When temperatures go down below 10 ° C and the days are shortened, geraniums risk rot and deterioration: keep them indoors can save up to 7 out of 10 and reduce the risk of fungal diseases by 50%.
Protect i Gerans in winter It doesn’t just mean putting them at home and hoping they resist. It serves method, care and some practical precautions. With the right precautions, these long -lived and generous plants can flourish even after rigid seasons, carrying out their vitality year after year. It is not enough to keep them warm: you need to prepare the ground, choose the right place and cut at the right time. After all, who has never seen a geranium barely survive in front of a window that is too exposed or in a too wet veranda?
In many terraces exposed to the north, it was enough to change the container and place the vessels near an internal wall to see them resume vigor even in the middle of February. But be careful: winter is the moment when the plant enters vegetative rest, and every wrong intervention can compromise the spring recovery.
Necessary: what is needed for the winter hospitalization of geraniums
Preparing geraniums for winter requires few tools, but all fundamental. Each element contributes to creating a stable, dry and shelter environment from thermal changes.
Among the indispensable materials:
- Pruning scissors well sharpened and disinfected
- Plastic or terracotta vases with drainage holes
- Salary To avoid stagnation in closed environments
- Light soil with sand or perlite
- Natural fungicide on the basis of copper or propolis
- Low consumption LED lamps (in case of poorly enlightened environments)
The soil must not be too rich: a Light and draining substrate It is perfect for avoiding radical rot.
Quick steps to put the geraniums away
Transferring geraniums inside does not simply mean moving them. Sometimes it seems nonsense, but a small mistake is enough to find yourself with flops and leaves off in a few days.
There are some precise steps to ensure their survival.
- Preventive pruning: Reduce the main branches to 10-15 cm, removing dry or damaged leaves.
- Control of the roots: Delete any rotten parts and verify that the earth bread is not fradicio.
- Glass change (necessary): You prefer smaller containers if the plant goes dormant.
- Antifungal treatment: nebulizes a natural product to prevent mold.
- Positioning: places the vases in a room between 10 and 15 ° C, with indirect light.
- Minimum irrigation: wet only when the soil is completely dry.
Some hobbyist farmers hold geraniums in wooden boxes with dry sand, leaving only the base of the stem, as was done in the country courtyards.
Errors to avoid: the 5 most common (and lethal)
During winter hospitalization, it takes little to compromise months of blooms. There are those who have lost entire boxes for leaving them close to a stove on too long, thinking of doing good.
Here are the most frequent mistakes:
- Excess water: the first enemy. Even a single more irrigation can make the roots rot.
- Too hot environment: temperatures beyond 20 ° C accelerate the vegetative recovery, out of season.
- Intense direct light: winter rays can dry the weakened leaves.
- No pruning: Leaving the plant intact favors the onset of parasites.
- Lack of air: too closed rooms favor mold and stagnation.
Sometimes, just forget an open window during a night ice cream to find yourself with soft and blackened drums.
Where and when to fix them for the winter
The right period to protect geraniums is Between the end of October and the beginning of Novemberbefore the night temperatures go down under 5 ° C. Better to anticipate a few days than to risk a cold stroke.
The ideal places:
- Luminous verandas not heated
- Well isolated and dry cellars
- Attic with window in the north
- Interior underwater with filtered light
In a well -dejected domestic greenhouse, healthy geraniums can also be maintained with temperatures around 12 ° C. It is important to avoid thermal changes: the glass walls help to maintain a constant temperature.
The trick of nurserymen for geraniums: the controlled dormant
A method often used by professionals is that of forced dormantwhich consists in bringing the plant into complete rest. In this state, the geranium stops almost completely to grow but preserves its internal vitality.
To activate the dormant:
- Reduce the water progressively until the watering can almost completely suspend.
- Keep the plants in the twilight, far from heat sources.
- Do not fertilize until March.
Some nurserymen retain the most adult specimens hanging upside down in ventilated environments: the drums dry partially, but the gems remain alive.
This method allows you to have luxuriant geraniums since April, ready to be pruned and stimulated with liquid organic fertilizer.
A bit like certain seeds that sleep under the snow waiting for spring, even geraniums, if treated with patience, know how to surprise us at the first March light.
Photo © Stock.adobe
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