Although petunias can usually be found relatively cheaply in garden shops, many hobby gardeners simply grow them themselves. This saves you the hassle and uncertainty of overwintering these plants, which is not easy.

Petunias are best grown from seed

Harvest seeds from the petunias on the balcony yourself

The general advice for caring for petunias is to manually remove the faded flowers every few days during the flowering period for visual and plant health reasons. However, you must refrain from doing this with at least some of your petunias on the balcony if you want to harvest ripe seeds from your plants yourself. As soon as the withered petals can be easily detached, a green seed base becomes visible on the former flower stalk. Over time, this develops into a clearly visible seed capsule, which should be collected in the yellow-brown state in good time before it bursts open.

The right conditions for growing petunias from seed

So that the young petunias can be planted out in the garden or in a balcony box punctually after the last night frosts in April or May, you should start growing them on the windowsill in February or March. The following conditions should be met as far as possible during the germination phase:

  • the light germs should be covered with soil as thinly as possible or not at all
  • Temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius are ideal
  • no direct sunlight
  • high humidity due to foil covering or in an indoor greenhouse

Optimal care for young plants grown from seed

The seedlings that first sprout from the seeds don't really look like the older petunias at first. They should be isolated shortly after the formation of the second pair of leaves and continue to be cared for indoors in a protected manner. Especially at this young age, the delicate petunia plants should never dry out completely in their growing medium and should be watered regularly. If you get the petunias you have grown yourself used to being outside by the hour after the icy saints and put them back inside the house at night for a few days, you can effectively harden off the plants.

Seeds from specialist shops

Petunias are now available in a variety of colors and flower patterns, either as young plants or as seeds. Note that hybrid varieties do not stably pass on their characteristics when propagated by seeds. Choose two or three different varieties to later create particularly attractive color contrasts on the balcony.

tips

Really varietal petunias are usually only obtained if they are propagated vegetatively via cuttings. When fertilizing the petunia flowers, the genes of petunias flowering in the neighborhood can mix with those of your own plants, so that the cultivation of the seeds that have ripened on the plants can result in quite surprising flower colors.

Category:

Indoor plants