What are the best petunia seeds to buy for growing seedlings?
With the arrival of spring, flowerpots with a wide variety of petunias for every taste and color are dazzling in flower shops and on market counters. If there is no opportunity (or desire) to breed petunias, you can immediately purchase a ready-made flower. Or you can buy seeds and grow petunia seedlings on your own.
The second option is more profitable, since the cost of buying one adult plant will cover the purchase of several packs of seeds. More than one flowerbed will be filled with seedlings grown from them. Petunia seeds have a fairly good germination capacity. However, when looking for them, it is worth listening to the recommendations of experienced flower growers about which petunia seeds are best to buy for seedlings.
So, when choosing petunia seeds, you need to pay attention to the following points:
- quality;
- quantity;
- freshness;
- belonging to the variety.
Petunia seed quality
Probably everyone saw grandmothers in the markets selling seeds "by weight." Nobody says that the seeds purchased from them will be of poor quality. But still, in order not to be mistaken with the choice, it is better to buy petunia seeds in special professional packages. Moreover, the company that produces them must be sufficiently well-known. The packages always indicate which one it is. petunia varietywhen you need to sow the seeds, the approximate planting time and flowering period, as well as the care features and description of the plant.
You also need to pay attention to which seeds are in the package - regular or coated. The latter type is more convenient to sow, but if the conditions and storage periods are not met, they lose germination.
Number of seeds in a bag
Petunia seeds are very small and are sold in packs of 5 and 10. A package with a large number of seeds seems more expensive only at first glance, and if you recalculate the price for one piece, it is immediately clear that it is more profitable to purchase a larger package. Seedlings grown from it can be planted one large or several small flower beds.
Of course, if you want to plant several varieties with various colors and shapes of inflorescences, it is better to buy one small bag of different varieties.
Freshness of seeds
When choosing petunia seeds, you should pay attention to what year they were harvested. Some growers insist that last year's seeds have the best germination. If possible, it is better to buy fresh petunia seeds, or treat them before sowing with Epit-Extra stimulant drug.
If the expiration date is printed on a bag with petunia seeds in a printing house, it may be a fake, because real seeds have stamps with dates.
Belonging to the variety
Different varieties of petunias have their own planting characteristics. For example, some varieties can be sown directly into open soil, and some are first grown in seedling form. Therefore, for growing seedlings of petunias, it is recommended to buy bags with seeds of the same variety. Mixed sachets may not perform as expected.