How to Care for Petunias: How to Care for Petunias: Are petunias easy to care for? How many times do you have to water them a week? These plants are quite resistant and endure the conditions of low humidity. They bloom in summer and are very popular in the gardens. In another article, we talked about how to plant petunias today on other popular petunias flowers.
How to Care for Petunias in Your Garden
1. Hours of Sun and Temperature
Petunias need between 4-5 hours of sun, they can grow with partial shade, but they will have fewer flowers. If you want your beautiful flowers to shine, at least 4 hours of sunlight a day will be needed. If the plant grows but does not have flowers, it lacks sun and changes to another location to receive more light. Later we talk about fertilizer so that the plant is receiving its proper dose. They like warm temperatures between 16 and 25 degrees.
2. The Earth
A conventional garden compost serves you. The plants appreciate the mulch to maintain humidity. It is advisable to enrich with fertilizer or manure, and it will help to improve drainage and soil fertility. Its roots are superficial, so they appreciate rich and well-drained soil.
3. Irrigation
These plants adapt well to heat. Watering once a week is enough. In winter, it spans 1 irrigation every 14 days. Fertilize plants monthly to ensure good growth. It serves as any specific fertilizer for flowers. Follow the instructions for dosing since adding more product would damage the plant.
4. Propagation
If you want to grow petunias from seeds, remember they are very small. It is very easy to ‘overplant or over plant’ and end up with several plants in the same space. Use tweezers to choose just the right seeds. You have to plant about 10 weeks before June; this is about the month of March. The seeds, in principle, require a lot of light to germinate. It serves you well-drained land or common compost.
Space the seeds about 20 cm and cover them with plastic to retain moisture. Place them in a bright place for not with direct sun. Water only when you notice the soil dry, no more. Once the seedlings have come out, transfer them to individual pots.
5. Diseases
There are pests and diseases that can affect petunias—the aphids, the whitefly, the red spider or the thrips for example. A good remedy is to store 12 or more butts, open them and shred the tobacco in a bottle. Add water and let stand one day. Then the result you use to spray the diseased plant.
Another problem is botrytis or gray mold. Try to eliminate dead flowers that are usually a focus on diseases. Virosis, petunias are also susceptible to several viruses if you notice weakened or withered plants remove them since these viruses have no treatment.
For the caterpillars that eat the leaves, the best solution is to remove them and spray the plant with the previous tobacco remedy so that the caterpillars go to eat elsewhere. In your garden center, you can find specific products to treat all these diseases.