from the second node, which remains above the surface of the earth, new real leaves will grow.
The roots grow quite quickly, after two or three weeks, but this process can be accelerated. For this, the cut-off part is immersed in a special solution, the action of which is aimed at stimulating the growth of roots. It is advisable to cover the planted cuttings with a transparent cap to create a greenhouse effect. Place the pot in a well-lit place, but be sure to protect it from direct sunlight.
Make sure that the soil is well moistened during rooting. And when the leaves begin to appear, you need to pinch the plant, so that in the future a beautiful lush bush will form from it. Engaging in cuttings is better from January to April. Cuttings also take root well in late summer, when pruning of adult plants and planting material is carried out. Suther is less capricious white, but other species will not be able to take root without the help of special preparations. So, we see that the cultivation of ampelous bacopa from seeds has good reviews, but with the same positive result, you can cuttings. For some, this method may even seem a lot easier than seed.