How to grow and care for new bell flower varieties

Comfrey (Sinningia speciosa or Gloxinia speciosa) also has many different names, such as love flowers (valentine), holy flowers, lions, sea snakes, copper sores, pink sap.

Bell flowers originating from Brazil - is one of the kinds of interior flowers with strange shapes and diverse colors that are very popular in the world that have been imported into our country. The plant is tuberous, low (12-15 cm), oblong or oval, bell-shaped flowers are quite large. The tree is blooming because there are few leaves and many large flowers bloom at the same time.

The period from 2 months to planting flowers for tissue culture plants and about 5 months for plants grown from seeds, each flower blooms lasts about 20 days. The single and double bell flower varieties are very diverse in color from pink, purple, red, red, white border, purple white and white border . Can be propagated by trimming leaves and tubers.

At Vietnam International Agricultural Fair 2006 kinds of bell flowers
many people pay attention. (Photo: Van Cong)

* Seedling stage : Plant tissue culture plants (cultivated for 15 days) into small cups with a diameter of 5 cm with growing medium including a mixture of peat: coconut fiber - rice husk ash - humus soil (2: 1: 1: 1), in cool conditions (about 50% of light), about 15 - 20 days after switching to pots. Fertilizers for mixing calcium nitrate (11 - 0 - 20 CaO) 65g, MKP (0 - 52 - 34) 10 g, potassium chloride (0 - 0 - 60) 20 g, Multi - K (13 - 0 - 46) 20 g, magnesium nitrate (11 - 0 - 15 - MgO) 25 g for 100 ml of water. Water fertilizer periodically every 4 days, soak fish manure and oil cake fertilizer for additional irrigation, water again after fertilizing.

* Planting stage : Bell flower seedlings move into pots with a diameter of 14 cm, 10 cm high with a growing medium including coconut fiber - clean sand (3: 1), the amount of lining fertilizer for 100 pots including 2 kg Greenfield, Agricultural lime 300 g, iron sulfate 250 g (mixed with 8 liters of water for irrigation), pH suitable for plants 5.5 - 5.8.

* Irrigation, lighting and temperature : Flower plants grow well in cool conditions (about 50% of light). Regularly water early in the morning, do not water in the afternoon because the tree will be susceptible to infection. Can be watered in many ways such as sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation . but must ensure sufficient moisture to cool the tree. When the flower has bloomed, it is better to irrigate the root, not to water the leaves and flowers, not to water too much because the tree is easy to rot.

* Fertilizer (like seedling stage): Trees under 1 month old need to spray additional types of micro-fertilizers such as: Polyfeed (19-19-19-19); Growmore (30-10 - 10) . Plants over 1 month old, in addition to micronutrient supplements, need to spray additional growth stimulants such as: 1.8 DD Atonik, AgrostimTM USA . When plants forming buds, need to add Muti - K (13 - 0 - 46) and Calcium Nitrate (11 - 0 - 20 CaO) to make flowers beautiful.

* Broaching leaves, pruning buds : If you want to focus on flowers, remove the first 2 buds (when the bud has changed color). Remove old, wilted leaves and flowers to avoid getting sick. The flowers fade away from the flower petals. After all the flowers are gone, cut the root, the new shoots will grow from the roots below the ground. Continuing to fertilize and take care of the process, the plant will produce new flowers.

* Pest and disease prevention : Bell flowers often suffer from some harmful insects such as red spiders, leaf worms . should be sprayed with drugs such as Supracide 40 EC, Comite 73 EC, Kelthane 18,5 EC , Vertimec 1.8 EC, Bitadin . Common diseases are root rot and dead wilt. These diseases are caused by too high humidity, where there is no ventilation, moderate irrigation and watering in the morning, avoid afternoon or afternoon irrigation to easily damage leaves. The disease can be controlled by drugs: Mexyl - MZ 72 WP, Topsin M 50 WP, Aliette 80 WP .

Engineer LE NGUYEN LAN THANH (Department of Research on Flowers and Plants of Southern Fruit Research Institute)