How to wake up a gloxinia tuber. Gloxinia woke up ahead of time Why gloxinia does not wake up

Gloxinia is an indoor flowering tuberous plant with a pronounced dormant period.

The rest period of gloxinia lasts from one to five months, approximately from October to February-March. The terms of winter rest depend on the storage temperature and on the varietal characteristics of gloxinia. At a storage temperature above +15 degrees, gloxinia will wake up much faster than at a storage temperature of +12 to +15.

Gloxinia do not wake up at the same time, most of my tubers release young sprouts in February-March, and some can sleep until May. If the tuber did not sprout in May, it can be awakened. To do this, the pot in which the tuber was stored in the winter should be placed in a warm, lit place, watered with soil. It is very important not to fill the tuber during this period, because. in very wet soil, the tuber may rot. You can only slightly moisten the soil along the edge of the pot, avoiding water on the tuber. After watering, cover the pot with a transparent bag. If the tuber is healthy, then it usually germinates within 10-15 days.

You can wake up gloxinia tubers in another way:

Place the sleeping tuber in a transparent bag with a small amount of moist soil. Place the bag in a lighted place. After a while, the tuber releases young sprouts.

Awakened tubers must be transplanted into fresh nutrient soil.
The soil should be light, loose, breathable. I usually plant gloxinia tubers in purchased peat with the addition of perlite and vermiculite.

The tuber should not be deepened by more than 1 cm, it can only be lightly sprinkled with earth. It is not necessary to cover the young sprout with soil, it should remain on the surface.

At the beginning of growth, the plant is watered very sparingly, avoiding waterlogging of the soil. Watering is carried out along the edge of the pot, avoiding water on the tuber.

Sometimes on adult tubers during transplantation, small daughter nodules can be found. They can be carefully separated and planted in small cups. Thus, you can get a little baby that will bloom in the first year of life.

Choosing a pot for a gloxinia tuber.

The size of the pot mainly depends on the size of the gloxinia tuber. I plant small nodules about 1-2 cm in size in 100-gram plastic cups, for a medium tuber 3-4 cm in size, a 7-9 cm pot is suitable, and I plant adult tubers in pots whose diameter is 3-4 cm larger than the size of the tuber .

The beginning of February is the time when gloxinia wake up after rest. The history of this plant is as amazing as the plant itself. Very few people can not admire this beautiful flower.

It so happened that gloxinia was discovered twice. In nature, gloxinia live in the forests of Brazil and Peru. At one time, various researchers of flora were eager to go there, but at that time there was no unified classification of plants.

Back in 1785, a small plant was found in Brazil, which was named Gloxinia beautiful, in honor of the physician and naturalist Benjamin Patrick Gloksin. It is this plant that is the ancestor of all modern gloxinia.

Half a century later, in London, another Sinningia plant, close to gloxinia, was described, which was named after the chief botanist of the Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn, Wilhelm Sining.

Later, when the classification of plants was completed, it became known that gloxinia was more correctly attributed to the genus Sinningia and, according to the law of botanical nomenclature, to call the species of this genus in the same way - sinningia. However, gloxinia by that time had become a very common houseplant.

Thus, the plants that we grow in rooms and call gloxinia are actually called synningia. Gloxinia (synningia) - relatives of.

Sinningia is a tuberous plant, which is an adaptation to endure the dry season. The aerial part of the plant dies off. Nutrients accumulated during the growing season are spent at rest on the development of the buds of renewal buds, roots and aboveground organs.

Synningia leaves are large, densely pubescent, petioles are short and very juicy. The leaf arrangement is opposite, the stem is not shortened, as in other members of the family. Variegated cultivars are not yet known. Flowers solitary and axillary, large, brightly colored, bell-shaped. The petals are not completely fused. The color is mostly two-tone, almost always the outside of the petal is white, and the inside is painted in lilac, red, burgundy, or may be white. Recently, double flowers have become popular.

The tuber of an adult plant is large, the size of a large potato. The buds appear on the concave side, and the roots on the convex. The dormant period, as a rule, in our strip falls on the autumn-winter period. Plants bloom in October - November. Rest can vary in duration, this is due to the fact that in nature the drought comes every year at different times. When grown on heated racks with 14 hours of light, plants can vegetate almost all year round, dormant at various times, even during the spring months. Plants wake up individually, but basically dormancy lasts about two months.

