Calla attracts the attention of flower growers with its unpretentious care, incredibly beautiful flowers and large leaves. The plant grows and develops equally well, both in the garden and in the house on the windowsill.
This exquisite flower is presented on the market in a variety of shades, which determines its relevance. But, despite the endurance of the flower, for the effective cultivation of callas at home, it is necessary to adhere to certain rules of agricultural technology.
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Popular types of callas for home maintenance
Among flower lovers, the most common types of callas are:
Elliot
This decorative flower is characterized by abundant flowering, grows best on clarified window sills and needs regular watering.
Characteristics of Elliot: the size of the bedspread is 15 cm, contrasting color, the outer part is greenish-yellow, and the inner part is yellow. Heart-shaped leaves have white spots.
Ethiopian
The plant blooms from November to May, every year. Stem height up to 1 m.
Characteristic features of the flower: bract funnel-shaped leaf - the bedspread reaches 45 cm, its color is snow-white, but there are varieties with a yellow or pink color.
Remann
The advantage of this type is its compact size.
Specific traits: the plant grows no more than 50 cm, the color is bright pink or red. This plant became the starting point for creating variegated colors, in particular, dark purple, lilac.
Amethyst
Amethyst flowers were an exquisite decoration of the boudoirs of queens and court ladies.
Specific traits: flower height 60-120 cm, violet color, pleasant smell, similar to the sea breeze.
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Given the structural features of this decorative flower and its southern origin, its care will be slightly different.
Watering and lighting mode
When growing this decorative flower, it is necessary to regularly irrigate. Otherwise, the plant will very quickly stop its growth and begin to fade. It is highly susceptible to wet ground.
Especially, does not tolerate dry soil in a pot, white calla, whose habitat is a swampy area. Intensive watering is necessary for her during the period of active growth.
Spraying with water
But the colored varieties do not need to be abundantly moistened, it is also necessary to prevent stagnation of liquid in the pan. Such negligence can provoke the development of diseases, in particular, lead to decay of the root system.
The optimum water temperature for irrigation is room temperature (+18-20 degrees), it must be used when the earth dries out 2-3 cm.
To make the plant feel comfortable, it is recommended to keep the humidity in the room within 70-80%. Rubbing a flower with a damp cloth of its leaves and moss laid on a pallet or moist expanded clay have a beneficial effect on the flower.
You can reduce the frequency of irrigation procedures after the end of the flowering period. This applies to all varieties of calla. After 1-2 months, colored varieties can be completely stopped watering.
It is not recommended to abruptly transfer the flower to the dormant phase by trimming the leaves or stopping watering. Here, it is important to let the tubers fully ripen. Depending on growing conditions, the dormant phase may vary, but in most cases this period falls on October - November.
Calla is a fairly light-loving plantwhich requires good lighting throughout the year. The lack of light is felt, especially in winter. The culture does not bloom, only stalks grow.
Good lighting even in the resting phase is required for white flowers. Colored callas in conditions of lack of light lose their specific shade.
Recommended temperature
Two factors negatively affect all types of this plant: low humidity and high temperature. If the temperature in the room changes dramatically, then the culture stops blooming.
During the growing season, varieties with white color are required to be grown at a temperature of + 18-20 degrees. It is recommended to reduce it gradually, to 10-12 degrees, after the completion of the flowering phase. The rest period can last up to two months.
The optimal temperature regime for colored varieties is + 20-24 degrees. With slight fluctuations in temperature, such specimens do not react sharply, but, on the contrary, they begin to form leaves and tubers more efficiently.
In order for the tubers to ripen better, they are kept at a temperature of + 25-27 degrees for one month after flowering, and they are not watered. As soon as they are ripe, the leaves are removed and placed for a dry winter, sprinkled with sawdust, at a temperature of + 3-5 degrees.
What kind of soil and top dressing is needed for feces
Plants develop better and faster on acidified ones.
- two parts of sod land
- one part of leaf land
- one part peat
- one part sand
Timely introduced nutrients will be the key to high-quality cultivation of this magnificent plant. Flowers can receive full nourishment when they are transplanted for a warm period into open soil.
If you keep it permanently in a container (pot), then you can’t do without complex fertilizers. The interval between procedures should be 10-14 days, where nutritional formulations must be alternated.
Fertilizing the soil
To prevent excessive growth of green mass by the plant, which negatively affects the quality of flowering, it is necessary to apply nitrogen-containing fertilizers in a dosed manner during the growing season.
