How to Grow Cyclamen at Home and Key Points to Note

Cyclamen is a very common indoor ornamental plant. Its colors are vivid, its fragrance is charming, and its long oval petals curl slightly upward, looking just like rabbit ears, with a lovely and innocent posture, making it deeply loved by people. Buying flowers is easy, but growing them is hard. How to better nourish and care for the flowers is truly a difficult matter. Here, the editor brings you an easy-to-understand introduction to cyclamen growing methods and the key care points to note.

Growth Habits

To grow a flower, you must first understand its growth habits.

Cyclamen likes warmth, fears heat, and is relatively cold-tolerant. It is not damaged by freezing at around 0°C. Its growing season is from autumn to the spring of the following year. It is semi-dormant in summer. In winter, the suitable growing temperature is between 12~16°C. When promoting flowering, it should not exceed 22°C. Above 35°C will cause the flower stems to rot and die. Although it is tolerant of low temperatures, below 5°C growth becomes slow, the flower color becomes dull, and there are few flowers. If carbon dioxide is provided to the plant in winter, it can promote growth and flowering. During the growing period, it requires an environment with moist air and sufficient sunlight.

Growing Methods

Here are two growing methods that are easy to carry out in daily life.

1. Seed propagation: First select seeds of uniform size and full grain. Before sowing, they need to be disinfected with alcohol, with a concentration of 75% being suitable. After disinfection, soak them in warm water for one day, and then they can be sown.

Or wrap the seeds in gauze and soak them in warm water for one day. After soaking, rub the seed coat clean and then sow.

After sowing, the growing environment is best kept at around 18°C with humidity at around 90%. They will germinate after about three weeks, and seedlings will emerge after one month.

2. Stem cutting propagation: Carry this out after the flowering period. Generally, choose healthy plants free of disease. If new buds sprout on the mother plant's corm, the small corms around the mother corm can be separated and planted separately. Note here that because the cut area is prone to contamination and rot, the tools must be disinfected before division to avoid unnecessary infection. Apply plant ash to the cut area in time. After the separated corms are dried, they can be planted in another pot.

Points to Note

1. Soil: It should be loose, breathable, fertile, and well-drained soil, and the soil should be slightly neutral.

2. Fertilization: Cyclamen has moderate fertilizer requirements. During the spring and autumn growing periods, apply a low-concentration potassium phosphate fertilizer once. Remember not to apply excessive nitrogen fertilizer during the flowering period, otherwise the branches and leaves will grow extremely quickly, while the flowers will have a shorter lifespan and will wither and fall early. Compound fertilizer, soybean meal fertilizer, and inorganic fertilizer all work well.

3. Temperature: It likes a warm climate. The best growing temperature is 10-20 degrees. Below 5 degrees, growth is relatively slow. Above 30 degrees, the plant will enter dormancy. If above 35 degrees, the plant will rot and die. Therefore, the summer temperature must not be higher than 30 degrees, and the winter temperature must not be lower than 0 degrees.

4. Light: Although cyclamen likes light, it cannot be exposed to prolonged direct sun. In winter, the light requirement is high; in summer, appropriate shading is needed.

5. Watering: Cyclamen is a bulbous plant with a strong water-storage capacity, so the amount of watering must be controlled. Daily watering should mainly use the bottom-soaking method, with top watering as a supplement. Too much accumulated water can easily cause root rot and death.

6. Ventilation: It should be placed in a ventilated spot, otherwise the petals easily fall off.

7. Pests and diseases: Cyclamen has many diseases. During cultivation, be sure to prevent diseases, and deal with diseases promptly when found. ① Control method for leaf spot disease: increase ventilation for cyclamen; spray 200-times equal-strength Bordeaux mixture. ② Treatment method for soft rot: increase ventilation for cyclamen; drain the cyclamen and avoid rain; spray 200-times equal-strength Bordeaux mixture. ③ Treatment method for nematodes: replace with new soil, and the newly replaced soil must be sterilized. Irrigate with 1000-times laundry detergent solution for control.

That is about all there is to the cyclamen growing methods and the key points we need to note during the cultivation process. As long as you care for them carefully and cultivate them cautiously, you will certainly gain something.