Planting gatsania seedlings: growing and care
Gatsania (gazania) has a very exotic appearance, while the plant is very similar to garden daisies. The flower is quite resistant to any climate, grows well and blooms even in heat and drought. A specific feature of gatsania is the ratio of the diameter of the inflorescence, reaching 10-12 cm, to the length of its peduncle, which can vary from 20 to 25 cm, depending on the variety and variety.
If you want to surprise your neighbors, be sure to grow gatsania in your garden this year. Below you will find all the information on when and how to plant, as well as care for gatsania seedlings before planting in open ground.
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Planting gatsania on seedlings: terms, the necessary container and soil, step by step instructions
Landing dates in 2021
If you want to get blooming gatsania by summer, then you need to plant seeds for seedlings already late February - early March... However, you can shift the dates of planting gatsania for seedlings to the second half of March, especially if you do not have the opportunity to purchase special phytolamps to increase daylight hours, although at home you can always use ordinary LED ones. In this case, gatsania will bloom in late June - early July. This is explained by from the first shoots to the moment of flowering gatsaniya, as a rule, must pass the order 100 days.
According to the lunar calendar in 2021
Choosing the optimal date for sowing seeds can help you moon calendar.
So, favorable days for sowing gazania in 2021, according to the lunar calendar, are:
- in February - 1-8, 10-20, 25-29;
- in March - 2-8, 10-14, 29-31;
- in April - 1, 2, 5-7, 9, 17-20, 24, 25;
- in May - 2-6, 15-17, 20, 21, 25-31;
- in June - 2-4, 7-9, 11-14, 16-19.
Unfavorable days, according to the lunar calendar, for 2021 for sowing gatsania, the following dates are (days of the Full Moon and New moons, as well as the period when the Moon is in Aquarius, because it is a barren and dry sign -italicized):
- in February -10-11, 27;
- in March -9-10, 13, 28;
- in April -5-6, 12, 27;
- in May -2-4, 11, 26, 30-31;
- in June -10, 24, 26-27.
Container and soil for planting
When choosing a container for planting, you can choose any one you like: be it a large plastic container or small pots. If you are a handyman (or a jack of all trades), then make a temporary "house" for your seedlings from previously used containers for milk or kefir.
Do not forget make drain holes!
As always, you can either buy any suitable universal soil for seedlings in the store, or make a nutritious substrate with your own hands from improvised components that you still have to go and look for, or even purchase separately.
To plant gatsania seeds on seedlings, you can independently prepare the soil from the following components:
- 4 parts of peat (deoxidized);
- 1 part compost;
- 1 part sand.
Compost is added exclusively optional, this is not a strict requirement.
1-2 weeks before planting the seeds, a self-prepared soil mixture, as well as the soil bought in the store, is necessary disinfect in one of the ways.
Planting gatsania seeds
Plant gatsania seedlings according to the following step-by-step instructions, and your seedlings will definitely sprout:
- Before planting, the soil must be compacted and thoroughly moistened.
- Since the seeds of gatsania are quite large, it is convenient to sow them one at a time every 2 cm.
- Then the seedlings must be covered with a small layer of earth or vermiculite (3-5 mm).
- Now you need to lightly compact the soil and pour from a spray bottle.
- The last stage is covering with a film, shoe cover or cover.
That's it, now you can put the landing container in a warm place where the air temperature fluctuates between 20-22 degrees.
Video: planting gatsania seeds for seedlings
Gazania seedling care
Since gatsania seedlings can germinate after 2-4 days, it is necessary to check the container with crops every day in order to remove the shelter in time and move the container to a less warm place where the air temperature does not rise above 20 degrees, and even better if it is in the range is from 17 to 19, otherwise the seedlings may clash. If on the 7th day the shoots still do not appear, then it is better to play it safe and sow gatzania in an additional container.
By the way! The maximum waiting period for the appearance of gatsania seedlings is 2 weeks.
After the seeds hatch and stretch slightly, as a rule, you need to add a little earth (loose peat) to the seedlings.
Video: caring for gatsania after landing
Picking
Like many other plants, the timing of gazania picking is suitable when the flower has 2 real (not cotyledonous) leaves.
By the way! Despite the fact that gatsania has long roots, it tolerates a pick very well.
It is best to transplant young flower sprouts into separate containers 9 centimeters high and wide.
The transplant substrate is the same as the original sowing.
We make a hole for planting in accordance with the length of the roots of the plant, while the roots do not need to be shortened or bent.
So that the plants are well removed from the soil, lightly pour water over the "former house" of gatsania.
After transplanting, it is necessary to make abundant watering of the dived seedlings.
After 14 days from the moment of picking, it is recommended to feed the gatsania with any mineral or organic fertilizer for flower seedlings. Naturally, in the form of a liquid solution.
