In the care of the garden, sometimes there is no time at all to still provide proper care for the flowers, therefore, for most gardeners, the most convenient option becomes the cultivation of asters - one of the most unpretentious, but at the same time surprisingly beautiful flowers!
Astra is able to regenerate its damaged root system and even during flowering calmly endure transplantation.
Benefits of growing asters:
Even a novice florist can easily figure out how to grow asters. The main thing is to plant flowers in the soil, previously fertilized with nutrients, and do not forget about weeding and timely watering. Well, if you manage to fertilize a couple of times during the summer, your flowers will grow especially beautiful and large, with powerful stems. However, some features of growing asters still need to be taken into account.
Video about sowing and growing asters
In order for multi-colored asters to hurt as little as possible and delight you with their bright beauty for a long time, you need to correctly determine the place on the site for their landing and prepare suitable soil. Like many other garden flowers, asters form large healthy buds only when there is enough moisture and nutrients in the soil. Therefore, a flower bed for them should be prepared in the fall, digging up the ground and adding to it river sand with humus or sand with peat, so that the soil is fertile, breathable and well-drained.
The acidity of the soil should be close to neutral. If you apply humus just before planting asters, the plants can be affected by Fusarium fungus (growing asters in dense or acidic soils leads to the same result). In the spring, before digging, it is recommended to add ammonium sulphate, superphosphate and potassium salt to the soil.
To prevent the risk of Fusarium asters disease, they should not be planted after potatoes, tomatoes, carnations, gillyflowers, gladioli, tulips. Asters can be grown in the same flower bed for six years, and asters can be returned to their original place only after four years. best results can be achieved when sowing asters after marigolds, marigolds, perennial grasses.
The best results can be achieved when sowing asters after marigolds, marigolds, perennial grasses
Asters feel good in partial shade, they love open sunny places, but in extreme heat and drought they lose their decorative effect. It is advisable to choose a place under the flower bed, protected from the wind and from constant dampness, so that ground water did not lie too close to the surface of the earth.
You can harvest asters seeds yourself, collecting them from dried inflorescences at the end of summer, or purchase seeds in the store for each season, experimenting with various varieties aster. The main thing is that the seeds are of high quality, then the seedlings will sprout 100%.
Planting asters in seedlings
Seedling method:
Seedless sowing of asters
Asters seeds are sown as soon as the earth warms up, directly on the flower beds, sprinkled a little on top of the earth and covered with a film until germination. With the advent of young seedlings, the film can be removed and the plants covered only in case of frost. It is not necessary to dive them, it is enough to sow them at intervals of a couple of centimeters, and then thin out so that 12 cm are obtained between the plants, or leave the plantings thickened. Asters planted in a seedless way begin to bloom much earlier.
Asters cannot stand dampness and excessive waterlogging and are considered drought-resistant flowers, but in dry weather they must be watered abundantly. Pay special attention to watering during bud set, otherwise lush flowering you can not wait.
Landed on fertile soil asters with good watering and periodic top dressing will bloom wonderfully until the very cold. For the first time, flower beds with asters enrich the full mineral fertilizer two weeks after transplanting seedlings into a flower bed, and during the period of bud formation and flowering, top dressing is used without nitrogen fertilizers. organic fertilizers apply only on poor soils.
Video about asters
Because the main enemy asters - diseases, especially fusarium, it is recommended for prevention to spray plants with a solution that contains the following trace elements: potassium permanganate, salts of magnesium, zinc, cobalt, copper, ammonium molybdate and boric acid.
Also, make sure that when growing asters, they do not show signs of rust, late blight, sclerotinia, powdery mildew, rhizoctoniosis, jaundice, damage by slugs, aphids, scoops, spider mites, nematodes.
Asters are my favorite flowers. They literally energize me. Admiring them, my soul blossoms like their flowers. I will tell you how to grow aster seedlings so that these beautiful flowers delight you as much as they do me.
It has been five years since I stopped growing aster seedlings at home. Careful preparation of the soil, highlighting, picking, hardening and transporting plants to the garden plot require a lot of time and effort. All this can be done much easier.
In the fall, I choose a place for seedlings of asters. I remove plant residues, scatter Kemira with loose, well-ripened humus and dig up the soil. I make a bed at least 20 cm high so that in spring the earth warms up faster.
When and how to grow asters and seedlings, there are no special tricks. In early April, if the snow has not yet melted, I sprinkle the bed with wood ash and in two weeks it is already ready for sowing aster seeds. I loosen the ground with a chopper, level it with a rake and make sides along the edges so that water does not drain.
I prepare seeds for growing aster seedlings in advance. In the winter, I store them on the refrigerator door. I take it out a week before planting to keep warm. Be sure to pickle the seeds in a strong solution of potassium permanganate and soak them in Epin's solution, after which I dry them on a newspaper. I sow aster seeds the next day, because after such preparation they are not recommended to be stored for a long time.
