Begonia Care Guide
We all know and love the Begonia. The most common Begonia is the Maculata, and the Rex kinds.
They have stunning leaves, and delicate, but cute flowers.
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WATERING :
Watering this plant is quite easy, i like to bottom water mine. That basically putting the plastic pot with drainage holes in a layer of water, and letting the plant suck up the moisture. You can remove the plant once it feels heavy, but i usually let it sit for an hour. A lot of people are scared to overwater, but that doesn´t happen so quick. Overwatering is not giving your plant too much water, it is having bad soil, that holds on to moisture for too long. If the soil of your plant doesn´t dry out in 2 weeks, root rot can occur. That is a sign of overwatering. But the plants are defenitely not picky with watering. I like to water mine when the soil dries out in the winter months, and water once a week in the summer months.
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LIGHT REQUIREMENTS :
I have all my Begonias under grow lights (https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/vivid-green-kweeklamp-led-full-spectrum-grow-light-kweeklampen-groeilamp-led-wit-licht-groei-en-bloei-80-leds-40w/9300000029808952/?bltgh=hNm5Qu-YBie54pVNn6hLJw.4_13.14.ProductTitle), and they seem to do well there. They also get natural light of course, and i recommend putting it infront of a window, where it doesn´t get too much direct sunlight.
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BLOOM :
These plants get flowers in the months of March-April, that last about a month if grown in the right conditions. Having higher humidity and temperature can really benefit in getting them to bloom. For newer propagations that get flowers, i´d say cut them off. Producing a flower can be really draining for the plant, and the cutting may not survive because all the energy goes to the flower, instead of new growth, and root growth. 99% of the time, the flowers are signs of happiness. So don´t worry :)
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PROPAGATION :
Once you´ve taken the cutting, you can either put it in moist soil/sphagnum moss, or put them in a glass of water. I prefer using the water propagtion method. A lot of people think that you have to change the water once a week, but don´t do that! Once a plant starts rooting, it sends out rooting hormones into the water. If you change the water every week, the cutting needs to keep re-adjusting to the new environment, which can stress the plant out, causing the plant to die. I only change my propagation water if it is full of algae (leave a little bit of the old water in the container, because it still contains rooting hormones), and i change it completely if anything is rotting or starts to smell. I have a 100% succes rate with water propagation!
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MEDIUMS :
I like using my standard potting soil mix. It has universal potting soil, LECA, a lot of perlite, coco chips and coco peat. I do not recommend putting Coco Chanel Perfume in there, the soil will smell better than you if you do that 😂
I do like growing these in water, or LECA filled with water for stabilty, but i keep struggeling with fertilization with water plants
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PICTURES :
