A homemade Persian or European cyclamen purchased in a store does not always become a permanent resident of the windowsill. Plants of commercial cultivation, richly fed with stimulants, often die after flowering, which takes all the vitality of the tuber. Under what conditions can you succeed in propagating flowers from seeds?

Home cyclamens are already well adapted to the conditions of the apartment, they are not overfed and are guaranteed to be free from diseases and pests. Young seedlings bloom by the end of the first year of life. Therefore, it makes sense to try to plant and grow a plant from seeds.

How to get seeds to plant

The easiest way to plant a flower is to purchase seed from a flower shop. However, if you have a cyclamen house, you can do without it by getting seeds from your own plant.

When purchasing seeds in a store, you do not know how healthy the flower was and whether it is Cyclamen

Making a flower bear fruit is not difficult, for this you only need to pollinate the flowers. For the health of seedlings, it is better if cross pollination will be. From two cyclamens of different colors, hybrids can be very attractive and unlike their parents.

Pollination is carried out in December-February, in the middle of the natural flowering period of cyclamen. It is best to practice this sunny morning. By tapping on a blossoming flower, we shake out the pollen from it, which settles on the pistils of neighboring flowers.

For cross-pollination, it is necessary to carefully collect the pollen with the tip of a match and dip the pistil of the fertilized flower into it. To ensure pollination is achieved, repeat the procedure 5-7 times.

The pollinated flower fades quickly, leaving behind a rounded box filled with light brown, rounded seeds. Depending on the conditions, it takes from 90 to 140 days for the seeds to fully ripen, the optimum temperature at this time is about +20 degrees during the day and about +12 at night.

Peduncles with boxes droop over time, leaning towards the ground. Ripe boxes crack, so it is better to pick them shortly before ripening.

To check the quality of the seed, you need to prepare a 5% sugar solution and pour the seeds over it. The ones that pop up won't germinate sinking to the bottom - suitable for germination.

Seeds do not lose their germination for a long time, they can be stored for up to three years. Moreover, plants grown from seeds collected one and a half to two years ago bloom faster and more abundantly than seedlings hatched from fresh seed.

The cultivated Persian cyclamen does not depend as much on the length of daylight hours as its wild ancestor, so even if the seeds were not purchased on time, you can plant them in the ground, without waiting for spring. It is only necessary to provide them with the right temperature.

We sow cyclamens

Flower seeds have a high germination rate, which decreases slightly with time. Even seeds that have lain for two or three years germinate with a probability of 70-80 percent. Therefore, by checking them with a sugar solution, you can be sure that young plants will appear from them.

Please note that high-quality soil disinfection will help Cyclamen germinate.

Before planting the seeds in the ground, they should be soaked for a day in a solution of Epin, potassium permanganate, or simply in warm water. The soil for their planting should be light, sandy, a sufficiently large drainage layer is needed at the bottom of the tank - the root system of cyclamens is superficial.

Earth needed ignite or spill with boiling water for disinfection. Seeds are buried about a centimeter into moist soil, the optimal interval between them is 2-3 centimeters.

You can also use peat tablets as a substrate. But, since the size of the tablets is small, care must be taken to ensure that they do not dry out.

Seeds have one important feature during germination: at high temperatures, seedlings develop more slowly than at relatively low temperatures. Having provided them with a temperature of about +15 degrees, you should expect sprouts in a month, but if it exceeds +20 degrees, young plants will appear after two to three months.

Although Cyclamen does well with heat, too much heat can stunt seed growth.

In addition, the timing of seed germination depends on the variety - some of them can "sleep" up to 4-5 months.

The rules for germinating seeds of Persian and European cyclamen are almost the same, the only significant difference is the flowering season of young plants. The former will bloom in winter, the latter will show flower stalks in summer.

Many people think that cyclamen seeds should be kept in the dark until they germinate, but this is not so. It is better to expose containers with soil in the sun so that the sprouts that appear immediately fall into favorable conditions for development.

Seedling care at home

young plants need to provide a stable temperature, bright enough, but diffused lighting and timely, but watering that does not allow stagnant water. With an excess of moisture, they are very vulnerable to fungal diseases.

The cyclamen seedling first picks up a small nodule, after which it throws out the first leaf. First, a purple loop of the petiole appears, then the leaf itself, covered with a seed peel.