The main direction of breeding is the breeding of varieties with an unusual flower color and an increase in doubleness.

Growing and caring for gloxinia (synningia)

Temperature regime

Gloxinia are tropical plants, so the temperature in the room should not fall below 18-20 degrees. For germination of tubers, a temperature of +25 is needed. However, remember that with a lack of lighting, the plant will stretch, so the temperature can be reduced, but not below 20 degrees.

An increase in temperature above 28 degrees is undesirable. Gloxinia, as they do not like heat. At high air temperatures and without ventilation, the emerging buds dry out, the flowers quickly wither and fall off, and the risk of pests is also high.

Lighting

Subject to the optimum temperature and humidity, gloxinia can be grown on windows of any orientation. However, from my own experience I will say that the south window is the worst option. Even when there is too much sunlight in shading, direct rays overheat the plant, the buds dry out, the plant fades quickly and looks unhealthy. Young plants are especially hard on the south window.

On the northern windows, gloxinia may lack light, and given that these are long-day plants, in central Russia and to the north, these plants need additional illumination in autumn and early spring.

Watering and humidity

The optimum humidity in the room is 70-80%. But this is only possible with a humidifier. Humidity during the period of active growth and flowering should not fall below 50%

Gloxinia should be watered correctly, but each collector understands his own by correctness. Most often it is recommended to water in the pan. I am categorically against this method of watering and use it only in emergency cases (drying the earthen clod with the soil moving away from the walls of the pot).
The fact is that when pouring into a pan, it is very difficult to achieve uniform moistening of an earthen clod. At the bottom of the pot, water stagnates and the roots may begin to rot, especially when the temperature drops.
If the pot is very large, then water can generally reach the upper layers only after a few hours.

Water the gloxinia along the edge of the pot until water appears from the drainage hole. Try not to overfill the tuber. When waterlogged, this can be fraught with decay.

Regularly and carefully, the soil around the tuber must be loosened to ensure air access to the roots. The leaves are wiped with a damp sponge, washing off the dust. In the warm season, you can spray the leaves, but after spraying, the plant should not stand in a draft or in direct sunlight.

top dressing

If you planted a tuber in fresh soil, then in the first 1.5-2 months you do not need to additionally feed gloxinia. And then you can feed with complex mineral or organic fertilizers for flowering houseplants every 2 weeks. It is better to combine fertilizing with mineral and organic fertilizers. Do not dilute fertilizers by eye and do not add more than the norm, overfed plants fatten and actively grow leaves and roots, but do not bloom.
Feed gloxinia only after watering. During the dormant period, gloxinia are not fed.

rest period

Around September, gloxinia go to rest. At this time of the year, a period of drought begins in the homeland of gloxinia. The green part of the plant (leaves and stems) dies off, and the roots die off, only the tuber remains, which has accumulated enough nutrients during the growing season and has increased in size.

Preparation for the dormant period begins with yellowing and wilting of the leaves. Logically, you need to wait for complete drying and remove the dead parts, leaving the tuber in the old soil until waking up. With this approach, all the nutrients from the stems and leaves go to the tuber. However, there are times when the plant does not want to retire. Most often this happens with young plants of the first year of life. Such plants are left to vegetate, fed, illuminated (mandatory) and prevented from blooming in winter.

If the plants of the second year and older do not retire, then they are forced to rest, otherwise the plants will consume tuber reserves and will not bloom in summer. The plant is cut, leaving a stump 1 cm tall and the pot is removed in a dark place.

All retired plants are placed in a cool and dark place, for example, under a bathtub. The temperature in the storage place should not fall below 15 degrees. Pots with tubers can be watered once a month.

Starting in mid-January, the pots are regularly checked for sprouts. As soon as you notice that the tubers have woken up, they are immediately transplanted into fresh soil and put the pots in the brightest place and watered regularly.

If the sprout that appeared in January stretched out very much in the dark, then it can be removed, provided that the tuber is more than 5-6 cm in diameter.
When transplanting into fresh soil, all tubers are inspected for rot and drying out. Damaged parts are cut out to healthy tissue and powdered with charcoal (or a crushed activated charcoal tablet). After that, the tuber must be dried at room temperature for a day. When the cut dries, you can transplant the tuber.

You need to plant tubers correctly. On the concave side, sprouts appear, and on the convex and smooth part, roots appear. Accordingly, the tuber is planted with the concave side up. Large tubers are barely covered with soil, and smaller tubers are covered with 2-3 cm of soil. In this case, the soil can be covered gradually as the sprout grows.

You can also grow gloxinia from seeds, but this is a rather laborious process. which needs a lot of attention. You can grow gloxinia, like any other plant from seed, if you have a little experience and enough time.

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Gloxinia will not be able to continue to delight with flowers if it does not rest in due time. Florists call such rest a period of rest. Other Gesneria houseplants also hibernate. Therefore, the transplantation of gloxinia after hibernation excites many people involved in the cultivation of this flower.

Rest time is inherent in gloxinia genetically. Peace is needed in order to accumulate strength for future flowering. For a flower to rest, you need to create the appropriate conditions. Even the slightest violation associated with temperature, lighting, watering, air humidity can kill gloxinia.

The last flowers on gloxinia are at the end of autumn. After that, the plant begins to prepare for future rest. The tuber accumulates nutrients, which are provided to the plant by dying leaves.

As soon as the leaves turned yellow and fell off, it is necessary to trim, leaving a one and a half meter column. Watering is done less frequently, and then generally stopped. If everything is done correctly, gloxinia falls asleep.

The tuber is taken out of the pot, washed, dried. After treatment with a fungicide, they are placed in a box filled with sawdust, peat or vermiculite. Wintering takes place in the dark, cool. From time to time, the tubers need to be removed, checked for their condition, sprinkled with water. But the main task of the grower is to monitor whether the nodules are waking up. Periodically, the tubers are checked, lightly sprinkled with water and checked to see if they have woken up. With proper care of planting material, it is saved one hundred percent.

February is the month when you need to get a bowl with nodules and put it on a well-lit window, water it a little. Pulling out earlier is not recommended.

February what to do...

Tubers need time to wake up. Novice flower growers always worry when they need to get gloxinia nodules that have wintered in a dark place. A box with sleeping gloxinia should be taken out in the middle of winter. After a thorough examination, live planting material is selected.

If ripe, healthy tubers were laid for rest, then the awakening of gloxinia occurs rapidly. Sleeping nodules are exposed to a well-lit window in a warm room, watered. After some time, the first shoots appear.
If there was some kind of failure when caring for a dormant gloxinia, then the nodule may wake up on its own. Even coolness and darkness do not interfere. Such planting material must be pulled out into the light as soon as possible, otherwise the shoots will stretch out and there will be problems with planting. Some shoots will have to be removed.

If the wake-up time is delayed ...

Sometimes it happens that the plant does not wake up on time. The question arises of how to wake up a gloxinia tuber and prepare it for transplantation.

As a general rule, nodules at rest should be at least three to four months old annually. Deadlines may vary. The most favorable time is in the autumn and winter months. If a healthy nodule does not want to wake up, beginner flower growers often experience a panic state. Do you need to worry? No, because each plant has its own sleep period. The time will come, gloxinia will delight with shoots.

Why nodules can't wake up

Genetically, gloxinia has time to sleep, because in its homeland of Brazil, it sleeps when the rainy season ends from autumn to the end of January. There are many reasons that lead to the fact that the flower does not wake up on time:

in winter, the storage was dry or damp;
unripe tubers were sent for storage.

How to awaken life in tubers

Gloxinia does not wake up at the same time. If the nodule does not show signs of life either in February or March, it must be forced out of hibernation. To make gloxinia wake up, you can use the following methods:

It will be necessary to increase lighting, humidity in the room and increase watering. The tuber is placed in a pot with very damp soil. Do not pour water on planting material. Watering is carried out along the wall of the pot.
To wake up gloxinia, put it in a plastic bag. At the bottom you need to put the soil, consisting of peat and sand. It must be sprayed with warm water from a spray bottle. Before laying, the sleeping tuber is washed in running water, inspected for rot or other damage. Sprinkle with wood ash if necessary. Dried in the open air, planting material is placed in a bag. The package is tightly tied. To bring a flower out of hibernation, an elevated air temperature is required, within 26 degrees. The place should be bright, but the sun's rays should not fall on the package. If daylight is not enough, backlighting is required. The package is opened from time to time for airing and watering.

