Fuchsia: cultivation and care, how it breeds and hibernates, diseases and pests with photos

Profusely flowering houseplants are especially loved by florists and hobbyists. Fuchsia, strewn with buds and flowers, can become a real decoration of the house, and in the summer - and a country flower bed. The exquisite shape, bright complex color of the petals make the culture popular with flower growers. Consider the features of growing and caring for fuchsia.

What is a plant?

Small fuchsia trees or shrubs were discovered in the Dominican Republic in the 17th century. Fúchsia was named after the German botanist L. Fuchs. Natural species are found in South and Central America, New Zealand.

A perennial plant belongs to the Cypriaceae family. About a hundred natural types of fuchsia are known. The decorativeness of the bush and the long abundant flowering served as an impetus for the cultivation of the plant at home. Breeders have created many varieties that are distinguished by a wide variety of shapes and colors of flowers.

Home plant - a bush with a straight or ampel-shaped stem with flexible branches. Foliage color is green or slightly red. The leaves are pointed, oppositely located. Fuchsia blooms for a long time, with a large number of buds. The flowers are drooping, consist of a calyx of a bright shade and a corolla. The petals are bent. Forms an edible fruit.

Reference: purple color is called fuchsia. A bright, sophisticated shade that is consistently a hit in many fashion collections.

Variety varieties of fuchsia

From hundreds of natural fuchsia species, breeders have obtained many varieties and hybrids that differ in the shape of the stem and flowers. Plant lovers grow species and varieties in cottages and apartments.

Fuchsia varieties are divided into several groups according to the shape of flowers and stems:

ampel;
with plain colors;
double and semi-double;
blooming tassels.

Popular bush fuchsia varieties:

Thalia - orange petals, trifoliate variety;
Bright red - scarlet flowers decorate the house from April to October;
Anabel - variety with exquisite white flowers;
Ballerina - medium-sized flowers that combine pink-white and scarlet shades;
Allison Patricia - a small bush with medium-sized purple flowers, for a small windowsill;
Alysson Bell - red-purple buds turn into semi-double flowers;
Dancing Flame - semi-double flowers in pink-orange.

Ampel varieties with flexible, falling stems and an abundance of flowers, grown in pots:

Blue Angel - a flower of lilac color on snow-white sepals, terry;
Bella Rosella - large-flowered variety, lush pink petals on a lilac bed;
Cecile - semi-ampel variety, lilac-purple skirt on pink sepals;
Blue Vail - bluish-blue, pink-based petals on a white calyx bed.

Many varieties and hybrids have bush and ampel forms.

Basic rules for growing crops

To preserve the varietal characteristics, fuchsia is grown from cuttings of an adult plant. So rooting and development is faster. All the properties of the mother culture are transferred to the young plant in full.

Time and place

Cuttings are cut in the spring from an adult plant. For planting use pots made of ceramics. It is important to remember that large containers for small plants are not taken. The size of the container increases as the bush grows. For planting a young cutting, a pot with a diameter of 9-10 centimeters is enough.

The fuchsia container is placed in places protected from bright light most of the day. Sunlight is allowed only in the morning or evening.

Preparation of planting material

For planting a young fuchsia, a slightly hardened young stem of an adult culture with 2-3 buds, 10-20 centimeters long is chosen. Cuttings are carried out with a sharp clean tool. Cut off all the lower leaves, leave 2-3 on top. For growing roots use:

settled water;
a mixture of sand and peat - the cutting is deepened by 1-1.5 centimeters.

The top of the container is covered with a transparent film or glass. For rapid root growth, a temperature of 18-22 ° is sufficient.

The roots of the plant grow in 5-10 days, they can be seen in the water. You should not delay transplanting into the ground for a long time, otherwise the long roots will be damaged during planting.

Fitting technology

Fuchsia loves drained soil, so small shards or other material is poured into the bottom of the pot. Soil is better to buy ready-made, decontaminated. With self-preparation of the soil, leafy soil, peat, sand, turf are mixed in equal parts. The culture has no special requirements for soils, the acidity of the soil is neutral.

A seedling with roots is planted in prepared and watered soil. Rooting occurs within 2-3 weeks, the seedling begins to grow actively.

Features of fuchsia care

Growing fuchsia requires a number of mandatory conditions, otherwise the bush will drop buds and stop the growing season. It is important to follow certain rules during flowering and during dormancy.

Temperature

Compliance with the temperature regime is the main difficulty in the cultivation of fuchsias. In the conditions of apartments it is not easy to create comfortable conditions for a flower. In the stage of active growth and flowering for the culture, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of 18-24 °. Excessive heat and direct sunlight is a common reason that fuchsia does not bloom, sheds buds, the leaves turn yellow and wither. The overwintering of the flower requires even lower temperatures (8-10°). In the dormant stage, it is also important to maintain low humidity.

Irrigation

Flowers are watered with soft, slightly warm water. Recommended watering pattern:

during vegetation - 1-2 times a week;
in autumn and winter - once every 2 weeks.

If the temperature in winter is above 10 °, water more often. You need to defend the water for at least a day, the earth lump should not be dry or too wet. The water accumulated in the pan is drained.

