Salvia growing from seeds

Not everyone has the patience to grow salvia seedlings on their own. After all, after sowing, it takes 3 to 4 months before the first flowers appear on the plants. However, growing salvia from seeds is quite simple. You just need to take into account that there are many varieties of this plant, which differ greatly from each other in color and growth.

    Salvia height depending on the variety it can be from 25 cm to 1.5 m. Therefore, you need to carefully select seeds in order to purchase exactly the variety that you need.

    What does salvia look like?

    Which soil to choose

Seedlings will grow well in light, fertile soil with a pH of 6.0 - 6.5. It can be prepared by mixing forest soil with sand and peat 1:1:1. Or buy any soil mixture for growing seedlings.

    When to sow

It is preferable to sow salvia for seedlings in February or March. Then it will bloom in early summer. But hybrid varieties bloom much earlier. When purchasing seeds, be sure to read what is written on the package.

    Sowing salvia for seedlings

Place the seeds on well-watered soil, lightly sprinkle with soil and sprinkle some more Rosinka on top. Cover the box with glass, film or newspaper. Nowadays, many people use newsprint. It retains moisture and at the same time allows air to pass through.

Sometimes there are recommendations not to cover the seeds with soil, but simply press them into the soil with the palm of your hand. With this sowing, many sprouts appear with the seed coat on the “head”. And you have to manually help them get rid of these “caps”

Seeds germinate at a temperature of +22 - 24C. Shoots usually appear after 7 - 10 days. Unfortunately, they are often unfriendly. The last shoots sometimes emerge when all hopes of seeing them are lost.

    Seedling care

To grow salvia from seeds, you will need a well-lit place where the temperature does not exceed 18 - 20C. If you have a free window sill, then it is quite suitable for this. After When the seedlings appear, remove the film. And after another day, you can put the box with seedlings on the windowsill.

Water only with warm water and very sparingly. If there is excess moisture, seedlings may be affected by blackleg. Before planting in open ground, apply two fertilizings with complete flower fertilizer.

When the 4th pair of leaves appears, it is recommended to pinch the seedlings. After this procedure, they begin to bush, but flowering in this case is delayed.

    Picking

Salvia seedlings grow slowly. Therefore, picking is carried out 1 - 1.5 months after germination. Plants are transplanted into cups or boxes at a distance of 6 - 7 cm from each other, with them buried down to the cotyledon leaves.

  Planting seedlings in the ground

Salvia is planted in the ground in early June. She prefers open, sunny places with light soil. But it can grow in the shade and even under trees. Before flowering, plants need to be watered more often, and less often during flowering. Then there will be more flowers. Do not overuse nitrogen fertilizers. The bushes may become “fat” and will bloom poorly.

    Reproduction

To grow salvia, propagation by seeds is mainly used. But besides this, it is easily propagated by cuttings. The roots of the cuttings appear after 2 - 3 weeks.

    How to collect seeds

If you have grown a non-hybrid salvia, then you can and should collect seeds from it. To do this, cut off the fading inflorescence and dry it well in the shade or indoors. After drying, destroying the seed pods, you will get a large number of seeds. Such seeds usually have good germination. Thus, next year you will grow salvia from your own seeds.

Continuation of the topic:

1. Growing gatsaniya from seeds
2. Heliotrope: growing from seeds and further care
3. How to grow kobeya from seeds
4. Azarina: growing from seeds, planting and care
5. Growing aubrieta from seeds