Planting balsam for seedlings: when to sow, how to care for seedlings, planting in open ground
To grow a beautiful and healthy balsam (which is also sometimes called Impatient or Vanka Wet), you need to know the basic rules for sowing it for seedlings at home and further care, which will be detailed below.
Follow our recommendations and such a wonderful flower will delight you all summer long with its lush and long flowering.
Content
Popular varieties of balsam
The most common and popular types and varieties of balsam include the following:
- Waller (Waller);
- Hybrids from New Guinea;
- Garden balsam;
- Iron-nosed (Impatiens glandular);
- Dwarf Tom Tamb.
Regardless of which variety you choose for planting, compliance with all the basic rules for growing it from seeds and further care in the open field will definitely reward its beautiful flowering.
Balsam planting technology for seedlings
Landing dates in 2021
The optimal time for sowing balsam seeds for seedlings in the Middle Polos (Moscow region) begins from the first days of March. The growing season of the plant is not very long, so it makes no sense to plant it in February, unless you are a resident of the Southern Region (Krasnodar Territory, not Volgograd Region).
According to the lunar calendar in 2021
Choosing the best date for sowing seeds can help you Moon calendar.
So favorable days for sowing balsam for seedlings in 2021 according to the lunar calendar are:
- in February - 1-8, 10-20, 25-29;
- in March - 2-8, 10-14, 29-31;
- in April - 1, 2, 5-7, 9, 17-20, 24, 25;
- in May - 2-6, 15-17, 20, 21, 25-31;
- in June - 2-4, 7-9, 11-14, 16-19.
Unfavorable days according to the lunar calendar for 2021 for sowing balsam, the following dates are (days of the Full Moon and New moons, as well as the period when the Moon is in Aquarius, because it is a barren and dry sign -italicized):
- in February -10-11, 27;
- in March -9-10, 13, 28;
- in April -5-6, 12, 27;
- in May -2-4, 11, 26, 30-31;
- in June -10, 24, 26-27.
Capacity and soil
Before planting balsam for seedlings at home, you first need to choose a suitable sowing container and nutrient soil.
It is better to choose a large container: it can be either plastic or wooden boxes. But you can easily sow it in small boxes or plastic containers from a store-bought salad or pie.
By the way! You can grow balsam from seeds in peat tablets - it is much easier and much easier to care for.
The soil for planting balsam seeds requires light and loose, it must pass moisture and oxygen well, therefore dense and heavy for these purposes is not at all suitable.
You can buy the soil at a flower shop or prepare it yourself using the following recipe:
- 1 part of garden or vegetable garden land
- 1 part peat (or coarse sand)
Important! Balsam does not tolerate organic fertilizers, so do not add compost or fresh humus to the soil mixture.
The soil must be mixed well and sieved thoroughly, and then disinfect in one of the ways.
Planting seeds
Before planting, balsam seeds must be processed, or rather disinfected. It is best to do this in a warm 1% solution of potassium permanganate, keeping it for 20 minutes, previously wrapped in a gauze bag. Then rinse with warm clean water.
Sowing balsam seeds for seedlings is done in several steps:
- Carefully, using a spray bottle, moisten the ground.
- Now you need to evenly and superficially distribute the seeds.
- In order for the seeds to better hold in the ground, sprinkle with water once more from a spray bottle.
- Place the container in a plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap (you can close the lid).
- Place the landing container in a warm enough (temperature 20-25 degrees) and lighted place.
Video: sowing balsam seeds with a pull margin
Care for balsam seedlings after sowing
From the moment of sowing to the first shoots, as a rule, it takes from 7 to 21 days.
By the way! It shouldn't come as a surprise to you that the balsam will not rise well. So, some will already have real leaves, while others will just start to appear.
Until the first shoots appear, it is necessary to ventilate the containers with seeds daily by opening them for a few minutes. After the sprouts appear, first it is worth increasing the time for ventilation, and after 3-5 days, completely remove the covering material.
After emergence, they will still need good and bright lighting. As always, you can use backlighting for this, for example phytolamps or LED counterparts.
It is imperative to monitor the moisture content of the soil, it should not dry out. And, of course, it is the best to maintain the optimum temperature within 16-18 degrees.
Picking
As soon as 2 true leaves develop, you can start picking balsam seedlings.
It is optimal to plant the plant in separate containers, for example, in cassettes or plastic cups, where drainage holes should be made to avoid the accumulation of liquid.
Advice! Be sure to water the seedlings before picking so that the plants are well separated and not injured.
Balsam picking is carried out as follows: an ordinary spoon is taken and each plant, which already has 2 true leaves (remember, it develops very unevenly), gently pry off and separate. It is important not to injure its root system. Now you need to make a small hole and place a seedling there, deepening it to the cotyledon leaves. It remains only to sprinkle it with some water.
Video: picking balsam seedlings
Leaving after a pick
Further care for balsam seedlings after a pick consists in regular watering and additional lighting so that the daylight hours are at least 12 hours. The temperature should be already within 18-20 degrees.
If suddenly the soil in the seedlings falls down, then a little soil should be added so that, firstly, it does not dry out so quickly, and secondly, if the soil is not enough, then there are not enough nutrients for the full growth of the seedlings.
If the balsam seedlings begin to stretch, then this means only one thing: either it does not have enough light, or it lacks nutrition, which means that feeding is needed. It can be a mineral fertilizer or some kind of humus fertilizer (for example, Gumistar). It all depends on your capabilities and preferences.
Planting balsam seedlings in open ground
The optimal time for planting balsam in open ground is the month of May, when the threat of return spring frosts will pass.
Balsam requires moderate sun (the plant does not tolerate strong sunlight and begins to wilt) and good protection from the winds. Therefore, a garden bed near a fence or a flower bed near sparse trees will be an ideal place for planting it.
Garden balsam grows well on soft and loose soils that are well-drained and never acidic.
Advice! You can successfully grow balsam in a planter or in a balcony box.
Before planting the plant, it is advisable to treat the soil with a special fungicide, as well as add manure (just not fresh!) And water it. Also vermicompost can be used as a top dressing.
Now it is necessary to remove the balsam seedlings from the containers along with the earthen lump and carefully put in the hole, sprinkle with soil and press a little. It won't be superfluous to mulch the landing sawdust (or any other mulch) so that the ground around does not dry out and do not have to be watered endlessly. In addition, this is an additional plus for the plant, since the root collar is mulched and thus the roots of the plant will not be washed out during watering.
The balsam planting scheme is at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other, because the flowers grow very magnificently.
Sowing seeds directly into open ground
If the air temperature rises to 20-25 degrees (and this is the end of May-beginning of June), then balsam seeds can be sown directly into the open ground. However, if the night air temperature drops below 19, then young crops will need to be covered with cellophane, and even better with spunbond or acrylic (depending on what you have available), thereby creating a greenhouse effect.
Caring for balsam after planting in open ground
Further care for balsam includes the following procedures:
- regular watering (it's not for nothing that they call him Wet Vanka);
- feeding.
Balsam is a very moisture-loving plant, so it is necessary to constantly maintain its moisture content, especially if the weather is dry and hot, but in no case should it be flooded. You need to water by sprinkling, falling on the leaves and flowers. The flower will be delighted with such watering.
Young seedlings should be watered 2-3 times a week as the soil near the flower dries up. And already adult flowers, if the weather is dry and hot, then in the morning and in the evening, that is, 2 times a day.
As for feeding balsam, nitrogen fertilizers are great for young shoots, if you need to increase the green mass, that is, flower buds have not yet begun to be tied. And already during flowering, it is better to use potassium-phosphorus fertilizers. With the end of flowering, feeding is completely stopped.
Advice! It is optimal to apply top dressing together with watering in order to improve the availability of nutrients and to avoid plant burns.
It will be very good if you fertilize the balsam with special geranium fertilizers, they are very useful for him.
What to do after flowering: collecting seeds
The flowering period of balsam can reach up to mid-autumn, that is, until October. As a rule, it ends its flowering at the end of summer.
After the seed boxes appear on the plant, they will need to be quickly collected and stored in order to re-plant the balsam with seeds next year.
By the way! Balsam seeds remain viable for about 7 years.
Due to the fact that this is an annual plant, at the end of flowering, they should be removed from the garden in order to plant them in the same place next year.
Thus, even a novice gardener can grow balsam from seeds. He will definitely not deliver any special worries when leaving in the open ground, he only needs regular watering.
Video: growing and caring for balsam