Reference: it is convenient to put a container with fuchsia on an elevation in a pallet so that excess water does not soak into the soil. Excess moisture, especially if the pot is too large and not completely filled with roots, provokes rotting of the root system

Feeding

Culture grows quickly, blooms profusely and for a long time. Vegetation should be supported by top dressing. They are carried out from March to September, with the transition of the plant to an inactive state, fertilizers are stopped.

Ground rules:

nitrogen-containing fertilizers are required when gaining green mass;
when flowering - potassium and phosphorus.

In addition to the main elements, manganese, zinc, magnesium are necessary for the development of fuchsia. It is better to use special complex fertilizers with a verified composition. The frequency of top dressing is a subject of special discussion for flower growers. Weekly or more frequent top dressings are recommended. When fertilizing with each watering, the weekly rate is divided into several parts. In the absence of flowering, it is recommended to spray the bushes with stimulants (Zircon). Fertilizers are applied in the form of a solution, many flower growers dissolve top dressings in water for irrigation.

Transfer

Fuchsia doesn't like big pots and loose soil in containers, but grows fast. The bush is transplanted annually - in the spring, when the culture has not yet completely departed from winter dormancy. Choose a pot 4-5 centimeters larger than the previous one. Prepare a drainage layer and soil, as during reproduction.The bush is transplanted by transshipment, only slightly shaking off the soil. The earth ball is moved to a larger container without deepening the plant. The voids in the pot are covered with fresh soil. The oldest branches are cut out, the rest are shortened by a third.

Spill well with water until the excess appears in the pan. Drain the water, put the pot in a shaded place. Plants tolerate transplantation well, please with abundant flowering.

Air humidity and spraying

Plants absorb water not only through their roots, but also through their stems and leaves. Fuchsias love high humidity and need to be sprayed. Plants are moistened with a spray bottle in the absence of sunlight, the best time is morning and evening. It is important when irrigating not to transfer the pot to another place, but to spray where the container is constantly standing. With the transition of the culture to an inactive stage of development (in autumn), spraying is reduced, in winter it is completely stopped.

Cutting and pinching

Buds are formed on young shoots. Old branches are pruned to make room for new ones. Pruning is also used to form the desired shape of the bush, giving the plant the desired look.

Pinching slows down the growth of shoots, but stimulates flowering. Without pinching, the number of flowers will be less, and the bush will stretch up.

Autumn pruning of fuchsia for the winter, after flowering is completed, is used to form a bush. You can cut stiff branches in winter if the bush is in the apartment. In the spring, they revise the bush, remove dead and extra processes. Trimming off the top points of growth allows you to create a lush crown and stop the excessive pull of the plant up.

Winter care

A perennial plant needs a period of rest, stopping the growing season. This happens in winter.For the bushes, low-temperature conditions are created, at which time all processes are suspended. Watering is minimized (1 time in 2 weeks). Horticultural crops in warm regions often overwinter directly in the open field. For them, they create shelters from spruce branches. Houseplants need a significant decrease in temperature (5-10 °). Many flower growers send fuchsias to spend the winter in the cellar or basement, if it is impossible to create the necessary conditions in the country or in the apartment. In most regions, fuchsias will freeze in the garden.

Diseases and pests

The main diseases of fuchsia are associated with the wrong choice of irrigation scheme and conditions. With an excess of moisture, fungal diseases of the roots and green parts develop. Fungicides (Topaz) are used for treatment, light, watering, temperature are normalized.

In hot dry weather, pests multiply - spider mites, whiteflies. It is important to regularly inspect the bushes in order to stop the growth of the population in time. For processing use folk remedies or insecticides.

Plant propagation

Fuchsia can reproduce in two ways - vegetative and seeds. Getting your own seeds is a painstaking and complicated business. When grown from seed material, maternal properties are rarely preserved. The seed is used by breeders to work.

The vegetative way is more reliable and shorter. To obtain young plants, cuttings and leaves are used. Subject to the basic rules of care, young fuchsias retain all the features of the parent specimen.

Possible problems

There are many difficulties in growing fuchsia. You need to take care of the plant all year round. A few possible problems and solutions:

Fuchsias do not tolerate wintering in apartments. A good option is a glazed and insulated loggia without heating. You can hide the bush in a box with foam.
Fuchsia does not bloom. The reason may be too high a temperature in winter - the vegetation did not stop, the plant has no strength for buds. Feeds are needed. The use of growth stimulants sprayed on bushes helps to increase the number of buds.
Leaves wither and turn yellow. We need to find a place with a lower temperature, organize proper watering.
Resets buds. The plant does not like a change of place, even a simple turn to the other side to the light is difficult to endure. Often the fall of the buds is associated with overheating of the roots and high room temperature.

For any problems, they normalize watering, care, check the bush for pest infestation.

When growing fuchsia, it is important to follow all recommendations regarding temperature, watering rates, and timely transplanting into large containers. If these rules are followed exactly, fuchsia will delight with a sea of \u200b\u200bflowers that will decorate a house or garden plot from spring to early autumn.