How to grow mallow: when to plant and how to care, whether to prune and prepare for winter

Mallow is an ornamental type plant with bright large flowers. Due to the beautiful appearance, they can decorate personal plots, plant near houses, in vegetable gardens. In addition, mallow has a special mucus, which allows the plant to be used for medicinal purposes, to relieve inflammatory processes. Growing a flower is not difficult. In order to know how to properly grow mallow, it is enough to follow some rules.

General description of the plant

The plant belongs to the Malvaceae family. It is annual, biennial and perennial.On a long stem, the height of which in some cases can reach up to 2 meters, large flowers grow, with a diameter of no more than 12 centimeters. The appearance and shape of the mallow is like a bell, and the leaves are like hearts.

Mallow has a variety of cultivars ranging in color from pale pink to deep purple. Flowers bloom in July and August. Mallow is resistant to cold and does not succumb to the harmful effects of frost. In addition, the flower rarely “sicks”, and is able to withstand drought. In most cases, it is not atmospheric conditions that bring harm, but pests (ticks, slugs and others).

Specifics of growing mallow

Seeds can be planted in the ground as early as May and June. Before autumn and winter colds come, only a rosette of leaves will have time to form, and flowering will occur only next summer.

If you want to see flowering this year, sowing should be organized in January or February.

How to choose the sowing date

Features of growing annual and perennial flowers are the same. The only difference is in the sowing time. The annual mallow is prepared and sown in winter, and the soil should be planted in May. In such cases, flowering will occur in the summer. A biennial and perennial plant is sown in May and planted in August or September.

Site preparation

Before you sow seeds or plant seedlings, you need to dig deep into the required place. If the soil is not rich in nutrients, it is recommended to prepare it, namely, to fertilize with compost or rotted manure. To improve the drainage properties of the soil, it is enriched with coarse-grained river sand.

Preparation of planting material

Flower growers recommend leaving the seeds to lie for some time until they are finished ripening.However, there is controversy over this issue, and some gardeners believe that seeding should be done immediately after discarding the seeds from the box.

Before you need to plant the material, it is recommended to soak it for 36 hours in warm water.

Scheme and planting process

Planting annuals, biennials and perennials next to each other is not worth it. The distance between the seeds should be at least 50 centimeters, but if low species are planted, it can be reduced. The hole should be about 3 inches deep. After placing the seed in the hole, it is covered with a layer of earth and compacted. During the germination of the stem, constant soil moisture is required.

To speed up pecking and retain moisture in the required area, lutrasil is placed on top of it - a covering material for protection. The period between planting and germination of mallow reaches 3 weeks.

Further plant care

In order for the mallow to grow he althy, you must follow some gardeners' recommendations for watering, feeding and other actions.

Water and fertilize

Although in the process of caring for a planted flower, constant moistening of the earth is required, it is not recommended to water the soil daily and in large volumes. If outside the window is normal sunny weather conditions, 1-2 waterings in 7 days will suffice.

In case of drought, the frequency of moistening the earth is increased to 2 days. In this case, the volume of water entering the ground can be greater. At high ambient temperatures, the plant will not disappear, which can be explained by the presence of a long root that penetrates into the deep layers of the soil. Abundant watering is needed for mass flowering. This will make the plants lush.

Top dressing of mallow is carried out with the help of phosphorus-potassium fertilizer, at the beginning of the summer period. It is necessary to observe the time between manipulations of 20 days. Other materials - organic matter (humus or compost) have a beneficial effect on the flowering of mallow.

As soon as the buds appear, they feed the mallow with complex mineral fertilizers.

Pinch

Pinching is a neat pruning of shoots and buds located at the end of a branch. It must be carried out before winter, to prevent breaking off under a large mass of snow. Stepping is also required, which is carried out when growing seedlings, to give density to the future plant.

Transfer

It is recommended to transplant the plant as it grows. If there is not enough space in the growth area, it is necessary to divide the mallow, for example, into 2-3 parts, and transplant each separately.

Loosening

Although the plant is quite large and sprawling, with powerful roots that need normal air exchange, periodic loosening of the soil is necessary to maintain this process.

Loosen the soil carefully to prevent damage to the lower leaves and rhizomes. If the roots are accidentally damaged, the plant may die.

Do I need to prune mallow

Gardeners recommend cutting the mallow after it has faded and dry boxes with seeds have formed inside. After that, the mallow grows quickly, and can still bloom a second time.

Shelter for the winter

Preparing mallow for cold and winter is not difficult. In the absence of severe frost, the plant will easily survive the winter period. Under the influence of a critically low temperature, it is harmed (especially for young flowers or plants of a sensitive variety).

To minimize harm, as a flower shelter for the winter, dry leaves, cellophane, fiberglass are used.

Possible diseases and pests

As with any plant, mallow is susceptible to pests that can harm the plant. One of these are slugs that can live on leaves and flowers. Pests can be removed from the mallow manually or use the following simple method: pour beer into several small containers, arrange around the stem. The very next day, you can observe that the pests have crawled to the liquid. Harm to the plant causes rust, which is located on the iron fence. As a rule, this is formed on the leaves if the mallow grows near the fence. The affected leaves are cut off and destroyed, and the plant is treated with a fungicide.

In the hot season, the risk of mallow damage by spider mites increases.Among the characteristic signs of the disease is the presence of white dots on the leaves, which increase in size. As a result, the leaves dry up. If pests are found on the plant, it is treated with a soapy solution or mineral oil. If they are ineffective, drugs Vertimek or Fitoverm are used.

Another pest is aphid, which causes yellowing of flowers, leaves, buds. In this case, a soap solution that is sprayed on the affected areas will also help.

Breeding Methods

Reproduction of mallow can be seed and cuttings. After the end of flowering, the formation of seed pods occurs, in which the seed fruits are localized. The latter fully ripen in 3-4 weeks. When the seeds have turned yellow, they are collected, put to dry in the room. The terry variety propagates by cuttings. To grow mallow, cuttings are collected, cut off at the root of an adult plant. For planting mallow in the summer, the collection of cuttings cut from the stems is required.

Mallow is a plant that grows beautiful flowers that adorn house adjoining, garden lands and other areas. However, in order to get a rich "harvest", you need to know how to properly plant and grow a plant. To do this, you need to study the above recommendations of gardeners. Particular attention should be paid to mallow pests and diseases, which, in most cases, lead to its death.

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