After the appearance of flower stalks, it is good to feed the culture with urea, and during the flowering period it is better to use eggshell infusion.
Rules for transplanting home calla
As soon as the dormant period ends, you can begin to transplant the flower into fresh soil. If you regularly pinch new shoots and change the top layer of earth in a container (potted), then the need for a transplant disappears, for two years.
It is necessary to plant a plant in containers that fully correspond to the size of the tubers, they should be more than 15 cm in diameter. There is no need to use too deep pots.
You can use a universal composition for ornamental plants, having previously laid a drainage layer of 5 cm in a pot at the bottom.
A capacity of three liters is suitable for a flower transplant
After transplanting the culture, the temperature in the room should be gradually increased. During the period of active growth - 2-3 weeks after transplantation, you can begin to feed the flower and irrigate it abundantly with warm water.
How to propagate callas
The rhizome of this ornamental plant is presented in the form of bulbs, which eventually grow by division, and occupy a significant area. To provide the plant with comfortable conditions, the excess is dug up, transplanted, or completely thrown away.
flower bulbs
Properly plant planting material in a horizontal position, making a hole 10 cm deep. For better growth, the ground after planting the tuber is abundantly watered with water at room temperature.
When separating the tubers, at least one bud should be left on each part, performing manual manipulation.
Breeders are engaged in reproduction of callas by means of seed material. At home, the seeds must be kept in advance in clean water for about 6 hours with the addition of a natural biostimulant - potassium humate.
After laying the processed seed material on a pallet in which a damp towel is laid, it is placed in a warm place for seven days. The main thing is to make sure that the seed medium remains moist, but not wet. After germination, they are sown in trays with fertile soil and left in a warm place until seedlings appear.
seedlings
Callas continue to grow as long as the soil in the pot is moist. The end of the growing season for most varieties falls on September - October. There is a gradual death of the leaves.
After the appearance of yellowness on the leaves, watering is reduced.. And after 2-3 weeks completely stop. In order for the remaining microelements to be able to get into the tubers, it is necessary to wait until the leaves themselves dry.
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Frequent diseases of an ornamental flower and measures to combat them
In most cases, bacteria or fungi can provoke the development of the disease.
These include:
Before starting flower processing, the room must be well ventilated.
Here it is necessary to remove the diseased parts of the plant, and carry out the treatment with the appropriate fungicide.
Anthracnose
After detecting the diseased state of the flower, watering immediately stops. It is better to replace the soil in the container with a new one, treat it with fungicides.
Among the most common calla pests, spider mites and aphids are noted.
Finding an aphid on a flower is quite simple, it settles in large colonies that are visible to the naked eye. Traces of aphids are a sticky coating, it actively sucks the juices from the plant, which inhibits its growth and further development.
The following drugs against aphids have proven themselves well: Commander, Iskra, Antitlin, Aktellik, Bison, Biotlin, infusions of garlic and onion.
You can detect a spider mite on a flower by the presence of a thin cobweb on the whole plant, where initially the leaf blades are covered with yellow blotches, they are small in size. As they grow, they form dried out zones.
To combat spider mites, it is recommended to use insecticides, for example, Vertimek, Akarin, Lightning, Fitoferm.
Reasons for the lack of flowering on calla
You should know that this decorative flower cannot please with its flowering all year round, it happens only twice a year - in May and October. If it was noticed that the plant does not bloom at all or this period proceeds in a passive way, then it is necessary to think about what factors became unfavorable and caused such troubles.
Callas with healthy blooms
First of all, you should not often change the location of the flower, often replant it. This should only be done when necessary. In conditions of insufficient illumination and with poor feeding of a flower, such consequences may appear in it.
In addition, it is required to adhere to the basic rules of agricultural technology so as not to provoke a complete lack of flowering in callas.
CALLA
PLANTING, WATERING, FERTILIZER
We grow callas for the first time. They turned out to be very easy to care for. Grow up instantly! Literally in a month and a half. They managed to bloom :) And they bloom for a very long time.
Great for any interior! For parents, this window faces east, where the sun is only in the morning, while callas feel great there! They bloom very beautifully, we admire from the bottom of our hearts :) We don’t want to plant them in the garden.
Of course, like all bulbs, callas will soon bloom, and they will have a dormant period, but this only makes us happy, there will be a break in care, especially now it's summer, and my mother has completely switched to the garden :)
We really liked the new opening, I, too, as soon as I make repairs, I will buy myself such. And I recommend it :)
Thank you for your attention!