Video: picking gatsania seedlings
When and how to plant gatsania in open ground
Without waiting for the threat of return frosts to pass, that is, already starting from the first days of April, you can begin the important process of hardening the seedlings of gatsania. At +5 degrees of heat and above, containers with seedlings are transferred to the street, placing in partial shade, or a loggia protected from direct sunlight.
The optimal time for planting gassing in open ground is the beginning of May. If even at night the temperature suddenly drops, then hardened seedlings can easily withstand sub-zero temperatures up to 5-7 degrees. This explains the fact that seasoned growers consider gatsania to be simple enough for growing a plant.
There are 2 main conditions that must be considered when choosing a planting site for gatsania: 1) good solar accessibility, the flower is very light-loving and drought-resistant, and 2) no dampness and stagnant moisture. Gatsania is a very hardy perennial or annual (depending on whether you store it in the winter). She does not need nutritious soil, therefore, air sandy loams, as well as light loams, are excellent for growing a flower. It is better to plant gatsanias in high flower beds and flower beds with borders, from which rainwater instantly leaves.
Before transferring the seedlings to the soil, it is recommended to add a complete mineral fertilizer to the soil (for example, nitroammofoska, 20-30 grams per 1 square meter of the flower bed).
Planting seedlings of gatsania is usually carried out entirely with a clod of earth. To do this, watering the plant is stopped a day before the transplant. This will ensure that the lump is slightly lagging behind the walls of the pot.
As a rule, gatsania is planted with bushes at a distance of 20 cm from each other.
It remains only to water abundantly the recently transplanted seedlings of gatsaniya.
Care for gatsania after landing in open ground
In the first 14-21 days after planting in the ground, irrigation of gatsania should be carried out regularly, especially in dry weather without rain.
Gatsania is not demanding in post-plant care in the open field. The flower has long enough roots that help it to easily endure for weeks without watering, and the so-called "fur coat" plays the role of effective protection of foliage from unexpected temperature jumps: sunny and hot summers, as well as chilly nights of gating transfers with a bang.
Advice! To make your flower bed look neat, and gatsania bloom effectively, you should trim withered flowers, so that new buds form in their place more quickly, as well as perform monthly feeding liquid fertilizers for street flowers.
Gatsania care also includes periodic weeding and loosening soil from weeds.
Gatsania usually begins to bloom with the first summer days and continues until the thermometer needle drops below 5 degrees of frost, i.e. from about June to November. We repeat, the first small frosts of gatsaniya endure with ease.
If your gatsania are experiencing problems with flowering, then this means only one thing: most likely, you are violating the agrotechnical requirements for caring for the flower, for example, you planted it in a too dark place on the site or you water it too often so that the water stagnates in the flower bed.
How to keep gating in winter
Gatsania cannot hibernate in the open field, despite the fact that it is a perennial, because in our climate, it can be said to grow like an annual.Therefore, in the fall it must be transplanted into a container, stored throughout the winter, and in the spring it must be planted again in open ground.
In order to keep gating in winter, it is necessary that the air temperature in the room does not exceed plus 10 degrees and does not fall below minus 5-8 degrees. A covered balcony or loggia may be suitable as such a place.
Video: transplanting gazania from the garden to the pots in October
By the way! If you grow gazania in flowerpots, then after the onset of severe frosts, you just need to transfer it to the house. Very comfortably.
Video: wintering gazania in an apartment on the windowsill
Caring for gatsania in winter is quite simple: it needs to be carefully watered once every 10 days. The soil in the pot should be slightly damp.
This should continue until April. In mid-spring, gating should be moved to a brighter place and the frequency of watering should be increased. It will be very good if you feed her with some kind of fertilizer for indoor flowers, then gatsania will soon begin to bloom.
As soon as the plant blooms, it will need to be hardened, and then planted in open ground.
Keep in mind that if you grow gatsania as a perennial, it will start to grow rapidly, and you will hardly want to repeat this procedure every year, so it is much easier to grow it from seedlings.
On a note! It so happened that of all the annuals, gatsaniya is best suited for landscaping the gravestones of the dead. Most of us want to decorate the graves of loved ones with beautiful flowers as early as possible, preferably by Easter. Unfortunately, most of the summer houses, as a rule, turn black with the onset of frost, and they need to be replaced, which cannot be said about gatsaniya, which is not afraid of light frosts.
When growing seedlings of gatsania and caring for them in the open field, you need to remember only two main points: the plant is sufficiently drought-resistant so that it can be watered no more than 1 time a week and sun-lovingly (give it the "warmest" place in the garden), then the flower will delight all summer and most of autumn.
Video: growing and caring for gazania - from sowing seeds for seedlings to planting in open ground