Schizanthus (Schizanthus)

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Schisanthus is an attractive ornamental plant that can beautify any garden. This flower is grown outdoors as an annual crop. Schizanthus is often confused with orchids due to their great external similarity. However, the plant also resembles the shape of butterflies, as well as their color

However, orchids are known to be difficult crops to care for. With regard to the schizanthus, this question is much simpler. The plant has many other popular names - for example, poor man's orchid or schizanthus.

How is schizanthus planted and propagated?

Reproduction of the schizanthus is carried out by seedlings. One gram of planting material, as a rule, includes up to two thousand seeds. After sowing, the flowering of the culture can be expected after the first two weeks. However, the plant is often grown in greenhouse conditions. In this case, seeds should be planted on seedlings at any time from late autumn to April. Planting the plant at intervals of three weeks or a month ensures continuous flowering.

Sowing schizanthus must be carried out in specially prepared boxes. A soil mixture is placed in them, the components of which are clay and peat. The size of the seeds is very tiny, due to which they can be sprinkled with earth, but such a procedure can also be avoided. After planting, the containers with flowers must be transferred to a warm place in a shaded area of the room. There, the surface of the box must be covered with glass material or plastic wrap. After seven days, when the seeds give the first shoots, it is necessary to replace the glass or film with another material in the form of agrofibre. Then the humidity inside the mini-greenhouse will always be the same and stable. It is recommended to spray schizanthus with a fungicidal solution. This is how the root system of the plant rot is prevented.

After the formation of the first two leaves on the shoots, a procedure called picking is required. Then, after another thirty days have passed, the flowers are transferred by the transfer method to other separate pots. As the schizanthus grows, the containers should be moved away from each other so that the bushes do not come into contact with leaves and stems.

During the entire cultivation time, special attention must be paid to the timely and correct implementation of watering. This manipulation should be done in moderation so that the soil in the pots is not too dry or too wet. From the first procedures, it is required to add fertilizing components to soft water. This flower is picky about the nutritional value of the soil. Fourteen days before planting seedlings on open beds, it is required to harden the sprouts. Then the planted flowers will tolerate extreme heat or precipitation well. As soon as the risk of frost can be excluded, schizanthus can be planted in the garden, maintaining a distance of twenty-five centimeters between plant specimens.

There is a possibility of planting crops in open beds immediately with the help of seeds. They do it in May. The holes are fifteen centimeters wide and twenty-five centimeters long. Young shoots of schizanthus need to be pinched, so that later they branch better. The main stem needs to be tied to the support element.

How to care for a schizanthus?

When choosing a place for planting a schizanthus, special attention should be paid to sunny and well-lit areas. In semi-shaded areas, there is a threat of pulling out the shoots of the culture, due to which they can lose their decorative properties. The composition of the soil also plays an important role. It must have drainage. If the nutrient components of the schizanthus are lacking, then it will bloom very poorly and little. For this reason, even before planting, rotted manure or compost should be added to the soil.

If a florist plans to plant a schizanthus as an indoor flower, then ordinary turf soil can be preferred in the form of soil. Watering too often can cause a fungal infection to form on the plant. But overdrying does not bode well for the flower. Therefore, the soil should always be moderately moist. In a situation when the schizanthus bush has withered, and the root system has completely dried out, it will not be possible to restore the previous appearance of the plant. In the worst case, the culture will die altogether.