Geranium Potted Cultivation Methods and Daily Care Guide

Growing Techniques Jan 1, 1970 0 views

How to grow potted geraniums? Geraniums are also called "foreign mallows," and their flowers come in many colors, including red, white, pink, and purple; they can also stop bleeding and relieve pain. Below, the editor of Huinong Network briefly chats with fellow flower growers about the geranium bonsai care guide.

1. Health Benefits

Geraniums have pain-relieving, antibacterial, deodorizing, bleeding-stopping, and tonic effects, and have a certain auxiliary therapeutic effect on treating capillary rupture, scars, stretch marks, and so on. In addition, geranium essential oil made from geraniums also has auxiliary therapeutic effects of calming the mind, beautifying, and repelling insects.

2. Care Guide

2.1 Soil Selection

For potted geraniums, the potting soil should be a well-draining, fertile sandy soil, sandy loam, or loose, breathable soil such as perlite; the potting soil should preferably be replaced once a year in August-September.

2.2 Light

Geraniums need ample sunlight during the growing period, so in winter they must be placed in a sunny spot. If light is insufficient, the stems and leaves grow leggy, the flower stalks become thin and soft, and the inflorescences develop poorly; flower buds under weak light often fail to open properly and wither prematurely.

2.3 Temperature

Geraniums are hardy against severe cold but afraid of high temperatures. A room temperature of 13-19°C is most suitable for their growth, and the overwintering temperature should be kept at 10-12°C.

2.4 Watering

Geraniums are drought-tolerant and afraid of waterlogging. In summer, when they enter dormancy, water less and just keep the soil moist. During the spring and autumn growing periods and the flowering period, water more, and you can water once every morning. After winter sets in, water once a week.

2.5 Fertilizing

When fertilizing, be careful not to apply too much nitrogen fertilizer. In spring and autumn, fertilize once every half month; from the flower bud formation stage until the flowering stage, apply phosphorus fertilizer once every 7 days. After fertilizing, water promptly.

2.6 Propagation

Geraniums are often propagated by cuttings. This is generally done in spring and autumn. Select a shoot about 7 cm long with the growing tip at the end, remove the leaves at the base, and after the cut has dried, insert it into a pot. After inserting, water thoroughly once. Roots can form in about half a month, and when the roots have grown to about 3 cm, it can be potted up.

2.7 Pruning

Geraniums generally need to be pruned at least 3 times a year. Thin out branches in March, remove spent flowers and overly dense branches in May, and carry out shaping after the start of autumn. For shaping, generally select and keep 3-5 main branches that grow vigorously and are evenly distributed near the base, then shorten the main branches and side branches so that the branches of the whole plant are evenly distributed and compact, and the plant shape is full and short and sturdy.

2.8 Placement and Display

Geraniums bloom continuously all year round and are suitable for placement in dining rooms, meeting rooms, halls, balconies, windowsills, desks, and other places.

The above are all the key points analyzed today for the care and management of potted geraniums. Flower growers who keep geraniums at home can learn more from them!

Key Points for Growing Geraniums in Summer: How Should You Water Geraniums?

Summer is about to arrive, and some plants need different amounts of water because of light conditions. Because of its cute shape and bright colors, many homeowners like the geranium. Now that summer is here, how should we water geraniums? Let's take a look at the methods below.

In fact, watering flowers is like people eating: it should be based on the specific conditions of the plant's growth, the size of the flowerpot, the potting soil mix, the small growing environment, and so on, varying with the flower and adapting to local conditions. Below, let's see how fellow gardeners water their geraniums.

Flower friend's location: Shanghai;

Growing environment: apartment balcony;

Plant age: one and a half years;

When watering geraniums in summer, it is best to have a wet-dry cycle about every three days; if it can cycle once a day, even better, and there is no need to worry at all about seedlings dying over the summer. However, because the growing environment is different, the potting soil mix is different, and the plant's growth and the type of geranium are different, the watering method and the time needed for the wet-dry cycle also differ. Here I state that my geranium's growing environment is: an indoor enclosed balcony; the substrate used is: 50% Danish Pindstrup peat, 20% perlite, 5-10% vermiculite, 15% coal cinder, 5%-10% garden soil, and a small amount of clay pebbles.

First, let's talk about the growing environment:

We know that a freshly washed piece of clothing hung outdoors in a ventilated place in summer may dry in half an hour; hung indoors, it may take two hours to dry. The evaporation outdoors is several times that indoors. With such a big difference between indoors and outdoors, the frequency of watering flowers certainly cannot be the same. I often hear flower friends who grow geraniums outdoors say that water applied in the morning leaves the potting soil completely dry by evening. But on my enclosed balcony, vigorously growing mature plants in sunny, dry weather take three or four days for the potting soil to dry once. On cloudy and rainy days, it takes five or six days to dry. So outdoors it needs watering once a day, while indoors it should be watered once every three or four days, or even five or six days, depending on the condition of the potting soil.

Next is the potting soil mix:

Because peat has good air permeability (due to its own structure), growing in peat, if you can grasp the amount and frequency of watering, is very beneficial to the growth and development of the plant's root system and to the full exchange of gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide around the roots. Therefore, the "Fischer Geranium Variety Series Cultivation Guide" recommends a substrate of: 55-70% high-quality peat, 20-25% perlite, 5-10% vermiculite, and 5-10% clay pebbles.

In the soil I use myself, the peat content is also around 50%. But peat's water-holding capacity is also particularly strong. According to reference materials, its water-holding capacity can reach about 15-20 times its own weight. Therefore, flower friends using this kind of substrate must not use heavy watering. If the potting soil stays too wet for a long time in summer, it easily causes poor root respiration; combined with high temperature and high humidity, it easily breeds fungi and can very easily lead to root suffocation and rot.

From the above comparison, it can be seen that different substrates also have different maximum water contents. Therefore, with different potting soil mixes, the watering method and amount should also differ. If the substrate for potted geraniums has a relatively high peat content, then in summer you cannot use heavy watering, for two reasons:

First, because in summer, apart from Angel Pelargoniums and Regal Pelargoniums, both zonal geraniums and ivy geraniums are in a slow-growing semi-dormant state, with relatively low absorption, so keeping the potting soil moist is enough;

Second, because peat, unlike sandy loam and garden soil, allows excess water to seep out through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot. In addition, if there is high-humidity continuous rainy weather, the wet-dry cycle of the potting soil becomes even slower and the time needed becomes even longer.

Final summary: When watering geraniums in summer, you must grasp the amount and frequency of watering according to the care environment and soil substrate, and try to achieve alternating wet and dry potting soil.

How Should You Water Geraniums in Summer?

Geranium illustration 1