How to transplant gloxinia after sleep

Gloxinia should be transplanted after it wakes up completely. The nodule is taken out of the box, shaken off the substrate in which it hibernated. Then washed under running water. Clean planting material is easier to inspect. If even a small speck of rot is noticed on the nodule, it must be removed. You need to cut it with a sharp knife, which is pre-disinfected to avoid infection of the nodule with diseases.

The prepared planting material is disinfected for a third of an hour with a solution of foundationol. Then you need to get the tuber, put it on a clean cloth to dry. The cut points are treated with fine charcoal. Only after that proceed to landing.

The soil

Each time you transplant, you need to use new soil, even if the flower has wintered in a pot. It is best to transplant gloxinia into ready-made soil formulations specifically designed for indoor plants. They contain essential nutrients and trace elements.

You can prepare the soil with your own hands. It is necessary to ensure that the substrate is loose, easily passes air. This will require:

Attention should be paid to acidity, it should not exceed pH 5.5-6.5. Acidic soils are not suitable for gloxinia: growth slows down, bud formation is weak.

To disinfect the soil, you can use ready-made preparations, such as Maxim (the method of application is strictly according to the instructions). Some indoor flower lovers do this. Dilute potassium permanganate to a pink color in hot water and spill the soil.

Pot

When choosing a container for planting, you need to consider the parameters of the tuber:

If they are small, from 1 to 2 cm, it is best to use 100 gram plastic cups.
Planting material ranging in size from 3 to 4 centimeters is planted in pots with a diameter of up to 9 cm.
When planting larger specimens, it should be borne in mind that the diameter of the container must exceed the dimensions by at least four centimeters.

The tuber cannot be completely covered with soil, only 1 cm. The rest of the gloxinia should rise above the surface. The sprouts that have not yet grown stronger are not sprinkled with earth.

Features of care after landing

Immediately after transplantation, the plant requires moderate watering: waterlogging of the soil is not allowed. The most reliable way is to water along the edge of the container. Water should not fall on the tuber. Otherwise, problems will begin: the root may rot.

A pot with transplanted gloxinia should be placed on a bright window. Direct sunlight is dangerous for the plant. It is required to maintain the temperature up to +22 degrees, air humidity up to 70%.

What to do with kids

If small daughter nodules are found during transplantation of planting material, they can be used to propagate gloxinia. Separate carefully. Drop off after that. We use small containers.

The next pick is carried out in a larger pot by transshipment. The new plant will delight with velvet flowers as soon as it takes root.

If gloxinia woke up earlier ...

Sometimes gloxinia does not have to be brought out of hibernation. The nodule begins to awaken in December, early January. What should flower lovers do in this case?

If the plant could not sleep for the time laid down by nature, then you need to act like this:

If the shoots are large, after their removal, the planting material is again stored. As soon as daylight hours increase, the tuber should be planted in a container of the right size and put the gloxinia on a bright, warm windowsill.
The shoots are scanty - they are left on the tuber. But watering is limited to a minimum.
If gloxinia woke up ahead of time, sometimes flower growers plant it immediately in the ground. But in this case, there are some risks. In low light, by the time of flowering, the shoots are strongly drawn out. And the artificial lighting of gloxinia is not very pleasant. What to do, not to throw away a healthy tuber? It is best to pinch the top of the stem, leaving the leaves closer to the ground. The top itself can be rooted.
A pot with transplanted gloxinia should be placed in a cool room, but there should be a lot of light.

Conclusion

Plants transplanted after hibernation require the creation of comfortable conditions. Only then will multi-colored bouquets with velvet leaves and flowers resembling bells appear on the windowsills.

When growing varietal gloxinia, you have to deal with different planting material. In my collection, a new variety, as a rule, appears as an unrooted leaf cutting.

