Beautiful and elegant flower amaryllis, care at home for which does not give you trouble, long blooms twice a year and exudes a pleasant aroma, which is why it is very popular. In addition, it is easy to force it to blossom to a specific date, for example, by March 8.
Amaryllis - planting and care
Having brought home from the store the bulb of amaryllis, you should place it in a weak solution of foundation or manganese for 20 minutes, this will help to avoid all sorts of rot. The pot should be taken small, just a couple of centimeters more than the bulb itself. If you take too large a container, the flower will start to grow the kids, and this has a bad effect on its flowering. A pot should also be treated with a foundation.
For planting we pour a layer of expanded clay in the pot, then a layer of soil mixture, we place the bulb so that it protrudes from the ground to a third. The voids are filled with soil, the plant is poured with water at room temperature, this ends the landing. Amaryllis flower after planting does not require special care at home.
Amaryllis - watering
Amaryllis at home loves moisture, so it is important not only to water, but also sprayed from the spray. How often to water the amaryllis depends on the air temperature, it is important to make sure that the top layer of the soil always remains wet, regardless of whether the plant is in the period of active growth and flowering or at rest.
How to transplant an amaryllis?
Amaryllis transplantation is one of the most important moments in caring for a plant at home. There are different opinions as to how often the flower needs to be transplanted. Some believe that this should be done once a year, others - that once in 2-3 years. In any case, more often than once a year, to transplant the amaryllis precisely does not follow, and it is necessary to navigate the well-being of the flower and the condition of the soil.
How correctly to transplant an amaryllis? For this it is important to follow the rules:
- Diameter of the flowerpot is chosen so that between the bulb and the walls of the container was not more than 3 cm.
- Plant the onion by half.
- The most favorable time for transplant is July. This month, the plant is preparing to awaken after a state of rest.
- When transplanting, it is important to keep the leaves.
- Transplanted amaryllis, care in the home, he should provide the maximum.
Ground for amaryllis
In order to make the amaryllis feel good in a new place, it is important not only to provide care, but also to choose the right soil for planting. You can buy a ready-made mixture, or you can prepare yourself at home. A good substrate must contain such components:
- sod land;
- low peat;
- humus;
- river sand.
Also in the ground, you can add wood ash - it reduces the likelihood of disease. Before using for planting, the soil is important to sterilize in any known way, since the flower is very vulnerable to parasites and rot. The acidity of the soil should be between 6.0 and 6.5 pH.
How to feed the amaryllis?
This flower in the home needs regular supplementation during the period of active growth and flowering, the first portion of the fertilizer should be introduced two weeks after planting, and continue to fertilize twice a month. With the onset of rest, fertilizing should be stopped - the sleeping root system is not able to absorb nutrients in this amount.
The feeding of the amaryllis should be simple, the perfect mixture of fertilizers for flowering bulbs, the invention of something more interesting and nutritious is not worth it. Nowadays, it's not very useful to make organic for this flower, which is now popular in horticulture. As such, pathogenic microbes that are harmful to a flower can be introduced along with such a feeding.
Why does not the amaryllis blossom?
Many prefer the amaryllis because of its long flowering with a delicate aroma. But it happens that the plant looks healthy, receives proper care, but does not want to spoil flowers. There may be several reasons for this.
- Insufficient lighting. Perhaps your flower is in a too dark room. Try to transfer it to a more lighted room, on the sunny side, on a window sill or, for example, on a glazed and insulated loggia.
- The flower did not have a rest period. Perhaps, the previous time you stimulated the flowering of the amaryllis, and the plant did not have time to rest and recover. In this case, you just leave the flower alone, provide care and give it the opportunity to gain strength.
- Appearance of onions. If there are babies in the pot, there may not be flowering.
- There are not enough trace elements. Perhaps it's time to transplant the flower.
- Damage to the bulb. Maybe it was damaged by parasites, and to eliminate this cause, you should remove the flower from the soil and, if necessary, treat it.
- The bulb is too young. If the flower is less than three years old, it is possible that you expect flowers too early.
- The bulb is too deep in the soil when planted. A second transplant is required.
