Growing Petunias In Peat Tablets: Step-by-step Instructions For Planting And Care + Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Peat tablets for growing petunias - little secrets of good seedlings

Gardeners have already heard about a novelty in the field of planting material - peat tablets. Many have appreciated their simplicity and ease of use. Peat tablets have become indispensable in growing seedlings of vegetables and flowers. Petunia feels especially comfortable in them.

Content

• 1 What are peat tablets

  • 1.1 Advantages and disadvantages - table

  • 1.2 Using a product for breeding petunias

    1.2.1 Planting petunias - video

• 2 Growing petunias in peat tablets

  • 2.1 Step-by-step instructions for sowing seeds

  • 2.2 Seedling care

    • 2.2.1 Watering
    • 2.2.2 Problems during the growth of seedlings
    • 2.2.3 Possible troubles and ways to eliminate them - table
  • 2.3 Pick
  • 2.4 Planting petunias in open ground
• 3 Reviews of gardeners

What are peat tablets

Peat tablets are suitable for growing any seedlings

Peat tablets are a fairly new invention in the field of horticulture. They are used to grow seedlings, germinate seeds, and root leaves and cuttings. In dry compressed form, the tablets look like discs covered with a fine mesh; when soaked, they turn into full-fledged peat cups; consist of fine peat and microelements. The size of the tablets can be different - from 2 cm to 7 cm. If the seeds are small, you do not need to buy discs with a large diameter.

Advantages and disadvantages - table

Advantages	disadvantages
Ready-made seedling cups, no need to mess with the ground.	Disposable.
Take up little space.	They have different acidity of peat, you will need to choose the optimal one for these seeds.
Convenient to use - there is a hole for seeds.	Dry quickly.
They have a porous structure, moisture and air permeable, due to which the substrate remains airy and loose, do not interfere with the growth of roots.
Seedlings are planted in a cup, after removing the protective mesh.
There is no need to add additional fertilizing.
Excess moisture remains in the pan - it is impossible to fill the cups.

Using a petunia breeding agent

Peat tablets for growing petunias should be chosen with neutral acidity

Petunia is a very whimsical plant of the Solanaceae family: it does not like either drought or waterlogging, requires a variety of trace elements and nutrients, and also has fragile roots, which require loose soil for development

When choosing peat tablets for growing petunias, you need to be guided by the following principles:

• peat should consist of small particles, since large ones will slow down the growth of the seedling. Given that petunia is capricious, a gardener's inattention can lead to the death of the plant;
• the acidity in the peat tablet should be close to neutral: acidic soil is not suitable for petunias;
• a peat disk diameter of 3.5–4 cm will be optimal;
• peat tablets should be covered with a mesh treated with fungicide. If there is no shell, then by wetting the compressed material with water, you can get only a handful of the substrate, and not a formed cup.

Planting petunias - video

Growing petunias in peat tablets

The optimal time to plant petunia is from mid-January to the end of February. To prevent the seedlings from stretching, it is recommended to use a backlight.

Step-by-step instructions for sowing seeds

1. Before sowing seeds, peat tablets must be prepared, removed from the compressed state. Take a low container (for example, intended for food products), put the required number of tablets there with the hole up and fill them with settled water at room temperature so that the liquid completely covers the discs.

   

   Peat tablets must be wet before use in order for them to swell

2. Wait half an hour. During this time, the tablets will turn into real cups with a ready-made substrate. The excess water must be drained.

   

   Peat tablets in half an hour after soaking will turn into cups with a ready-made substrate for sowing

3. Put one seed into the recess, which is located exactly in the center, using tweezers. Do not deepen, do not cover with soil. This is due to the fact that petunia seeds germinate only in the light.

   

   Sowing petunias should be done with tweezers or a toothpick in a special depression in the tablet

4. Close the container with a plastic lid or cellophane, after making several holes there for ventilation, and place in a warm place with a temperature of about +25 ° C. This creates a comfortable, warm and humid climate. If the peat cups are dry, you need to add water to the pan. It must be settled or boiled, otherwise an excess of mineral salts will lead to a deterioration in the growth of seedlings.

