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Gloxinia with large bells and pubescent leaves is one of the most desirable indoor flowers for beginners and experienced flower growers. Instructions for breeding gloxinia at home, a photo of plant care at this crucial stage will prompt how to independently replenish the collection with a bright flower.
Gloxinia, like their closest related species, can propagate vegetatively:
- using a leaf or a part of it;
- stem cuttings cut from an adult plant;
- by rooting the peduncle, on which daughter plants are formed;
- division of the tuber.
Not all methods are equal in simplicity and effectiveness, but when it comes to a rare variety or saving a favorite flower, you need to know how gloxinia reproduces and use all the possibilities.
Reproduction of gloxinia with an
sheet. The simplest and most common method, which rarely leads to failure, is to use an adult healthy leaf as planting material.
When rooting on the base of a leaf plate and even on large veins at Gloxinia, tiny daughter sockets with their own nodules can form.
It is possible to root a leaf for propagation of gloxinia:
- in water until the cutting has enough roots for feeding in the soil, after which the seedling is transferred to a substrate or peat tablet;
- immediately planted a leaf stalk into a peat tablet or light mixture.
How to propagate Gloxinia with leaf cutting?
First of all, you need to stock up with a clean, and preferably a new blade or scalpel. A leaf is cut from an adult healthy plant so that a stem of 2–2.5 cm long remains at the base of the leaf plate.
You should not take for breeding old, withering or, conversely, only opening young leaves. If gloxinia is small, “children's” first leaves remain in the lower tiers - they are also not suitable for getting young rosettes.
If the sheet of the gloxinia is large, you can cut it into fragments with separate veins, so that when the gloxinia multiplies, as in the photo, and take care of the plant, you get more daughter outlets.
The leaves are gently dipped into matched transparent glasses filled with boiled water at room temperature.
Do not deeply embed the cutting into the liquid. This can provoke the development of rot. It is enough that the water covers no more than a centimeter of the length of the cutting or fragment of the leaf.
A glass with propagation material for Gloxinia is covered with a package from above, without compressing or injuring the leaf. A miniature greenhouse is placed in a warm, well-lit place, where there is no risk of direct sunlight. In this form, the leaf will have to stay from 2 to 3 weeks until a callus or a full-fledged root system is formed along the edge of the cutting. For these days, caring for the gloxinia at home, as in the photo, during reproduction, the improvised greenhouse is ventilated several times.
After the formation of centimeter roots the leaf can be transplanted into the ground. Depending on the capabilities and preferences of the grower, this may be:
- ready-made mixture for indoor plants based on peat;
- a mixture of sphagnum and finished soil;
- perlite or vermiculite;
- sand and peat substrate;
- crushed sphagnum.
Before the sheet used for breeding gloxinia enters the soil, drainage holes must be made at the bottom of the tank and a 1–3 cm layer of crushed foam or other non-moisture absorbing material should be arranged. Top poured on the substrate, which is well moistened.
When planting, it is important not to crush and not damage the sheet, otherwise the fabric at this place quickly rot, causing the entire leaf plate to die.
The petiole is buried by 5–10 mm so that the formed roots and callus are covered with soil. The shallow depth of embedment helps small sockets make their way faster to the surface. And if necessary, the substrate around the cutting can be further added.
The sheet planted in the ground again, together with the container in which it is located, is covered with a package. Caring for gloxinia during its reproduction in the home, as in the photo, is reduced to airing and neatly moisturizing when the substrate dries out.
In the future, the florist will have to be patient, since the first daughter sockets with a tiny nodule at the base can appear only in a month or later. Sometimes you can watch only the tubers. This means that the children have gone into hibernation, and after a while the foliage will surely appear.
After studying the video on the reproduction of Gloxinia leaf, you can learn all the details of the process and visually get acquainted with all its stages. This will help to avoid mistakes in practice and successfully grow your own young outlet of your favorite flower.
Reproduction of gloxinia with a spikelet
If there is a plant in the grower's collection that I would like to propagate, but there are not so many leaves on the bush, you can use another method. In this case, the flower stalks are taken, on which only recently flowers have withered, and Gloxinia is propagated like a leaf.
. To obtain small plants, it is enough to leave a cutting 5–6 cm. Cut off the excess with a blade and dip the peduncle per centimeter into the water. The rest of the technique coincides with the cultivation of gloxinia using a sheet.
This method is useful for the reproduction of rare varieties of hybrids and gloxinia, since in this case there is little risk of spontaneous mutations that change the appearance of the plant and its flowers.
Planting stem stem of the gloxinia
You can root and get a young plant from the top of the stem. Such planting material should have a few leaves and a 3-centimeter cutting for immersion in the substrate.
Cut the stalk better from a compact, healthy shrub, previously located in a well-lit place and receiving the proper amount of nutrition and moisture.
Since a rather large apical stalk is planted in the ground, a 9-cm-diameter pot will be suitable for breeding Gloxinia. At the bottom of the tank, a powerful drainage is at least 2 cm thick, and a light, loose substrate, which allows air and water to pass through, is poured into it.
Trying not to squeeze or damage, the cutting is 2 cm deep into the ground, previously watered with settled water at room temperature. The substrate at the base of the stem is easily compacted to give a steady upright stance.
As with leaf duplication in Gloxinia, the pot with a handle is covered with a bag on top and left in diffused light, warm until the plant is rooted. As needed, the seedling is aerated, and the soil is carefully moistened with a spray bottle, taking care not to fall on the leaf plates. A month later, the plant gives roots, and it can be transferred to the normal mode of cultivation.
How to divide the tuber?
The hardest and most risky thing to use for the reproduction of gloxinia is the tubers, since the occurrence of rot on them or their drying inevitably leads to irreparable consequences. The danger is compounded by the fact that the cut tubers are much longer than the green parts of the plant, acclimatized and restored. And only after that the growth of new outlets begins on them.
How to multiply gloxinia by dividing a tuber? And what are the features of plant care after such an operation?
Only large tubers are suitable for this method:
- with a diameter of at least 5 - 6 cm;
- with a healthy healthy surface with no signs of rot, fungal infections or other damage;
- with woken growth points, and even better with sprouts about 2 cm tall.
Split the tuber with a disinfected sharp blade into pieces so that each fragment has its own sprout or potential growth point. The slices are treated with powdered activated carbon to a state of powder or, if there is no such agent, they are stained with a layer of green paint. So that the tuber is less injured in the soil, it is dried and additionally coated with garden pitch. This measure will help to avoid bacterial or fungal lesions of planting material used in the reproduction of gloxinia tubers.
Parts of the tuber, not being buried, are buried in a moist substrate. In the future, care for gloxinia during its reproduction consists in extremely accurate watering. If the soil is watered too generously, the tuber in most cases dies.
For planting it is more convenient to take transparent glasses in order to constantly monitor the development of the root system and the condition of the tubers. For moderate irrigation, you can use a tray with water and a wick, and to moisten the surface layer of the soil, take a syringe with a thick needle.
When white healthy roots entwine the entire volume of the soil, and the socket on the top of the tuber gets stronger, the plant is transferred to a permanent pot.
