Begonia attracts the attention of all florists, not only the beauty of its flowers, but also the bright and spectacular color of the leaves. This color is transmitted to the offspring when using vegetative propagation methods, including leaf fragments.
If you know how to propagate a flower with a leaf, you can get a new, elegant plant in a fairly short time. It is not at all difficult to do this, and the efficiency of leaf multiplication of a flower is very high.
Let's talk about this method in detail in our article. You can also watch a useful video on this topic.
How to multiply at home?
There are 5 main methods of reproduction of this flower:
- Growing from seed.
- Rooting parts of the sheet.
- Cutting begonias.
- Division of tubers.
- The division of the bush.
How to grow a flower from a part of a plant?
The breeding of begonias with a leaf is a simple and effective way of growing new flowers.. Recommended time - spring - summer.
This method has a number of positive points:
- gives you the opportunity to get several young begonias at once;
- maternal plant causes minimal damage;
- A new young plant using this method will be able to grow at home for 1 - 3 months.
Training
- Soils. Soil should not contain pathogens of infectious diseases and pests. To reduce the risk of such phenomena, it is necessary to apply water vapor and treat the soil for half an hour.
- Sheet. One large healthy leaf is selected and cut off at the base without any damage and fungal diseases. For the prevention of their appearance, it is recommended to treat it with a fungicide before planting. Such a leaf does not make sense to root entirely, so it must be cut into separate segments, each of which contains a vein. The more leaf veins, the more babies you can get from it. If the sheet is medium in size, it can be rooted whole.
Landing
Planting leaf for the purpose of reproduction can be made by different methods:
- Planting a leaf rooted in water. After the roots appear, the leaf is planted in a pot with a substrate.
- Rooting in the soil of the whole sheet. The leaf is razlazhivaetsya on the ground face up and pressed against the soil with a load in the form of pebbles.
- Rooting leaf fragments. Each segment is immersed in the soil place cut.
Choosing the "right" pot
For rooting the fragments of the sheet begonias do not need any special capacity. Most often experienced growers use 100-gram plastic cups with drainage holes at the bottom. You can also take plastic containers. It is better if the container walls are transparent: it is easier to observe the emergence and development of the root of the young plant.
Soil selection
Important: The main requirement for the ground for begonia is that it should be loose and breathable, with a low humus content.
- 1 option: For rooting leaf fragments, you can use peat and coconut tablets: after soaking the tablets in warm settled water, mix them in a 1: 1 ratio, add 10% to 20% of perlite from the main substrate volume.
- Option 2: 1 part peat mixed with 1 part river sand.
- 3 option: Mix sand with crushed sphagnum 1: 1.
Step-by-step instructions on how to multiply in different ways.
There are 3 ways of breeding leaf:
Fragments of a leaflet
- Prepare everything you need: a sharp knife, a sheet of begonias, a plate or glass, a substrate, drainage, pots, a plastic bag, activated carbon, "Kornevin".
- Remove leaf stalk.
- Put a sheet on a plank with a radially sharp knife from the middle to the edge into fragments in the form of triangles, each of which should have one or two veins, since all nutrients move along it. From one sheet can get 10 or more fragments.
- Treat slices with crushed activated charcoal mixed with "Kornovin".
- In a container at the bottom fill the drainage layer, then pour a moistened substrate into 2/3 of the pot.
- Having made a small groove in the ground, deepen the fragment in it by cutting down 5 - 7 mm.
- Lightly crush the substrate with your hands, thus fixing the segment of the sheet.
- Cover the container with a plastic bag on top or place the pot in a special plastic transparent container that acts as a greenhouse.
We recommend to watch the video on the reproduction of begonias with leaf fragments:
Incision on the sheet
You can multiply the begonia with cuts on the sheet. For this you need:
- Take a large sheet of begonias, knife, pot, substrate, drainage, pebbles, plastic wrap.
- The bottom of the pot is filled with drainage, then with a moistened substrate.
- A large and healthy leaf (length 7 cm or more) is incised with a sharp knife across the veins in several places (the distance between the incisions should be 2 to 3 cm).
- The notched leaf is placed face down on the moistened soil in the pot.
- The sheet is pressed down with small stones to the substrate in places near the cuts.
- Covered on top of plastic wrap.
We recommend to watch the video on the breeding of begonias using the cut sheet:
In water
For this method, a whole sheet of begonia is taken.. It consists in the following:
- Prepare a healthy begonia leaf, a container of water, a tablet of activated carbon.
- In a container with water, add a tablet of activated carbon.
- Place a healthy begonia leaf in a container with water and leave until the roots appear.
- The leaf with the appeared roots lands in a pot with a ground, covered with a plastic bag.
This method of reproduction, like placing a leaf with a handle in water, makes it possible to get only one plant.. In addition, it is considered one of the least effective, as the roots are weak and difficult to survive in the soil after transplanting.
We recommend to watch the video on the breeding of begonias with a leaf in the water:
Home care
Greenhouse is usually placed in a warm (+ 20C - + 24C) and bright place, but a place without direct sunlight. If breeding is done in winter, the seedlings must be provided with additional lighting. For young plants, temperature drops and drafts are not allowed.. You can not remove the greenhouse until the new leaves are formed!
With the advent of the first young leaves, the plant must begin to accustom to the air in the room. To do this, first for 3-5 minutes, then for 10 minutes daily to remove the bag or open the lid of the greenhouse.
Over time, the duration of these "airing" need to increase. After the leaf segments give the roots, they can be removed from the greenhouse and moved to a permanent place.
Water properly
For successful rooting in the greenhouse must be a constant high humidity, for which the air and the surface of the soil should be regularly sprayed, but without creating dampness, as the begonia sheet can easily rot. The need for another spraying may indicate the absence of condensate on the walls and the lid of the greenhouse.
Board: Spraying the substrate is an alternative to watering while the young plant is in the greenhouse. You can not spray the leaves of a plant with a spray bottle, as stains may appear on them, and then the plant may die.
How to water young shoots?
- Strong water pressure can dislodge the still weak root system of children, so watering after removing the greenhouse should be done carefully using the method of drip irrigation or irrigation of the top layer of the substrate from the spray gun.
- You can use and improvised means, for example, watering with a spoon or syringe.
- Also for the development of the root system of a young plant it is recommended to produce watering in the pan.
- Regular irrigation - as the drying of the top layer of soil.
- Water should be at room temperature or a degree - two higher.
Conclusion
The way of plant breeding leaves is quite simple and effective. It does not require special material costs. In addition, in a very short time it is possible to grow a large number of new healthy plants from a leaf.