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Afanhandra's head of the serviceAlthough a tropical plant as a potted culture is very capricious and demanding to care, it grows quickly, blooms and even sets seeds.
Reproduction of apelandra flower by cuttings
Annual pruning of regrown shoots is a good reason to try to propagate apelandra at home. Cut tops in the spring of the main and lateral stems can be rooted, after which they will become young plants, which, as a rule, bloom in the second year of life.
Benefits of reproduction of alandra using cuttings:
- relative simplicity;
- production rate of young viable plants;
- high survival rate of seedlings.
Apical cuttings of at least 7–12 cm long with well-formed 2–3 leaves are suitable for rooting. The future sapling should be separated from the bush with a sharp knife just below the knot. When the cut dries out a bit, it is powdered with a root formation stimulator.
It is useful to treat the cutting sites of the cutting and its base with charcoal or cinnamon powder, which has been ground to a state of powder. This will help disinfect the cuts and prevent the development of mold fungi and putrefactive bacteria.
Cuttings are planted in moistened perlite and placed under the film or in a greenhouse. If there is no perlite, it can be replaced with a mixture of turf soil and sand, but such a substrate must be sterilized.
On rooting, on average, it takes about three weeks. In order to keep the process stable and fast, special conditions are created for young domestic aphelanders:
- maintain a temperature in the range of 24–26 ° C;
- provide partial shade or diffused light;
- does not allow the moisture concentration in the air to fall below 90%;
- daily air the greenhouse with seedlings.
During the rooting of the cuttings of afelandra flower, they are recommended to be treated with a systemic fungicide after a week to avoid damage to the seedlings by leaf spotting, which affects young plants in large quantities and leads to their death.
When the seedlings have their own roots, they are transplanted into separate small pots with loose soil mixture, which is used to transplant adult plants.
To become the owner of a young, as in the photo, afelandry, cutting and rooting of cuttings is carried out from May to the beginning of September. In this case, the plants actively form the root system and do not get sick.
Propagation of domestic apander with
seeds If seeds bloom at the place of inflorescences after flowering, they can also become planting material. In this case, the reproduction of afelandra at home is carried out in the autumn.
Seeds are buried in a loose mixture of sand and peat, moistened and placed under the film. Germination takes place at a temperature of 22 ° C with constant humidity.
The sprouted seedlings dive, and then sit in separate tanks with a drainage layer and a substrate for adult plants of domestic apanderland.
Pests and growth problems of afandend flower
A native of the South American tropics, afandeland flower attracts not only indoor gardeners, but also all sorts of pests.
Most often at home, plants suffer from scutes, mushroom mosquitoes, spider mites, mealybugs and nematodes that fall into the ground if they have not been thoroughly disinfected and sterilized.
Copies of afelandry, as in the photo, taken out for the summer in the garden or on the balcony, can attract aphids, whitefly and slugs. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the condition of the room culture and to establish prevention.
The plant should be in acceptable conditions for it, receive regular watering and fertilizing. It is useful to irrigate the crown with clean warm water and dust the leaves.
At the first signs of insects, it is necessary to treat the home aphelindra with insecticide and continue the course until the traces of pests disappear.
Aphelandra is not for nothing considered to be quite a capricious houseplant. At home, she can wither away not only from the invasion of pests, but also from non-compliance with the conditions of detention. This is most often expressed:
- in changing the shape of the leaves, their deformation and shortening the internodes, which indicates excessive illumination of the bush and too high air temperature;
- in the mass death of foliage, and then the shoots, which indicates excessive wet due to watering or lack of drainage of the soil, as well as the excessive introduction of additional dressing;
- in withering and abscission of dried out air due to too dry indoor air.
As a rule, these problems can be successfully solved if measures are taken in time, and humidity, temperature and light conditions are adjusted.
Diseases of the home apandandr
The appearance of brownish or black spots on the leaves of the afelandra, as in the photo, can be a sign of the harmful activity of the fungi Myrothecium roridum and Corynespora. Both microorganisms cause damage to leaf tissue and their gradual death. To cope with the trouble will help triple treatment of plants systemic fungicide.
They are carried out at intervals of 7 to 8 days, closely monitoring the state of the culture. As a preventive measure, the falling leaves should be removed and the apelandra conditions should be observed.
If the plants are at a temperature below the recommended temperature for a long time, the irrigation regime is not observed, or the aphelandra flower lacks light, you may encounter rotting of the stems at the place of their contact with the substrate. This is the result of the activity of the bacteria of the species Botrytis, Phytophthora and Pythium spp, which affect not only the leaves and the stems, but also the root system.
The rotted parts of the aphelandra must be removed, the cutting sites must be treated with coal powder and transplanted into a clean substrate. If preventive measures are observed and the pet is placed in proper conditions, the home aphelindra will once again be covered with foliage, and in spring it will bloom.