   

   The greenhouse effect is needed to create a warm and humid microclimate

Seedling care

Petunia seedlings require regular watering

Within five days, the petunia will begin to sprout. You should put the cups with seedlings in the brightest place with a temperature not higher than +22 ° C. The ideal daylight hours for petunias are 12-14 hours. The use of a fluorescent lamp is recommended. The greenhouse must be opened for 5 minutes a day, and the condensation accumulated on the lid must be removed with a cotton swab to exclude fungal diseases, for example, black leg.

Direct sunlight is contraindicated for delicate petunia sprouts, the light must be diffused, otherwise the plants will die, having received burns. When two true leaves appear in the seedlings, the shelter must be removed.

Watering

There is no watering schedule for petunias developing in peat tablets. The main rule: peat cups should not dry out, otherwise the plant will quickly die. The slightly dried substrate should be properly watered with soft water at room temperature, the remaining liquid from the pan must be drained to prevent the development of diseases and the appearance of mold. Watering is done either by filling the container with water or from a spray bottle.

Problems during the growth of seedlings

Due to waterlogging or a sufficiently low temperature (below +18 ° C), the tablet may turn green, turn black, or white mold will appear on its surface. You must act immediately. A cotton swab or disk moistened with potassium permanganate should be carefully removed and sprinkled with fungicides for two weeks. For these purposes, Previkur is suitable.

Possible troubles and ways to eliminate them - table

Problems	Causes	Solutions
No shoots	Old seeds. Low temperature. Glazing of seeds.	Sow new seeds, carefully monitor the expiration date of the material. Even if expired seeds sprout, the seedlings will often hurt. The optimum temperature for seed germination is + 22 … + 25 ° C. At a lower temperature, except for mold, nothing will appear. The glaze on the seeds sometimes interferes with their friendly germination. Therefore, when sowing the material, you need to sprinkle the seeds a little with water from a spray bottle, wait 5 minutes. The glaze will begin to dissolve.
Seedlings die	Unsuitable acidity in peat pellets. Blackleg. Drying out of the substrate.	It is urgent to transplant the seedlings into another soil, providing proper care. Refrain from feeding. Blackleg is a fungal disease. The dead seedlings should be destroyed, and the rest should be watered with a fungicide according to the instructions, for example, Baktofit. It is necessary to carefully monitor the irrigation rates and avoid waterlogging. Watering should be regular.

Picking

When diving with petunias, you need to be extremely careful. It would be better to call the process simply a transplant, because in this case, on the contrary, they try to settle the plant in a new place with minimal damage to the fragile roots, otherwise the petunia will take root and hurt for a long time.

1. In a pot, preferably plastic, a loose, fertile substrate is poured. You can take either specialized or universal primer.

   

   The substrate for petunia must be loose.

2. The seedling, together with the peat lump, is placed in the center of the pot and covered with earth. It is not necessary to deepen the plant if it is not very elongated. Otherwise, the seedlings are immersed in the pot in cotyledonous leaves. The main thing is not to cover the place where the leaves grow from. The net can be removed, but it is better to leave it so as not to damage the roots. She herself will dissolve in the ground.

   

   A petunia transplant is carried out together with a peat ball

3. It is necessary to moisten the soil. If it settles, you need to add it to the edges of the peat cup.

   

   Watering should be regular, but not very abundant

Further, watering should be carried out as the earth slightly dries out. Once every 10 days, fertilizing with a complex mineral fertilizer is recommended.

Once a week, you need to air the seedlings or take them out to the glassed-in balcony, but at the same time avoid hypothermia and drafts

Planting petunias in open ground

Petunia is planted in open ground in late May - early June at a distance of 15 cm from each other. This can be done directly from peat tablets in the same way as when diving, or from pots with a lump of earth, by slightly pressing on the sides. The root system by this time will be well formed, and the peat tablet will become part of the fertilizer, so the survival rate of the petunia will be almost one hundred percent. Nitrogen fertilizers should be avoided during flowering.

Gardeners reviews

Peat tablets undoubtedly deserve attention: they simplify the procedure for planting and growing horticultural crops. By carefully following the recommendations for choosing peat tablets and caring for seedlings, you can get strong and healthy plants without much effort, even with minimal maintenance.