How will saltyrolia grower please and what kind of care is needed for a "ball plant"?

Small forms have their own beauty. An openwork crown of miniature leaves touches the unpretentious saltérolia. At home, caring for a ball plant and inexperienced growers will seem incredibly simple and not requiring significant worries.

Under natural climatic conditions, the creeping groundcover grows in the dry subtropics of the northern Mediterranean, but is successfully cultivated almost all over the world. The Italian islands are considered its homeland. In Corsica and Sardinia at the beginning of the 19th century, the French amateur botanist Joseph-François Soleirol collected a significant collection of plants, which included various forms of fluffy emerald curls, creeping low on the ground. Subsequently, a monotypic genus in the Nettle family and its only species, Soleirolia soleirolii, was named after him. In botanical literature, the plant often has a synonym - helksina, or Soleirolia Helxine, and many interesting names have taken root among the people - tears of an angel, peace in the house, Irish moss, the curse of the Corsican, a thousand thousand.

Salleurolium appearance

The thin stems of the plant look very fragile and brittle. They are densely covered with numerous miniature rounded leaves. In an open area or in a spacious container, they form a solid curly carpet, and in a pot - a green hat. Breeders have bred varieties with different foliage colors - silver (Argentea), greenish-lemon (Aurea), cream, even with leaf blades bordered along the edge by a thin white stripe (Variegata), however, the Green variety is still the most popular among flower growers. soft green foliage. In garden centers in many countries, a form of Soleirolia Soleirol mix is ​​sold. All plants of the species bloom with small snow-white flowers in the form of stars, after which oval seeds are formed.

Planting and placing in the house

Soleirolia develops well on the windowsills of cool northern rooms, not to mention eastern or western ones. The plant friendly coexists with shrub and tree-like forms in one flower container, but low indoor flowers suppress and can drown out. Suitable for placement in kitchens and living rooms, as well as in winter gardens, it is grown on the "green window", in the florarium, inhabits the "garden in a bottle".

The green ball of saltrolia in a pot-bellied pot looks especially impressive, although in a flower container of any other shape, wide and low, it certainly attracts the eye.

To grow a plant, it is advisable to use soil with a significant content of peat, although a universal store soil mixture is also quite suitable.

It is not difficult to independently prepare a substrate for salt solution by mixing the main components in equal amounts:

• leafy ground;
• peat;
• sand.

This type of soil mixture is also suitable:

• sod land - 2 parts;
• leaf land - 2 parts;
• peat - 1 part;
• sand - 1 part.

A drainage layer of expanded clay or small pebbles is poured up to 1/3 of the pot. The transplant is usually carried out in the spring as needed, but at least after 2-3 years.

Advice

If a plant has a so-called baldness in the central part of the bush, then this is a call to start transplanting. Solleyrolia is divided into parts, and they quickly restore their decorative effect.

Saltrolium care

The complexity of growing saltyrolia is not high. When properly placed in the house, all care is to maintain the appropriate moisture in the earthy coma.

• Lighting and temperature requirements

Helksina loves dim light, develops better in partial shade than in the sun, and belongs to shade-tolerant plants. However, in a place that is too dark, the pagons stretch, turn pale and stop growing.

The most suitable temperature for her at home is 18 degrees Celsius, she feels comfortable when the thermometer indicators drop to 15 degrees above zero. In winter, saline is kept in rooms where the temperature is maintained within 7-13 degrees. The plant will survive the cold up to 0 degrees, with minus indicators the aboveground part dies, but with the appearance of heat it grows back again with beautiful green rugs.

• Watering and humidity

In the summer period, saline salts are provided with abundant and uniform watering, preventing the earthen coma from drying out. The soil in the pot should be kept moderately moist, but not wet. In winter, the intensity of moisture is reduced, but long breaks between watering are not allowed.

During the growing season, the flower welcomes spraying as the most effective means of increasing the humidity of the atmospheric air. Helksine does not need too much moisture in the environment, so spraying in the summer heat completely replaces the water containers located nearby.

• Nutrient feeding

The first time after transplantation into a substrate enriched with humus, saltyrolia does not have to be fed. Plants that were transplanted a couple of years ago are applied every 2-3 weeks with complex mineral or organic fertilizers in a half dose in relation to that indicated in the instructions on the package. Fertilizers are suitable for succulents, also in a half-dose diluted. Soleirolia is sensitive to excess nutrients, so it is better not to overdo it. In winter, fertilization is completely stopped.

• Pruning

In the spring, saltyrolias shorten the pagons in order to give the crown the desired shape - a ball or some fantasy figure. Do not forget about sanitary pruning, removing weak stems and thinning too thick plantings. The plant tolerates a haircut well and grows back soon, therefore it is allowed to cut too grown pagons throughout the year.

Reproduction of saline

Under natural conditions, adult specimens of helksina produce self-seeding. At home, the reproduction of saline is most often carried out by dividing the bush into parts. Delenki together with a lump of earth are moved to a new flower container, placed in the center. A new substrate is poured around, made up for growing adult plants.

Soleirolia is easily propagated by cuttings. In the spring, small pieces of pagons with several internodes are cut and laid on top of the peat. The containers are placed in a pallet and watered from below to constantly maintain the necessary humidity. In a plant, tender roots are formed rather quickly in the internodes under the influence of moisture, and new shoots grow in the axils of the leaves.

Seed propagation is not very common - probably due to difficulties in obtaining planting material and unwillingness to tinker with too miniature seedlings. However, the most patient and this method found application.

Soleirolium seeds are laid out on the surface of a loose substrate consisting of peat and sand, and practically do not sprinkle them on top. Cover the container with crops with a glass lid or plastic wrap and regularly spray it with a spray bottle. Keep containers in a warm place with moderate light. They do not forget to ventilate the mini-greenhouse, and when shoots appear, they gradually accustom them to the external environment, leaving them ajar at first for a short time.

Care errors, pests and diseases

In too dry air and with insufficient watering, the shoots of Salleurolium droop, lose turgor, the leaves dry out and crumble.

Due to a lack of nutrients, the stems of the plant are unnaturally stretched, and the leaf plates become pale green.

In low light, helksin slowly builds up the vegetative mass, or even stops growing altogether, and grayish-brown spots appear on the leaf blades from excess light, which eventually turn out to be the cause of leaf death.

From waterlogging of the substrate, the plant loses its foliage.

The most common diseases of saltium - gray and brown rot - are manifested by the appearance of a gray plaque on leaf plates and stems or brown areas on the shoots, provoking their death.

In the thick of curly bushes, it is difficult to immediately notice pests - spider mites and whiteflies. Some are given out by a barely noticeable silvery cobweb, pulling together the edges of the leaf plates, which is why they are deformed, pale and die off. The latter are noticed only by carefully examining the underside of the leaves - it is there that the insect lays eggs, from which larvae appear, drawing juices from the yellowed foliage.

Flower compositions with the participation of saltium are distinguished by unusually lively greenery, and it is quite simple to create them at home or in an office space, you just need to water the flower in time and pick up the same moisture-loving neighbors for it - for example, fern, cyperus, alocasia, Benjamin's ficus.