Often this sheet cannot get rid of the peel on its own, especially when there is insufficient humidity in the room, so sometimes they need to be removed with tweezers, having previously slightly moistened.

Even if the sheet is damaged, seedling will not die, it will only slow down its development.

For the first three months, the seedling grows a tuber without throwing out new leaves, and only after that do young leaves begin to appear. This time is the most difficult for young plants, it is important not to dry or flood them.

Freshly sown cyclamens, unlike adult specimens, do not rest in the summer, at which time they are actively growing. At the age of six months, they can be fed for the first time with a weak solution of complex fertilizers with a low nitrogen content.

There is an opinion that drafts at home contribute to the growth of Cyclamen seedlings.

To form a beautiful dense rosette of leaves, it is best to keep the plants in a fairly cool room. Seedlings are not afraid of drafts, so they are good at ventilating the room where they live.

Young Persian cyclamens usually first throw out flower stalks at the age of 13-14 months, European - in the second or third year. The first flowering is not always abundant: the plant is gaining strength for a lush bouquet of flowers only to the second or third flowering.

Often it is the weak, slowly growing from small seeds that give the most beautiful, double, unusually colored flowers. Therefore, do not cull young plants, focusing on the strength of growth and the size of the seedling.

How else to propagate Persian cyclamen

Vegetative propagation will not give a large amount of planting material, however, firstly, it will ensure the complete preservation of varietal characteristics, and, secondly, it will allow you to get a strong and viable young plant with minimal effort.

Cyclamen can reproduce in the following ways:

Rooting a leaf at home: how to properly grow a flower

A leaf blade with a petiole, like that of saintpaulia or gloxinia, will not take root in cyclamen: after standing in the water for some time, she just starts to rot. To root a leaf, you need to pick it off by picking a small piece of the tuber from the surface, or choose a leaf with "fingers" - small root-like growths on the petiole.

It is important to remember that only European cyclamen can be propagated in this way, in Persian leaves, even with a piece of tuber, do not take root, and it does not have “fingers”. It should be borne in mind that the injury of the tuber at high humidity is fraught with its decay.

When propagating with a leaf, do not rush to remove part of the tuber with a leaf - first find out what kind of Cyclamen you have at home

Caring for a young plant from a leaf similar to caring for a grown seedling- plentiful, but not excessive watering, bright light, coolness that has a beneficial effect on the formation of an outlet. Not only this home flower can be propagated by a leaf - for example, we have already told,.

Reproduction by rosettes: where is it better to plant

A large adult tuber often produces more than one rosette of leaves, but several. Such an outlet is carefully cut or broken off with a small part of the tuber, after which it is planted in moist soil to grow a new plant.

For better rooting, it is placed in a greenhouse, and after a few weeks it begins to grow its own tuber. It is impossible to break off all sockets from the mother tuber, left without growth points, it will die.

European cyclamen produces more rosettes than Persian cyclamen, so it is more often propagated in this way. In addition to rosettes, it also gives small daughter nodules, which are planted from the mother plant during the dormant period. Persian does not provide them.

Tuber division: dangers when growing

For division, a sufficiently large and strong tuber with a large rosette of leaves is needed. With a disinfected knife, the tuber is cut in half, the halves are dried, sprinkled with colloidal sulfur or crushed coal, and then planted in disinfected soil.

You can not immediately water the divided tuber of Cyclamen - in this flower, tuber injury often leads to plant decay

The planted halves of the tuber should not be watered in the first few days to prevent rotting. Like ordinary healthy tubers, they need not deepen completely, leaving about a third above the soil surface.

The first watering of plants obtained by dividing a tuber or rooting rosettes is best done with boiled water - this reduces the risk of infection.

Despite the fact that seedlings obtained by vegetative propagation are stronger than cyclamen from seeds, bloom earlier and grow powerful tubers faster, rosettes and leaves do not always take root, and when dividing a tuber, both of its halves can die, falling victim bacterial rot or late blight.

Therefore, propagation by seeds is more reliable and safe, and it makes sense to dwell on it, especially when it comes to Persian cyclamen.

For the European Cyclamen, you need to choose the safest breeding method.

The European cyclamen, whose seedlings bloom only after two or three years, is best propagated by daughter nodules - this does not threaten the health of the mother plant, unlike tuber division and rosette separation.