I make smooth grooves 1 cm deep at a distance of 10 cm from each other with a plank across the beds and spill them with boiling water from the kettle. I scatter the seeds thickly - so they germinate more amicably.
Then I fill the grooves with sand, install small arcs over the bed and cover with a film, leaving a small hole for ventilation at the end of the tunnel.
Short-term frosts down to minus 3 ° for growing seedlings of asters are not terrible, and if suddenly the temperature is promised lower, then at night I cover the bed with an old blanket.
When the first sprouts appear, I try to thin them out as early as possible - I remove the extra and weak ones. During the formation of the second pair of real leaves, I feed the seedlings with a solution of humate. And of course I water, loosen and field the plants regularly.
At the end of May, I begin to harden seedlings of asters. First, I completely open the end of the tunnel, then I lift the film from one side. I am waiting for a few more days when the aster seedlings will get stronger in the air. During this time, I prepare flower beds and places for planting flowers. Planting aster seedlings on permanent place usually done on cloudy days or in the evening. At first, it is desirable to shade the plants.
Over the past years, she has accumulated a lot of experience, which showed how to grow aster seedlings directly on garden plot and not on the city windowsill. Follow my example and these beautiful flowers will delight you until late autumn.
Galina Kotenkova
Many flower growers are very fond of such a flower as chrysanthemum. It is popular and can grow both outdoors and at home. In the latter case, a pot is used to grow a flower. Caring for her both indoors and outdoor conditions will be exactly the same, only unlike garden ones, indoor chrysanthemum is small in size. So how to care for a chrysanthemum in a pot? Let's try to figure this out.
This flower can be either annual or perennial. It has a branched root system, the development of which occurs parallel to the surface. The leaves of the plant are light green, are dissected, serrated or notched. Dense inflorescence form small flowers collected in a basket.
Indoor chrysanthemum has a large number of varieties that grow remarkably at home. Such species differ from garden ones in their miniature size. This is explained by the fact that for indoor growth, drugs are used that stop their growth for decorative purposes.
When purchasing a chrysanthemum for growing in pots, you should choose a strong and healthy specimen with a well-formed stem and dense foliage. After the purchase, the flower adapts to the new conditions for some time. So that the plant does not become infected with diseases from other indoor flowers, it is quarantined for several days.
In order for the chrysanthemum to grow well at home, it is necessary to provide it with optimal temperature regime. She can't stand heat and exposure to direct sun rays. Better conditions It is cool air and short daylight hours. To make the chrysanthemum bloom as long as possible, optimum temperature for this it should be +15 degrees, and Maximum temperature for its growth is within +18 degrees.
If you like these cute flowers that you are used to growing outdoors, then you should try to "transfer" them to the apartment. This is easy to do. Pick up relatively low varieties of asters, plant them in a prepared container and let them bloom in the yard. Next, try to bring a pot of asters into the apartment and watch the plant.
Choose sunny windows for growing these plants. They are very fond of sunbathing and do not suffer from direct sunlight. As for watering, it should be plentiful and regular. Asters are very fond of moist soil, so if you notice. That the plant is behaving "gloomy", try watering it. The soil for seedlings should be light. Be sure to use drainage when planting asters.
If you plan to grow asters from seeds, then pay attention to following points. First of all, decide on the timing of sowing. You can start planting asters in the late fall to enjoy the colorful blooms in the winter. However, in early spring it is also not too late to do so. Sowing dates vary by variety and optimal conditions for growth. If your seedlings begin to stretch upward, then they should be rearranged to a more sunny side.
Asters can be either annual or perennial. It follows that the question of transplantation for each variety is individual. Obviously, it makes no sense to transplant annual varieties. They will delight you for several months, after which they die off. You just have to free the pot for new seedlings.
The situation is different with perennial varieties of asters. As needed, you can transplant them into a larger pot with an updated soil mixture. However, it is best to remove asters that have already experienced the flowering period in a cool place and maintain soil moisture. The ground part of the flower dies off, however root system remains viable.
Of course, if you bought an aster in a store and brought it home in a purchased pot, then it is best to deal with the issue of plant transplantation. Pay attention to the condition of the aster roots. If you notice that the roots are slightly blackened or dry, carefully free the plant from them.
Following the simple rules for caring for asters will allow you to enjoy their flowering for a long time.
Good day everyone!
I want to talk today about how to grow asters from seeds. Familiar to us annual asters is a species of the aster family. This flower is called Callistefus or Chinese Aster. Its stems are branched, green or red with a powerful fibrous root. Small alternate leaves, inflorescence - basket.
This flower in my front garden occupies special place. My grandmother loved him very much and her asters always bloomed by September. She sowed them simply in the ground, and then planted them in a flower bed. They bloomed late, but still pleased. The flowers were the simplest - pink and purple daisies. Now there are many varieties of this flower. They are diverse in the form of petals, color, height of plants. Correspond to the name, because Astra is a “star” in Latin. Now I no longer sow the aster directly into the ground, I want it to bloom early. To do this, you need to grow asters at home with seedlings. Or in greenhouses.
