2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Petunia is one of the most popular garden plants, because with its help it will not be difficult to instantly decorate any flower garden, front garden or flower bed! However, in order for this beauty to invariably delight the eyes with its abundant flowering, it needs competent and regular care, which includes not only proper lighting and watering, but also systematic feeding! What are the main nuances of feeding beautiful petunias, and what should you pay attention to first of all?
Important nuances
The most important thing to always remember is that it is better to underfeed beautiful flowers than overfeed them! Excessive zeal in this important matter is also completely useless! In addition, there is one more very important and obligatory condition: in each period of petunias' life, they need fertilizers intended for these periods, that is, you should not use only those fertilizers that were found in the nearest store or are available for feeding. at the moment at hand! It is better to purchase all fertilizers necessary for each stage in advance!
It does not hurt to know that petunias need regular feeding throughout the growing season, while the most preferred feeding options will be instant or liquid forms of fertilizers. And root feeding of petunias is carried out exclusively on damp ground - at least an hour before the start of fertilization, the plants should first be watered with clean water!
When do feeding usually start?
The first feeding can be started at least after one and a half to two weeks after the grown seedlings change their place of residence (in other words, after diving into separate containers). First, the sprouts must properly adapt to the new place, because picking and any other manipulations are also a certain stress for the plants. If the seedlings grow and develop in the now popular peat tablets, you can start feeding with the appearance of the second true leaf.
The main features of dressings before flowering
As soon as a second true leaf appears on the tiny seedlings, petunias are immediately systematically fed. As a rule, this is done once a week, while root dressing, in which the petunias are watered with a fertilizer solution directly under the root, is recommended to alternate with foliar, that is, with the spraying of nutrient solutions also over plant leaves. And since the most important task for petunias during this period is to grow shoots and form the lush bushes as much as possible, the top dressing must certainly contain nitrogen (you can buy ready-made dressings "Ideal" or "Agricola for seedlings"). Such dressings are carried out before the first buds appear on the plants - in most cases, by this time, the seedlings have already been planted in permanent places: in balcony boxes, hanging baskets or flower beds.
Also, about a week after planting seedlings in permanent places, it makes sense to carry out foliar treatments with "Epin" or "Zircon" - these drugs will contribute to a much better rooting of seedlings, as well as significantly increase its resistance to stress and various diseases. And at about the same time, petunias begin to be fed with some kind of phosphorus-potassium drug.
Top dressing during flowering
And during this period, the main task is to take care of the long-term and abundant flowering of petunias, which is why it is recommended to resort to the help of dressings with a high content of potassium and phosphorus ("Uniflor Bud", "Etisso", "Garden of Miracles", "Fertika Lux", "Master " etc.). These dressings are usually also applied once a week, but some gardeners practice a completely different approach: they apply dressings every two or three days, and sometimes even with each watering, but dilute the preparations for more frequent dressings three or even four times weaker … Many gardeners note that most petunias respond much better to this particular feeding regime!
And, of course, do not forget that everything is fine in moderation - you should not be too zealous with feeding, since in this case you still cannot get flowers with a diameter of half a meter, and you can very easily harm petunias! But moderate and competently applied top dressing can work the most real miracles!
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