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When decorating and landscaping a plot with flowers, we often use petunia. It can grow anywhere - in flower beds, discounts, in large vases and flower pots of any size, in a hollowed-out driftwood, a cut plastic bottle, a bucket full of holes, even an old shoe.
If you only need a few flowers, we do not hesitate to buy seedlings, since it is worth it within reason. But to decorate a large area, or if you want to turn the yard into a blooming and fragrant miracle, it is better to grow flowers yourself. Those who purchase seeds from year to year know how often poor-quality planting material comes on sale. And what is stated on the label does not always grow. We will show you how to collect petunia seeds at home.
Seed reproduction of petunias
Reproduction of flowers by seeds is one of the easiest and most affordable ways. But only if you know when and how to collect them, how to dry them, and also what to expect from the emerging seedlings. And that often happens - the mistress of the dry flowers picked up, sowed, and they either did not sprout at all, or during flowering turned out to be completely different from the mother plant.
Actually, petunia is a perennial plant, we just grow it as an annual. Owners of conservatories or greenhouses may well transfer their favorite flower to the house for the winter. Even just on a wide, well-lit windowsill, after a short rest and a short pruning, petunia will delight caring owners with abundant winter flowering.
But most of us are content with intercourse with a beautiful fragrant flower from May to September-October. And they are forced to independently collect seeds from the plants they especially like in order to sow them on seedlings in the summer to get a new extravaganza of colors and smells.
General information
Fruits of petunias are bivalve capsules, cracking when ripe, with very small seeds of dark brown, rarely yellowish color. Usually the ovary reaches one centimeter in length and contains 100 or more seeds with a diameter of half a millimeter. You can collect them only until the box is fully disclosed.
The pistils of petunias ripen before the stamens, therefore, with rare exceptions, it is a cross-pollinated flower. What to expect after sowing? Will the grown flowers look like their "parents"?
Watch a video that clearly shows which petunias you can collect seeds from and what will happen as a result:
Plain plain flowers
From the seeds of monochromatic petunias, most likely you grow up plants similar to mothers. The simpler the color and shape of the flower, the more likely it is that the phonographs will look like last year's. Best of all, the next generation is transferred to white, pink, purple, lilac (all shades) colors. Red, black, yellow can split into other colors or change the shade.
Hybrid plants
Perhaps the most beautiful flowers in a hybrid petunia. They can be multi-colored:
- striped;
- star-shaped;
- speckled;
- rimmed;
- mesh.
Or differ in flowers:
- fringed;
- corrugated;
- with a wavy edge;
- terry.
It is possible to collect seeds from all hybrid petunias, except for terry varieties. True, when the seedlings bloom, they can be very different from the mother plants in both the shape of the flower and the color.But in any case, they will be beautiful. Some housewives sow the seeds they have collected with their own hands and wait with hesitation to see how stripes or spots will be located on the flower.
Terry varieties
How to collect seeds of terry petunia? The answer is very simple - no way. Terry hybrids do not set seeds, since it is their pistils that turn into additional petals. Stamens not only reproduce normally, there are even more of them than ordinary varieties.
Plant a terry petunia next to a regular petunia, collect seeds from the latter. The result of cross-pollination, if you are lucky, will be from 30 to 45% of plants with many petals.
So is it possible to propagate terry petunia? Yes, but vegetative propagation is used to ensure the preservation of varietal traits.
Getting seeds
Collecting petunia seeds and storing them is easy. You just need to follow some rules.
Seed collection
It is best to collect petunia seeds on a dry sunny day. Using sharp scissors, cut off the darkened, already cracked, but not yet opened boxes and put them in a clean box or paper bag.
It is believed that the best seeds are obtained from the first flowers. Mark the selected seed pods with colored threads and wait for ripening.
Very often we do not sow even half of the seeds that we collect. It makes no sense at all not to cleanse the petunia of wilted buds and prematurely stop its flowering. Remember that each ovary contains about 100 seeds, which are stored for 3-4 years.
Drying and storage
It is not enough to simply collect the seeds; they need to be dried following some simple rules. Spread the boxes in a thin layer on a clean sheet of paper and leave in a dark, well-ventilated place at room temperature until dry.
Free the seeds from the pods, put them in paper bags, label them with the variety. They will need another 3-4 months for ripening. It simply means that the planting stock must be kept at room temperature in a dry place.
Conclusion
Now you know how to properly collect, dry, store petunia seeds. This does not require any special effort or special knowledge.
Grow flowers yourself. Let them delight you not only throughout the warm season, but also in the cold dull winter.
