Gloxinia: why does not bloom and what to do?
Gloxinia is characterized by very beautiful flowers, large with an unusual bright color. But sometimes it happens that this exotic flower does not enter the flowering phase, remaining an ordinary herbaceous bush.
How does gloxinia bloom? What if it does not bloom, or if it does not last long? What could be the cause of this trouble? You will find the answer to all these questions in this article.
What it is?
A small stocky bush with velvet elongated leaves blooms with amazingly beautiful flowers. The color is monophonic or two-tone, with a wide border around the edge of the petal, or a contrasting openwork ornament. Flowers come in a wide variety of shades from white to almost black.. The flower shape of an indoor flower resembles a bell pointing upward with a curved edge of the petal. According to the structure of the rhizome, gloxinia refers to tuberous plants.
Gloxinia, or in another way, synningia is an American by birth. In our country, it grows only at home, or in greenhouses. Belongs to the Hersenia family.
Flowering process
Most indoor flowers bloom in the summer, there are varieties blooming in the fall, and some are able to remain beautiful all year round. In order to understand if there is a problem at all, we will figure out what time and how long gloxinia blooms.
When?
In ideal conditions, gloxinia can bloom in Marchhowever, most often at this time buds are still being formed. Flowering continues through the September-October month.
How many?
Gloxinia blooms in 2 stages for about 3 months each. That is, the first flowering takes place from March to June, the second - from July to October. Between blossoms, the plant is pruned, and it again grows flower stalks and forms buds.
When will this happen to a leaf plant?
One of the methods of propagation is the rooting of a leaf or its fragment (more information about planting gloxinia from a leaf can be found here). For for a young plant to give flowers, he first needs to grow a tuber.
Therefore, if the leaf was rooted in the spring, then only in the fall can it bloom. There will not be many flowers, besides they will not last long. However, if you leave the tuber in the pot for the winter, then until next year it will increase the mass, which will provide strength to the plant for full flowering.
How to make blooming at home?
Why does the plant not bloom, but produce buds, which then dry up and what to do? There are several reasons for this problem. It is necessary to eliminate them and create the right conditions for the plant.
Consider the most effective solutions:
- How to feed gloxinia for abundant flowering? Any complex, preferably in liquid form, mineral fertilizer, which is intended for flowering plants. Do 3 times a month, starting with a two-week period after spring planting. Young seedlings begin to feed when new shoots with leaves appear. Feed until the fall. If there is no fertilizer at hand, pour the flower with ash solution.
- Give more light! Gloxinia is very fond of sunlight, it needs 12-14 hours of daylight to release peduncles.In spring, it is necessary to illuminate the plant. To do this, use phyto lamps, or fluorescent lamps with suitable characteristics.
- Put her in a suitable pot! If gloxinia is in a too spacious tank, then it will not bloom. A wide and low pot of small volume is needed (for more details on what size the pot is needed for the healthy development of gloxinia, see this material). The soil in the pot should be slightly larger in volume than the tuber itself (and more details on how to choose the best soil for gloxinia can be found here).
- Be careful with nitrogen! If your gloxinia has thick leaves and stems are dark green in color. There are a lot of leaves, it is possible to eat nitrogen overfeeding. Either there is too much humus in the soil, or the wrong fertilizers with a large percentage of nitrogen have been selected. Or both. You can fix it only by transplanting the flower into poor soil with a high peat content (more information about the gloxinia transplant can be found here). Feed only with the right fertilizer and in accordance with the instructions.
- Is the girl warm to you? If the room where the pot with gloxinia is standing is cool, then flowering will not occur. It is necessary to keep it in a temperature range of 20 to 25 degrees. This should also include the presence of drafts and a cold window sill, from which the soil in the pot has a low temperature.
- Radiator is an enemy of plants! In the heating season, plants may suffer from too low humidity, hot dry air rises from radiators directly to plants on the windowsill. Build a protective shield, or create moist air around the flower. You can put a pan with water, or spray water into the air from a spray bottle. Only do not get on the flower!
- Rested or not? In winter, gloxinia should rest for 4 months. The tuber is dug up and stored in a cool dark place, in a bag with slightly damp sand. If the rest did not last long, the conditions were not right, then the plant will not be able to fully bloom. In the case of young plants that have not yet grown a tuber, they leave it in a pot. But also cleaned in a dark place with a temperature of 12-15 degrees. It is important not to allow the soil to dry out during this period. It is unlikely to make the plant bloom in the event of an inferior rest.
Care
We talked about many aspects of care, but there were still some important things.
How often to water?
It is during flowering that gloxinia requires frequent and plentiful watering. It is necessary to water as soon as the soil surface dries. It is better to do this using the pallet method, because so gloxinia will take only the right amount. In addition, you can not get on the plant itself. Otherwise, it may rot.
Another plus in the piggy bank watering through a pan is the even distribution of moisture. In the summer, when we water from above, the moisture may still not reach the very bottom, partially evaporating from the surface. Water should only be settled and soft, room temperature or plus 3 degrees.
You can learn more about how to water and feed gloxinia at home, here.
Is it possible to trim the leaves?
If a leaf is needed for propagation, it is quite possible to cut it off (in more detail about the propagation of gloxinia by the leaf and caring for the plant, see this material). It is also not scary to cut off wilted and damaged leaves. However, do not seriously thin out the bush, from such stress gloxinia can drop flowers and stop flowering.
Leaves are pruned when the first flowering wave has ended. Not all are removed, but most, as well as all the peduncles. After some time, stepsons will appear, 2-3 of the strongest are left, the rest is cut out. Complete pruning of leaves and stems is carried out in late autumn, before laying the tuber for storage.
More information about the features of the difficult care and growing gloxinia at home can be found here.
Causes of the problem
There are not only the reasons discussed above, but also diseases and pests that prevent the plant from blooming.
Briefly about why it does not bloom:
- Bad light.
- Nutrient deficiency.
- Inappropriate pot.
- Unsuitable temperature.
- Excess nitrogen in the soil.
- Dry air.
- The lack of a full rest period (in more detail about when to remove gloxinia at rest, you can find in this material).
Disease
Most often, indoor plants affect fungal infections, which inhibit the development and can completely destroy the plant. It looks like a wilting with various spots and rotted areas.
You can try to save the plant:
- Remove affected areas.
- Carefully remove the plant from the soil.
- Inspect the root.
- Cut the rotten areas on the tuber with a sharp knife and process with crushed coal.
- Spray the plant with tuber fungicides.
- Plant in clean soil.
If the root neck decays, then the only growth point that will be available will be the only salvation. If there is none, there is no point in saving gloxinia.
Attention! The cause of the disease is improper care and conditions of detention. This is especially true for watering and air temperature.More information about the diseases of gloxinia can be found here, and in more detail about what kind of leaf diseases a plant has, you can read in this material.
Pests
Gloxinia can affect any indoor insect pests: spider mites, thrips, aphids and others. If insects are found in the ground or on the plant, insecticides must be treated. Remember to check the rest of the plants in the house to avoid reinfestation.
If thin, dry patches appear on the leaves, carefully inspect the back of the sheet, possibly even with a magnifying glass. Some pests are microscopic in size.
As a result of their life, insects harm the flower: they suck out the juice, depriving the plant of some nutrients, and also cause mechanical damage. Therefore, a plant affected by insect pests may not bloom.
Conclusion
There are many legends on the Internet about how to make a plant bloom: they offer to pour iced, or hot water, meat broth and other miraculous means. But do not come up with difficulties, you just need to take care of your favorite plant by all the rules. Then your gloxinia will bloom all the time set by him!