Rules for planting an annual dahlia and flower care

Planting an annual dahlia is suitable for those who love large bright flowers. She doesn't need complicated care. Unlike perennial cousins, whose tubers have to be dug up in late autumn and stored until spring, annual varieties are easy to plant from seeds.

From them multi-colored double flowers grow, delicate and beautiful. Planting them next to a vegetable patch will ensure good pollination, as dahlias are excellent honey plants. With their scent, they attract bees from all over the area.

Which variety is better to choose

Experienced summer residents try to plant undersized annual dahlias, because they have one feature - they bloom faster. Tall varieties grown from seeds take a long time to grow, and they often do not have time to cover with buds until autumn.

One of the best representatives of annual dahlias is the "funny guys" variety. It quickly grows up to 70 cm, has a dense, strong stem with green leaves. Shades are varied. These flowers are white, lilac, red, pink with a diameter of inflorescences of about 9 cm. "Cheerful Guys" stand out strongly against the background of other plants with their colors.

If you really like the color of annual dahlias, you can try to save their tubers and plant them next year.

1. To do this, with the onset of frost, dig up the necessary flowers, cut off the dried stems and leave to dry in the shed. Try not to shake off the ground. When it dries, it forms a crust that prevents the tubers from drying out.
2. Prepare a wooden box, line the bottom with paper and place the dried tubers.
3. Store in the basement. In spring, cut off the rotten areas and sprinkle them with charcoal powder or Fitosporin.

Planting in the ground is done in May. "Funny guys" bloom faster in the second year, but if you keep the tubers for several years, the flowers gradually degenerate, and you need to start growing from seeds again.

How to grow seedlings

In open ground, seeds can be sown at the end of May, and therefore dahlia bloom starts late. To avoid this, knowledgeable gardeners prepare seedlings.

Advice

For the one year old dahlia "funny guys", universal soil from the store is suitable. When you want to prepare the soil yourself, take equal amounts of soil from the garden, sand, humus. Mix well and use.

Seed planting begins in March.

1. Take a wide box with drainage holes. Pour the soil mixture into it, previously disinfected with a manganese solution.
2. Sow the seeds into the soil 3 cm apart, sprinkle with water, and cover the planter box with plastic.
3. Put it in a warm, bright place, and after a few days you will see that tiny seedlings emerge from the seeds.
4. Remove the film and wait until the seedlings grow 10 cm.

It must be dived, otherwise annual dahlias will slowly grow, stretch out and become unattractive. When the seedlings take root in separate containers, caring for it consists in moderate watering and feeding. Introduce a comprehensive fertilizer for flowers according to the instructions, using half the recommended dose.

When it gets warmer outside, take out the grown seedlings outside daily. So it adapts faster to the environment, and the cultivation will be more successful. In early June, planting is made in the garden.

Open ground planting rules

You need to choose a sunny area on a flower bed, protected from gusts of wind, since autumn. It is well dug up and fertilized with humus.Taking care of the soil helps to achieve the best flowering of plants. In the spring, come up with a planting pattern. Higher varieties are best planted at a distance of about 70 cm from each other. "Funny guys" do not require that much space. 20-40 cm is enough for them.

One hour before transferring to the ground, water the seedlings with water. Cups made of paper or peat can be dug in along with the seedlings. Make small holes, add a teaspoon of ash, humus and nitrophosphate to each, place the plants and sprinkle with earth. When transplanting seedlings from a plastic container, be careful not to damage the delicate roots.

Water the flowerbed well and then sprinkle the ground sawdust... Such care will help retain the moisture necessary for the growth of the dahlia.

The subtleties of flower care

Seedlings easily tolerate transplanting and quickly take root in a new place. Annual dahlia care, grown from seed, does not require daily attention. The Jolly Boys variety is drought tolerant and does not depend on abundant watering. He often suffers from excess moisture, which leads to the appearance of pests. Water the flowers at first as the soil dries. This is usually done once a week. From the beginning of August, it is advisable to stop moistening the earth. Plants will have enough precipitation.

When annual dahlias bloom, caring for them consists of breaking off dried buds. They delay the blooming of new flowers. Do not forget to regularly loosen the ground, remove weeds. After each watering, be sure to mulch the soil under the bushes.

Caring for dwarf dahlias like the "funny guys" is much easier than for perennial species. They do not need to be pinned, tied up, carefully shaped bushes. In order for the cultivation to be successful and beautiful flowers appear, in addition to weeding and watering, they only need to be fed regularly.

How to make fertilizing

A dahlia needs a lot of nutrients to bloom. Therefore, proper care for it is impossible without fertilizers. If the planting went well and the plants have taken root, after 10 days they should be fertilized with slurry.

1. Dilute mullein slurry with water in a ratio of 1:10.
2. Water the dahlia bushes with water and add top dressing after a couple of hours. It promotes growth.
3. Top dressing 3 times every 2 weeks, spending 7 liters of solution for 5 bushes.

In addition to organic fertilizers, dahlias need minerals:

• potassium, so that the flowers are large and bright;
• nitrogen - for the development of shoots and leaves;
• phosphorus - for good maturation of tubers and seeds.

Before blooming buds, you can fertilize the ground with a solution of potassium nitrate. Dissolve 3 tbsp. l. product in 10 liters of water and pour over the flowerbed.

Later it is more useful to apply phosphorus-potassium supplements... For example, superphosphate. Dissolve 100 g of granules in 10 liters of warm water. Stir and pour a half liter jar of the mixture under each bush.

Diseases

From excess moisture in dahlias, the lower leaves sometimes turn yellow as a result of root rot. You can help the plant recover with Kornevin. This fine-grained yellowish powder is a biostimulant. It can be used dry and dissolved in water. For watering 5 g of "Kornevin" must be stirred in 5 liters of water and carefully add 30-40 ml to each plant right under the root.

Despite proper cultivation and care, the annual dahlia is susceptible to fungal diseases. It is often affected by white, brown or gray rot. Plants become stained and wither away. Flowers can be saved by removing diseased shoots, reducing watering and spraying with fungicides.

If the bush is affected by ring spot or viral mosaic, spray it with Topaz or Hom according to the instructions. But it is better to destroy the plant by disinfecting the planting site with garden lime. Diseases manifest themselves in lagging plant growth, and their flowers are deformed.

Dahlia pests

Young dahlia shoots love to spoil slugs, and two-tailed dahlia often eat flower leaves.You can scare off these pests with medicinal plants. Prepare a decoction of wormwood or celandine and treat the bush with the cooled liquid once a week. If there are too many slugs, scatter the "Thunderstorm" preparation over the garden bed, it will quickly destroy the pests.

An aphid colony is easy to spot in a flower bed with the naked eye. On dahlias, its presence is reflected by yellowing foliage and sticky secretions on the shoots. Pests suck the juice out of them, so the flowers quickly disappear. You can get rid of aphids and continue growing dahlias with the help of insecticides. Buy "Aktara" or "Confidor", they help a lot.

The cabbage scoop lays eggs on the dahlias, from which the caterpillars emerge. They begin to devour leaves and buds, causing a lot of damage to the plant. Herbivorous bugs feed on leaves, leaving ragged holes on them. These pests are also destroyed by "Aktara", "Iskra" and other insecticides.

Seed collection and other tricks

In order to sow flowers "cheerful guys" next year, you need to prepare the seed. Keep an eye on a beautiful flower and do not cut it when it has faded. Wait for the box to ripen and harvest in dry, sunny weather. Be sure to dry the seeds, otherwise they will deteriorate and will not germinate. Then put them in a paper bag, sign the variety, the color of the dahlia, and store in a dry, ventilated area.

Annual dahlias and caring for them will bring many joyful moments. To grow them successfully, use a little advice. When the first flower appears on the bush, carefully tear it off. This stimulates the growth of side shoots, on which many buds will appear in the future.

Be sure to put "funny guys" in the country. They will give you their bloom before the first frost.