If you have eliminated all of the listed reasons, but there was no flowering, and there are, there are ways how to make an amaryllis blossom at home. To do this, it is important to limit its watering up to the drying out of the soil and to ensure a temperature regime of 9 ° C. The beginnings of inflorescences are laid at least for a season, and such actions should become an incentive for the plant to finally blossom.
Amaryllis - home care after flowering
Your flower finally blossomed happily, and you fully enjoyed the beautiful flowering and its aroma. But here the amaryllis has blossomed off, what else to do with it, how to provide competent care at home? The first and most important rule - do not hurry to cut off the peduncles. While they are alive, they contain a lot of nutrients, which the flower will lose if they are simply removed.
If we do not touch the flower stem, then as it slowly dry up, the nutrients gradually accumulate back into the bulb, and the plant will be provided with everything necessary to care for a long period of rest. Cut flower stalks at home can only be when they have already become completely dry and lifeless.
Amaryllis - reproduction
If care at home for a flower amaryllis is not difficult for you, you can try to do it on your own. There are two options how to multiply the amaryllis - this is a way of growing from seeds and the way to separate the bulb. Both options are equally successful, but they are implemented in a completely different way. Let's consider in detail each of them.
How to grow an amaryllis from seeds?
This method is almost guaranteed to give you a successful result, but wait for the first flowering to take a very long time, at least five years. But for many, he is attractive as an experiment. Such a method of reproduction is carried out in this order:
- We take a simple art brush and pollinate the plants at home - we transfer the pollen from the stamen to the pestle.
- We wait until the seeds ripen (they are in the boxes in the flower).
- Further, the amaryllis seed is planted in a loose and moderately moist soil.
- We provide good care, warm air and sufficient lighting, wait for sprouting and grow plants.
How to grow an amaryllis from a bulb?
Growing amaryllis from a bulb is very simple. If the flower pot is spacious, the appearance of bulb-children will be natural, you will see them at the edges of the flowerpot. Sometimes they can even start releasing leaflets before separation. Reproduction by an onion occurs as follows:
- Carefully we separate the strong and healthy onion bulb. It is better to excavate it separately, without waiting for a planned transplant of the flower. The void in the pot is filled with a substrate.
- Next we take each onion and plant it in a glass. How to properly plant an amaryllis bulb when breeding? Just like an adult, half of it must remain above the ground. They very quickly take root and grow well.
- As you grow, when the onion in the glass becomes cramped, we transplant it into a pot.
Amaryllis adapts in the soil and roots so quickly that, provided good care at home can release the flower spike in the first year after planting, but it will be better if you do not let the plant blossom. The fact is that many resources are spent on flowering, and it will be better if the flower retains its strength for active growth.
How to wake up the amaryllis in the spring?
After a long rest, which happens in the winter months, the amaryllis awakens, it starts a period of active growth and flowering. In this he can help. How to wake an amaryllis bulb? To do this, you must meet the following conditions:
- We regulate the temperature regime at home. If the flower has wintered at a low temperature (9-12 ° C), you should transfer it to a warmer place.
- We limit watering. Moving to a warm place, you do not need to water the flower until you see the flower stem. If you pour earlier, the leaves will start to grow actively, and the flower spike may not appear.
- After seeing the arrow of the flower, we transfer the plant to a well-lit place.
- Waiting until the flower spike reaches a height of 2-4 cm, first water the plant with warm water.
Diseases of amaryllis and their treatment
Even providing ideal conditions for care, we can not fully insure it against various kinds of diseases. Consider the most common diseases of amaryllis, their possible causes of appearance and methods of dealing with them.
- Gray rot. It is a fungal disease caused by excessive moisture in the soil. It is treated with strong antifungal drugs.
- Thrips or aphids. A characteristic feature is yellowing and deforming leaves. The first thing to do is to wipe the leaves with a soapy solution, if that did not help, spray the amaryllis with the emulsion of carbophos. Take action as soon as possible.
- Red burn. Appears in the form of red-brown spots or bands. The disease is very difficult to heal, keep the plant in a ventilated room with good lighting, do not allow water to enter the bulb when watering. You can not use pesticides.
- Narcissus fly. This pest enters the bulb and eats its inside, after which the decay takes place. Chemical agents can not be used for such a disease. If the lesion is not strong, it is necessary to clean the bulb with the larvae of parasites and to treat with wood ash.