Features of planting and care for streptocarpus at home

Seeing once streptokarpus, many flower lovers will certainly want to grow the same at home. Knowledge of the features of flower care will help to avoid many mistakes, and the plant will be pleasing to the eye with lush flowering for a long time.

Plant description

Streptokarpus - herbaceous plant long-lived rosette type with a short stem. It comes from South africa. Leaves 5 cm wide and 25 cm long look down, and at their edges numerous sharp teeth are located. One or two flowers are in the axils on high peduncles (up to 25 cm). The corolla of the five blades, funnel-shaped pale purple color with bright stripes in the throat and tube.

Conditions for content

Streptokarpus enough easy to care for and grow they cannot be called capricious plants.

One has only to follow a few simple rules, which will be discussed below.

Lighting for growing

Strepsa prefer a large amount of diffused light, which means they feel best in the summer on the north side on the balcony, and in the winter - on the south. They do not tolerate burning sun rays, so in the spring-summer season from 10 to 16 hours they must be protected from the direct sun. Light directly affects the abundance of flowering streptokarpusa.

Therefore, if you want to watch the blooming streptokarpus as long as possible, provide him with the necessary care at home.

Humidity and room temperature

Streptocarpus do not tolerate heat (including the neighborhood with batteries and other heating devices). The air temperature should not be more than 27-30 degrees, because in this case, streptokarpus quickly falls ill and loses its protective function. However, coolness and drafts (including air conditioning) streptokarpus tolerates well. However, the temperature should not fall below 0 ° C.In general, streptokarpus easily tolerates temperature fluctuations from +5 to +25 ° C, but most of them prefer to be in a room in which from 15 to 25 degrees.

Humidity should be around 50-60%. In order to always maintain it at this level, it is enough to spray the plant at night from a spray bottle and place the pot on trays with wet sand or peat moss.

Soil requirements

Strepsy love the poor and loose substrate through which air easily penetrates. Red high-moor peat and soil from under coniferous plants (straight with needles) are good for them. You can choose a mixture for violets by adding a little of the above mentioned peat. However, you should not use fatty soil, because the root system simply rot in it.

Streptokarpus: planting plants

Reproduction streptokarpus produced in three main ways, which will be discussed below.

Seeds

This way quite laborious and requiring accuracy, because the seeds of streptocarpus are very small.

A plastic container with a lid is an ideal container for growing a plant. The bottom is best left untouched, and in the lid you must make a few holes for good ventilation. At the bottom of the tank you need to lay out a layer of coarse sand, perlite, vermiculite and a bit of wet substrate. Next, you should pour the seeds first on the foil or a dry sheet of paper, and then evenly distribute it over the ground, not falling asleep with earth.If you sow the seeds in a regular pot, cover it with a light-transmitting film with holes. After sowing the seeds do not need watering. Note that streptocarpus that grows from seed will not necessarily look like their parents.

Cuttings

A freshly cut leaf stalk (or a piece of it) must be planted in an earthen substrate.To do this, take a piece of leaf cuttings of 5 cm in size and process its cut with charcoal. Make a small hole in the soil and insert a cutting down into it. Next should be podgresti land to the handle so that its cut was located under the ground for one centimeter.

We water the ground and put in a plastic bag in a warm place closer to the light. If there is condensation on the package, it will be necessary to air the cutting. Children will grow up in about a month.

Division of the mother bush

This is the easiest method of breeding streptocarpus. In an adult plant, as it grows, tops appear that slow down the growth of the maternal streptocarpus.

Such a flower should be carefully removed from the pot, shake off the substrate and remove all flower stalks, dividing it so that each part has both a top and a root. Next, you need to sprinkle the slices with crushed coal, leave to dry for half an hour and plant in pots with a diameter of about 7 cm (the substrate should be slightly moist and porous).

Freshly planted streptocarpus should be covered with a film for a fortnight or a month, and after the expiration date, you can admire the plant that has taken root and started to bloom.

How to care for a flower at home

For successful flowering and growth of streptocarpus should properly care for him. Listed below are basic streptocarpus needs.

Watering

Water should be used that is separated a little warmer than room temperature. Ideally, watering is necessary when the ground is completely dry. This should be done in the first half of the day, but note that if it is raining outside and the air is high, it is better to postpone watering. The key to plant health is moderate watering.

For streptokarpus useful periodic short-term drying of the earthy coma, but the over-wetting of the substrate is dangerous rotting roots and the death of the plant.

In addition, if the plant will from time to time receive less water, the risk of developing fungi is reduced, because they can not exist without moisture.

Fertilizers and feeding

For proper growth and development streptokarpusu necessarily need feeding. A good option for young plants is fertilizer with nitrogen mixed in equal amounts with phosphorus. For older adults, a solution in which phosphorus and potassium prevail (should be fertilized before flowering begins).

Adult plants are usually transplanted at the end of winter, after which the first feeding follows a month later, which is done every 10-12 days.

Pruning

Streptocarpus allowed to trim in any season.

This removes: old leaves from which flower stalks have already been grown; excess leaves due to which the plant has become too thick; painful leaves; flower stalks that have bloomed.

Transfer

Young plants as they grow should be transplanted into larger pots. Adults need to be transplanted once a year in spring or summer. It is necessary to take care of that the land before the transplant was a little wet (it should not stick to hands). In order to fix the position of the plant during transplantation, it is necessary to put a layer of sphagnum moss on the soil surface.

Major diseases and pests

Pathogens can cause yellowing, twisting, wilting of the leaves, and often completely kill the plant.

Therefore, it is important to timely identify the disease in the initial stages and begin appropriate treatment. However, if you carry out preventive measures in advance, you can avoid plant diseases.

Diseases include:

• Mealy dew. This disease is characterized by a mealy white bloom, which is formed on young leaves, as well as peduncles and flowers. In order to prevent this disease, you should ensure good ventilation of the air in the room. Many people believe that violet flowers are mainly prone to this disease.
• Gray rot. This disease appears from the prolonged stay of the plant in dampness and cold (especially in winter). Initially, a sheet appears on the sheet, and then a hole forms in its place. In order to cure this ailment, you should remove the damaged areas of the sheet.

There are also many pests among which:

• Aphid. Like the rest of the houseplants, streptocarpus is affected by these pests.Aphid is a small insect of green or orange color. It reproduces on plants very quickly and thereby introduces it into a stressful state. Overflowing or, on the contrary, the arid state of the plant increases the chances of the appearance of aphids on it. It is worth knowing that the insect is able to fly to the rest of the plants in your apartment and destroy them, so it is important to get rid of it in time.

• Weevil. Insect without wings with a black body and a sharp head. It is dangerous for the plant that eats away its leaves and leaves visible traces. During the day it is almost invisible, because it is active at night. Weevil lays the larvae, which later also eat the plants and lead to his death.
• Thrips. Two-millimeter insect, leaving behind a pale spot on the flowers, as well as provoking the fall of pollen from the anthers. See them on the plant is difficult, but you can shake the flower on a sheet of paper, and they will become visible.

In general, streptokarpus do not require special care and easy to breed, and most importantly - will please the eye with its beauty every day.