Poinsetia: home care

Poansetia( Euphorbia the most beautiful) is a tropical plant that lives well at home. The birthplace of punch is Mexico. The plant is small, from 35 to 50 cm tall, with dark green rarely dentate leaves. Decorate the bright bracts( leaves growing directly under the inflorescence).Most often we imagine this plant with a bright red tip resembling a flower. However, there is a poinsetia and pink, and white, and yellow, and variegated. This plant blooms from 2 to 6 months. It looks very nice punchset mix , when several plants with different colors stand side by side.

Christmas flower poinset

Poinsetia Christmas star , so called this flower, because it blooms by the end of December, to Catholic Christmas and resembles a star. Many buy it to decorate the Christmas table, create a festive atmosphere at home. Often, after the plant fades, it is thrown out, and completely in vain.

Poinsetia, how to take care of

for her, how to save a plant, how to help him for many more years to please others with his beauty? Now we will tell you what to do for this, how to care for the flower of the pointer .

Poinsetia: care of

To date, botanists have brought out more than 100 different types of punch. They differ in the form of leaves and color. However, the most popular remains the red coloration, just the one that is natural for this plant.

Poinsetia red, care for which, requires compliance with certain rules, it will feel great in light soil, good water. If you buy ready-made soil, then choose the one that is intended for flowering plants. If you prepare it yourself, the following is the best:

• 6 parts of sheet humus,
• 3 parts of sifted sand,
• 1 part of dry manure.

This soil composition is due to the fact that the root system of poinsetia needs a lot of oxygen and does not like water stagnation. When waterlogged, it can get root rot, so watering plants produce only when a drop of soil in the pot dry.

Reduced air humidity can cause premature yellowing and falling leaves. To avoid this, the aerial part of the plant is regularly sprayed with water at room temperature from the atomizer.

An important part of caring for the flower and keeping it in good shape is fertilizing with fertilizers. It is performed once a week. In the warm season, from spring to autumn, they feed full mineral fertilizer. At a time when the punch is growing, preparing for flowering and blooming, special fertilizers for indoor plants will do. To form buds, complete complex fertilizers are needed. During flowering, the plant needs more potash fertilizers.

Comfort for punching temperature air will be different in different periods of plant development. In winter, when it is blooming, the digits from +16 to + 240C will be optimal. In the period of rest, which lasts 2-3 months, the temperature regime will be optimal from +12 to +14 ° С.If there is no possibility to organize it, then we must try to ensure a night temperature decrease. In summer, the plant can be taken out to the street and keep it there until September. However, make sure that there are no drafts, punching, like many houseplants, does not like them.

Poinsetia loves well-lit places, but in bright light the beautiful bracts fade, and the plant loses its decorativeness. Therefore, the lighting of the should be diffused. The punchset starts with a short light day.

Do I need puncture ?Many flower growers recommend replanting the flower immediately after buying it in the store. If the plant you have been living for some time, then transplant it in the spring once every two years. Do not just take a large pot for a transplant. It should be slightly larger than the previous one. The simplest rule for selecting a new pot for a plant: if you put an old pot in a new one, then the free space between their walls should be 1-1.5 cm.

If you like poinsetia, you can multiply it and decorate your house or give it to your friends. This plant is best propagated in the summer with apical stem stems. The stalk for planting should have 5 internodes. To the mother plant is not affected by infections after cutting the cuttings, place the cut sprinkled with pounded coal.

After cutting, cuttings are washed from milky juice in warm water and dried in air. After that, it will be a good idea to treat them with a growth stimulator according to the instructions to the drug. Cuttings are planted in sand or a mixture of peat for rooting. To increase their survival rate, they are regularly sprayed or put on top of plastic caps of suitable size. The optimum temperature for rooting is 20-24 ° C. The roots appear about a month after planting. While the roots are small, the cuttings are planted in separate containers.

Poinsetia: leaves fall

Why do the leaves fall off in the punching of ?This can be a natural process of preparing the plant for the rest period, which occurs after the flowering. The plant needs to rest, restore the forces spent on flowering. Before the period of rest fall bracts( red leaves).Typically, at this time, the plant is cut to 10 cm from the soil level, reduce watering and remove it to a cooler place. Other conditions are not required.

Approximately in the beginning of May the punch is taken out again, the watering is increased again, and the plant slowly revives, gathers strength for the summer and prepares in the fall to again bloom for the next Christmas.

However, there may be other reasons for dropping the leaves:

• The plant is too hot or frozen( for example, when carried from the store),
• Overflow or underfoot,
• Poinsetia stands in a draft,
• In the apartment is too dry air,
• Insufficient light.

So, if the punchete resets the leaves, what should do to save the plant? We need to analyze the conditions of detention and correct them. After a while it will stop hurting and will again release new leaves. But this is not possible in all cases. For example, when a plant overflows, roots can rotate. If a large part of the root system is lost, the flower may not recover.

Why does not blooming punch?

Most often, the reason for the lack of flowering of this plant is too long a light day. In order to form a normal inflorescence for Christmas, from September, the day for a flower should not be longer than 12 hours. Moreover, the reason for the excessive duration of a light day can be not only daylight, but also electric: a bright street lamp outside the window, lighting in the room. To ensure a normal light regime, sometimes you have to pritenyat plant. To do this, you can build a cardboard box, cover the punch in the evening and open it in the morning.

If you can not stand the "correct" duration of the day, then the poinsetion may simply not bloom, or it may even fade and wilt.

What other growing problems for punch are found? Of course, it's pests. Among them, most common are aphids, whitefly, spider mite, root mealybug. The best means of fighting pests is good care, which will ensure the plant health. On a healthy plant, pests, as a rule, do not attack. However, if any of them were caught by your punch, you should immediately take action. Plants can be sprinkled with garlic infusion, wipe the leaves with a special insecticide soap or treat them with chemical agents against pests. When infecting with the root mealybug, the plant must be transplanted, after disinfecting the pots, the ground and the root system with insecticide solution. Old soil should be removed as far as possible.

Maybe someone will think that caring for a punch is a lot of trouble. However, the beauty that this plant will repay is paying off all the hassle. Video on the topic: