Grow Petunias

Knowing how to grow petunias can give your garden bright, continuously blooming flowers from spring to frost. Found in a wide variety of colors, petunias are well-suited for growing in flower beds, borders, window boxes, and other containers. Cascading varieties work especially well in hanging baskets.

Steps

Getting Started

  1. Pick your type of petunia. Although there are hundreds of named petunias, they tend to fall into four basic categories, which are determined by flower size and growth habit. Some of these types of petunias work better being grown in a container, while some are better suited to the garden.[1]
    • Grandiflora have the largest flowers and are the most commonly-used type of petunia. Some have single blooms while others are doubles and are available in both upright and cascading varieties.
    • Multiflora petunias have smaller flowers but have masses of blooms and provide big splashes of color.
    • Milliflora grow close to the ground and have small flowers. They are easy to control and thus work well as an edging plant.
    • Ground cover petunias spread and trail along the ground, from window boxes, and cover large areas quickly. This type will need more frequent watering.
  2. Select your petunias. After you've chosen the type of petunia you want, you'll need to pick the petunias themselves. There are some things that you should look for in terms of the best bedding plants.
    • Pick petunia plants for bedding that are compact (not tall and leggy) because these will thrive better.
  3. Choose the right place to plant them. All types of petunias need at least five to six hours of full sunlight per day, although they can tolerate some shade. The soil needs to be well-drained, although it doesn't have to be particularly nutrient-rich.
    • Petunias work well in containers, as well as planted in the garden. However, if you're going to plant them in a container you will want to make sure that you use a soil-less mix (a soil-less mix is composed of things like peat moss, composted pine bark, or coir, as well as inorganic components like sand).[2]
  4. Prepare the soil for planting. Make sure to dig the soil so that it is nice and loose (allowing for better drainage). You want to both condition the soil and fertilize it to make it ready for petunias. If you're planting in the garden, condition the soil with organic matter like baled peat moss, well-rotted leaf compost or manure. You'll need to spread this organic matter about two to three inches thick.
    • Incorporate the organic matter into the soil by using a garden fork to about the depth of eight to ten inches. This can help break up heavy clay soil, allowing for better water drainage or increase the ability of sandy soil to hold nutrients and moisture.
    • Fertilize your soil by using a balanced fertilizer (like 8-8-8, 10-10-10, or 12-12-12) into your garden's soil. You'll want to do this at the rate of about two pounds per hundred square feet. When the season changes (early to mid-July) you'll want to give liquid fertilizer that's meant specially for flowering plants a try, at about every three weeks (although, weekly for spreading petunias).
    • Now, if you're using a window box, or container, you'll need to mix timed-release fertilizer into the soil.
  5. Space them correctly. Most petunia varieties require at least {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} between plants in full sunlight. If you have to use a shadier location, then go for several inches closer together (around nine, ten inches). There are some exceptions to this rule to keep in mind.
    • Milliflora petunias can be placed closer together than the other types with as little as four to six inches between them.
    • Spreading petunias, on the other hand, should really be spaced as much as one and a half feet.
  6. Plant them in the right season. You want to begin bedding the plants in early spring to help acclimatize them to the outdoors. If you're planting them in the ground you should make sure to wait until after the danger of frost as past (or you can cover them at night to protect them from frost).[3]
    • You want the soil temperature to be about 60 degrees. Colder than that and the petunia won't flourish.
    • If it is really hot, make sure to provide some shade for the petunias. Although they love and thrive on lots of sun, too much can have an adverse effect on them.

Growing Petunias From Seed

  1. Start your seedlings. Petunias aren't exactly easy to grow from seedlings, but it can definitely be done and it usually means that you can cultivate more petunias for cheaper! Start your seedlings 10 to 12 weeks before you plan to plant them (early spring, is recommended, such as March in the northern climates).
    • Try to get pelleted seeds, because these are easier to handle, especially for inexperienced gardeners. Petunia seeds can be difficult to handle, because of their size, so make sure you take that into consideration.
  2. Prepare the seeds for sprouting. Petunia seeds require specific conditions in which to sprout. They need somewhere warm and bright (about 70 to 85 degrees) indoors, because they cannot yet handle being outside yet.
    • Spread the tiny seeds on top of fresh damp potting soil or sphagnum moss. Make sure that you spread them sparingly, so they don't crowd one another out as they are trying to grow.
    • Press them into the potting material gently or water with a fine mist to wash them into the potting soil.
    • Cover with clear plastic wrap and store in a bright warm spot away from direct sunlight until they begin to sprout (which usually happens seven to ten days after planting).
  3. Take care of the newly sprouted seedlings. When the seedlings begin to sprout you will want to remove the plastic film. Move to bright, cool spot after sprouting. This usually takes place about seven to ten days after you plant the petunia seeds.
    • Move to a brighter cooler spot after they have sprouted. The best temperatures are 64 degree days, with the temperature at night ranging from 55 degrees to 65 degrees.
  4. Place the petunia seeds beneath fluorescent lights. You will want the petunias to be at least four to six inches beneath the light fixture. Make sure that you put a timer on the lights so that they are lit between 16 and 18 hours each day.
    • Raise the lights as the seedlings grow, so that there is always that four to six inch space between the petunias and the lights.
    • You don't particularly need to get an expensive light fixture that is especial to growing plants. Ordinary fluorescent light tubes work just fine.
    • Make sure that the plants are directly beneath the lights (unlike before they sprouted when you want the seeds away from direct sunlight).
  5. Transplant seedlings. You'll know it's time to transplant the seedlings when they have three true leaves each. Then it's time to put them in their own individual peat pots or packs that hold several plants each.
    • Feed them diluted liquid fertilizer until frost danger is past and you can plant outdoors.
    • Be sure to plant in moderately fertile well-drained soil.
  6. Harden the young plants. You'll do this by putting the young petunias outside on days that are sunny and warm. When it cools down for the night, bring them back inside, so that they stay warm.
    • After doing this for several days you can plant them outdoors permanently.

Caring for Your Blossoming Petunias

  1. Encourage new growth. Depending on the type of petunia you'll need to do some deadheading and some pinching to encourage new growths and flowering side shoots. This will encourage more flowers.
    • For grandifloras and multifloras, when they reach about six inches tall, pinch them back so that you encourage the rapid formation of their flowering side shoots.
    • Avoid pinching millifloras or "spreading" petunias.
    • Deadhead them. Maintain constant blooming of your petunias during the season by pinching off faded blooms (deadheading). Multifloras won't need deadheading. Trim the plant by a third if it becomes too scraggly and isn't blooming well. That will encourage new growth and vigor.
  2. Give them the right amount of fertilizer. You want to make sure that your petunia is healthy without over-fertilizing it. If the foliage of the petunia is looking healthy and vigorous, but the petunia isn't blooming, or isn't blooming well, you need to reduce the amount of fertilizer.
    • A good idea is to fertilize your plants monthly, because this will ensure good growth without over-fertilizing.
    • Double-flowered cultivars, however, should have a biweekly dose of fertilizer.
  3. Water them properly. Most petunia types are fairly easy-going when it comes to water. So a thorough watering about once a week should be good enough, unless the weather is incredibly dry. You want to soak to about a depth of six to eight inches each time to you water.
    • Spreading types of petunias do need to be watered more frequently (more than once a week).
    • Petunias in containers also need more watering depending on their size and the volume of the soil that they contain. Often petunias in containers need to be watered as much as once as day.
    • A good rule of thumb is to allow at least one inch of soil on the top to dry before you water them again.

Troubleshooting Your Petunias

  1. Control the pests in your garden. You will see signs of aphids and caterpillars, pests that can destroy your petunias. You will want to get rid of them so that the petunias will keep thriving.
    • If you see that you have aphids make sure to get rid of them by spraying the petunias with a strong blast of water. Keep doing this until the aphids are gone.
    • Watch for small black droppings and holes in leaves and buds which may indicate caterpillars are after your petunias. Treat with environmentally friendly insecticide.
  2. Water evenly. Sometimes the new flowers will wilt before they actually bloom. When this happens it's because you aren't watering them evenly. Allow the soil to dry out and water thoroughly.[4]
    • Make sure that you're watering at the base of the plant and not on the plant itself.
  3. Avoid petunia diseases. There isn't a whole lot that you can do about diseases like soft rot and mold. However, if you live in a rainy area, you might try planting the rain-resistant multiflora, rather than one of the other petunia kinds.
    • it's super important that you don't over-water. This can lead to problems with soft rot and mold.

Tips

  • If you're looking to plant a specific petunia color scheme keep in mind that purple-flowered varieties tend to be more vigorous, while the yellow-flowered ones tend to be the least vigorous. This can make them more difficult to grow together.
  • When you want your petunia to bloom more you need to cut the stems (with the flowers on it) off.

Warnings

  • Petunias tend to die at temperatures around or below freezing, so remember that these are only short-lived perennials. You can take some cuttings and keep them in water over winter, but it's usually best just to start fresh and re-plant each spring.[5]



Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/flowers/growing-petunias/
  2. ↑ http://www.finegardening.com/choosing-right-soilless-mix
  3. ↑ http://tipnut.com/growing-petunias/
  4. ↑ http://www.almanac.com/plant/petunias
  5. ↑ http://www.garden.org/subchannels/care/soil?q=show&id=679

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