Eustoma blooms like a flower, making people fall in love with it as the years go by

Sowing eustoma is actually very simple; at the fastest, you can see flowers in just 100 days, and without a garden you no longer have to fret over roses.

Everyone says eustoma is pretty but hard to grow; after three sowings and two flowerings, with a 90% germination rate and an 80% flowering rate, and the fastest bloom in 80 days, here is a summary of how to grow eustoma indoors in Beijing, which directly makes up for the shortcoming of not having a garden to grow roses well. Let's get started.

Growing location: Beijing

Growing spot: indoor bay window, open north-facing cool balcony.

March 6: bought imported pelleted seeds and started sowing

Room temperature 18-24 degrees; in sunlight it can reach as high as 40 degrees, air humidity 30-60%

Domestic seedling plugs, put into a box, cover with the lid, and expose directly to full sun

Tip: place the seed in the middle and, after wetting the coating, use a small spoon to spread it open and expose the seed

March 20: seedlings began emerging from day 7 and continued until day 14; of 40 seeds, 37 sprouted, and the seedlings are very small, so look carefully with a magnifying glass; start opening the lid for 2 hours every morning and evening, then increase the lid-open time by 1 hour each day

Tip: before the first pair of true leaves, you must keep the lid on for moisture when sunning them, otherwise they may be scorched to death in a single day.

May 6: four true leaves, ready to pot up

Loess/spent clivia soil (leaf mold)/fine sand 3:2:1, 10% chicken manure, 1% bone meal

V9 small pots, one plant per pot; when completely dry, soak the pot, about once every 3-5 days, no fertilizer applied

Tip: later sowings showed that after the first pair of true leaves, spraying with urea at 1:5000 once a week makes them grow much faster; potting up before four true leaves makes them prone to damage.

June 2: they have already started stretching into stems; since there is no sunlight indoors (and no south-facing balcony either), I simply put all the seedlings out on the north-facing cool balcony and let them do as they please.

Tip: whether or not it is a coincidence, the ones put on the north-facing balcony after stretching into stems all eventually flowered, while the ones that did not stretch did not flower

June 20: they gradually began to bloom; from stretching into stems to flowering was less than a month, and indeed because they were sown too late they were in a hurry to bloom, so they really did grow too spindly.

Tip: before the first flowering there is no need to pinch off the growing tips; pinching delays flowering by more than 1 month, and pinching does not easily increase flower stems either;

After flowering, cut off only the flower stem; the other buds will continue to open, and more flower stems will grow, with each flower blooming for about 2 weeks or so.

Then start enjoying the flowers; from July all the way to September they kept blooming in succession

August 20: after flowering, cut off the entire branch; the base will keep sending up side shoots but no longer stretch into stems, possibly because it is too late, so this batch can only wait until May next year to bloom again

Next year I will try cutting off the branches of May-flowering plants to see whether they continue to stretch and bloom.

Summary of sowing eustoma:

1. The best time for indoor sowing in Beijing should be around February; 100 days after sowing they can bloom, catching May flowering; because flowering requires high temperatures, even if sown before February, they will still bloom after May

2. Different varieties have different germination times; the fastest is 7 days, and the slowest is 28 days to germinate.

3. For sowing, use seedling plugs plus a seedling box; if the seeds are good, the germination rate will be above 90%, and covering directly and exposing to full sun will increase the germination rate and help the seedlings grow quickly.

4. Once they begin to stretch into stems, start applying phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, which is more conducive to stretching, produces more flower stems, and gives more vivid flower colors.

5. Before the first flowering there is no need to pinch off the growing tips; pinching cannot promote more branching and will also delay the flowering period, so if you want multiple stems, wait until the second year.

6. In the first year, using 10*10 small pots with one plant per pot gives the best results; after flowering in autumn, you can move them with soil into 30*20 pots with 4 plants per pot, and next year they will fill the pot

7. The internet says flowering requires vernalization; pinching at 8 nodes; and that they will not flower without sun, all of which is nonsense; flowering requires high temperatures, and those that reach 100 days by May will all bloom.