A few years ago, I rooted the resulting leaf and waited a long time for the appearance of children. This could take anywhere from a few months to a year. In addition, very often the leaf dried up, and since the tuber did not have a sprout, I put it away for storage. However, not all nodules survived it safely, because they were small and were not always stored correctly.

Now I have developed a small technology that allows you to germinate even the smallest (for example, 5 mm) gloxinia nodules, regardless of the season, and achieve flowering 3-4 months after the sprout appears.

HOW TO WAKE GLOXINIA TUBE?

For example, I took rooted leaves that were planted about 3 months ago. One leaf is still absolutely healthy and strong (it can be rooted again), the second one has begun to rot in the greenhouse, so it will not be possible to use it for re-rooting.

First stage: Carefully break off the tuber from the leaf. It is quite possible to do this with your hands, for those who are not confident in their abilities, you can use a sharp knife.

Second stage: Thoroughly wash the tubers from the remnants of the soil under warm running water. We observe the following picture: two young nodules about 2 cm and 1 cm in diameter, without signs of growth.

The third stage: We prepare a small new glass (50 or 100 ml) and pour the coconut substrate there, lightly (! Just lightly so that the substrate is only slightly wet), place the nodule on top and press it a little.

Fourth stage: We place a glass with a nodule in an airtight greenhouse. I am using a zippack. It must be brand new to prevent possible fungal diseases.

Fifth stage: We put on germination under fluorescent lamps, the distance from the top of the greenhouse to the lamps is 10-20 cm. After a week, the nodules must be checked: if there is no condensation in the greenhouse, it is necessary to slightly moisten the coconut substrate. Airing or watering nodules is not required.

As a rule, after 2-3 weeks, good strong young leaves appear from the tuber, which needs to be grown for another 1-2 weeks, maybe a little more. This will depend on the variety and size of the nodule.

THE PRINCIPAL ADVANTAGES OF THIS GROWTH METHOD:

- You can quickly get flowering plants
- The safety of the variety increases, because. there is no need to "lay" the nodule to rest when it is still too small.

WHAT YOU NEED TO REMEMBER FOR EVERYTHING TO GO WELL:

- You can only use new cups and greenhouses, because. the dormant tuber is easily susceptible to fungal diseases. Clean dishes avoid them
- Heat and light for germination. Fluorescent lamps give the perfect combination of heat and light, if you only have a window sill at your disposal, nodule germination can only be done in the spring-summer season. At the same time, it is necessary to provide soft diffused light (not direct sunlight) and heat.
- Neutral substrate for germination. I use coke, vermiculite and sphagnum moss are also fine. But I think coconut is preferable, because. it is optimal in terms of moisture retention.

A feature of tuberous gloxinia is that they need rest after abundant flowering. Every year, with the onset of autumn, the flowers "fall into hibernation" and remain in this state until the end of winter. With the advent of spring, growth processes begin to activate in the tubers, and soon a green bush will appear in the pot again.

However, flower growers often face such a problem that it is already May outside the window, and there is not even a hint of awakening. What to do in this case and how to wake up tuberous gloxinia, flower masters know and are happy to share their experience.

Before May, there is no need to “violentize” the tuber, since the flower still has the opportunity to wake up on its own.

Based on practice, there are two ways to make a tuber wake up:

converting the pot into a greenhouse (without removing the tuber from the flowerpot);
putting it in a package.

Both methods of awakening are also good for tubers (sleeping) newly acquired in the spring.

awakening in a pot

In order for gloxinia to come to life, the flowerpot must be moved to the warmest and brightest place in the house and slightly moisten the ground, pouring water not under the tuber, but along the edge of the container.

It is not necessary to overfill the flower, otherwise the tuber will rot.

Top the pot with a bag and leave it for two weeks. This time should be enough for sprouts to appear.

Waking up in a package

Before placing a tuber in a bag, it must be carefully inspected for rot. If one is found, the affected areas should be removed by sprinkling the cut with crushed activated charcoal.

Then dry the gloxinia. Pour a couple of tablespoons of light and loose soil into the bag itself and lightly spray it with a spray bottle.

Instead of a substrate, peat can be used.

Lay the nodule on the soil mixture and close the bag well so that it does not let out air. Put on a bright and warm windowsill, or even better - under. There is no need to ventilate or humidify.