How to manage potted plants in autumn?
You may not be familiar with the relevant experience of keeping flowers at home. How to manage potted plants in autumn? The details are as follows:
The autumn climate gradually cools down, and the management of potted plants should focus on the following aspects.
(1) Moderate watering and fertilizing. After entering autumn, the management of water and fertilizer should be treated differently according to the habits of different flowers. For flowers that bloom once a year, such as chrysanthemums, osmanthus, camellias, azaleas, and wintersweet, it is necessary to apply 2-3 times of liquid fertilizer with a high phosphorus content in time; otherwise, not only will the flowers be few and small, but there may also be a phenomenon of bud drop. For flowers that bloom multiple times a year, such as roses, jasmines, and gardenias, it is necessary to continue to supply sufficient water and fertilizer to promote their continuous blooming. For most flowers, after the Cold Dew Festival in the northern regions, fertilizing should generally be stopped to help them overwinter. As the temperature decreases, except for flowers that bloom in autumn, winter, or early spring and grass flowers sown in autumn, which should continue to be watered according to their actual needs, for other flowers, the frequency and amount of watering should be gradually reduced to avoid excessive water and fertilizer, which can cause excessive growth, affecting bud differentiation and suffering from frost damage.
(2) Pruning and shaping. When the temperature is around 20°C after entering autumn, most flowers tend to produce many tender branches. Apart from retaining some as needed, the rest should be pruned in time to reduce nutrient consumption. For the retained tender branches, pinching should be done in time. For flowers like chrysanthemums, dahlias, roses, and jasmines, after the buds appear in autumn and grow to a certain size, except for retaining one large bud at the top with good growth, the side buds should be removed.
(3) Timely seed collection. The seeds of many flowers mature successively from mid-autumn onwards and need to be collected in time. Seeds of flowers like salvia, morning glory, and ipomoea should be cleaned and dried after harvest, then stored in cloth bags in a low-temperature and well-ventilated place. For seeds with thick seed coats, such as peonies, tree peonies, magnolias, and michelias, the seeds should be buried in wet sand soil for stratified sand storage after collection.
(4) Appropriate sowing time. Biennial or perennial plants cultivated as annual or biennial plants, such as snapdragons, Chinese pink, daisies, as well as greenhouse flowers like cinerarias, cyclamen, and tuberous begonias, and flowers like African daisies, larkspurs, primroses, and begonias that lose their germination ability after harvest, should be sown in autumn.
(5) Timely moving into the house. In the northern regions, most flowers need to be moved into the house successively after the Cold Dew Festival according to their cold resistance to avoid cold damage. The specific time to move into the house varies from flower to flower. For most flowers, do not rush to move into the house as soon as the weather changes. Moving in too early affects nutrient accumulation and is not conducive to growth and development the following year. Therefore, it is better to move in a bit later, as long as it does not cause cold damage. The appropriate time for different flowers to move into the house can be found in question 51 of this book.
The detailed explanation of how to manage potted plants in autumn shared above, I hope this article can bring you some help in green plant management!