Asters differ in terms of flowering:
They usually bloom until frost. These beauties are not afraid of cold, so you can plant seedlings in the Urals in May. It is desirable that by the time of planting in open ground, the seedlings should be one month old, small, about 6 cm, with good roots.
Given all this knowledge, determine the timing of sowing. I always sow aster in early April at home. In the greenhouse, you can also sow seeds at this time.
If there is a place on the windows or a heated greenhouse, then you can sow an aster in March. But you don't need to do this before. Shoots will reach for the light, which is still small, become thinner, lay down and wither later. There was such an experience.
Aster seeds are quite large, they can be spread out less often. I sow first in small containers, then I plant them in separate cups or small boxes. Astra is not afraid of transplantation, in a spacious pot it builds up the root system.
The soil can be purchased or prepared by yourself. I usually take garden soil, add humus, purchased soil, ash, you can sand. To get a light soil that passes air and water well.
Aster seeds quickly lose their germination capacity, it is better to take completely fresh ones. In the second year, half of the seeds may not sprout.
I sow the seeds to a depth of about 1 cm. I water and put the container in a bag, after a few days shoots appear. I put it immediately closer to the window so that it is light and cool.
As soon as a couple of true leaves appear, you can sit down. The seedlings of the aster are strong, but fragile at the point of transition of the stem into the root. Therefore, at first we wet the ground well, and after half an hour you can carefully remove small asters with a match or a toothpick and plant them in large prepared cups.
Asters are watered infrequently, but plentifully. Seedling containers must have drainage in order to excess water could drain. It is impossible to fill the aster with water, otherwise it may get sick with a black leg and die.
Seedlings usually grow well. If you have prepared good soil before sowing, then there is no point in fertilizing. But with poor land, you can water your seedlings with bio-fertilizer a week after transplanting. You can pour infusion of ash.
You don't need to use nitrogen fertilizers. Otherwise, there will be huge green bushes, and flowering will come later and will not please at all in terms of quality.
In a typical Ural spring, aster seedlings can be transplanted outside in mid-late May. But in order for young plants to tolerate the transplant well and possible cold snaps, it is necessary to harden them. In early April, start taking seedlings outside. If growing in a greenhouse, open the doors on warm days.
Usually in April, almost all of my seedlings move to the veranda. I bring it home only if frost is expected.
Such seedlings can be planted in a permanent place
She loves a sunny place, the land is not acidic, fertile. Under planting asters do not make fresh manure!
I plant high cut asters at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other. They branch well and form many shoots with flowers. I plant low, curb ones closer, about 15-20 cm from each other. Then growing, they bloom in a continuous carpet.
Groups of flowers of the same color look interesting. And low ones can be planted in different colors, there will be a colorful border or island. For beautiful lush flowering, remove old flowers in time.
A week after planting seedlings, I water with infusion of ash or biofertilizer. Spring and early summer are dry, the rains do not indulge us. In order not to constantly run with a watering can, immediately after watering the flowers, mulch with hay, grass, sawdust, wood chips. So the work of both weeding and loosening will decrease. And for good flowering asters need to be loosened frequently. Although in general it is a very unpretentious flower.
Beautiful, healthy flowers will decorate your garden until the frost.
As already said, I try to grow aster seedlings. But if this is not possible, you can grow seedlings of asters by sowing seeds in the ground in early spring. They do it early, in April. small plot loosen with humus, after sowing the seeds, they are watered and covered with a film. When the asters rise, we replace the film with a covering material so that the earth does not dry out.
You can sow aster seeds before winter. So they themselves will determine in the spring when it is better for them to ascend. When the asters grow up, seat them in flower beds. By the way, such plants do not suffer from Fusarium.
Asters sprout well by self-sowing, with a friendly warm spring, they will bloom in August-September. They can be thinned or planted. But in order to get beautiful lush plants that bloom from July, you have to grow seedlings, especially in the Urals and to the north.
Video about the disease of asters with fusarium.
Usually I leave the first, large flowers on the seeds, they have time to ripen well. When the flower fades, darkens, and a small fluff appears in the center, I cut it off and put it in a paper bag. This should be done in dry weather, during the day. If it is damp, you need to disassemble the inflorescence and dry it well so that the seeds do not rot. In a bag, the seeds usually ripen, then I store them at home until sowing. The bag needs to be signed so that you know which variety you are sowing.
Fresh seeds are good to sow before winter. late autumn into the frozen ground, so that they no longer thaw, do not germinate in the cold. You can even sow directly on the snow in December and sprinkle with earth, and in the spring cover this place with a film for early shoots.
Asters are very good for cutting. And my schoolboy takes five or six bouquets by the first of September: both to school and to the music school. Often, on Teacher's Day, he brings his flowers to school (and this is already October). True, not every year is so successful. If hit hard frost, then the asters turn yellow and wither.
May growing asters from seeds in your area bring you joy.
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Sincerely, Sofia Guseva.
