Things Needed
Tip
Purchase gamey - calibre azalea seeds from a reputable source . If they ’re not carried by garden suppliers in your country , you may corrupt them through mail order and on-line retailers .
Warning
Do yourself a huge favor , and use only distilled water for starting azalea semen and growing the seedlings . It hold back none of the impurities present in average tap pee . recollect that even dechlorinated hydrant water supply is far too alkaline for sister azalea .
Azaleas typically bloom early on in the turn time of year , lavishing landscapes with plentiful mounds of white , pinkish , salmon , and lilac-colored flowers . They flourish near and even beneath shade tree diagram , unlike most flowering shrubs . These plants do best in well - run out acidic soil , with a pH between 4.5 - 6.0 . Although most home gardeners just purchase young greenhouse originate specimens , there ’s no grounds you ca n’t very easily and cheaply grow azalea from seeds . Just be patient , take your sentence and you ’ll be richly rewarded with beautiful works that may bloom as soon as 3 to 4 twelvemonth from germination . seedling sprouted during the winter can be engraft outside the undermentioned springiness .
Prepare to Germinate
Step 1
Cut off the top one-half of an empty plastic Imperial gallon milk or juice jugful with scissors to make your own re - purposed seed lead off container . Wash it well with hot soapy water supply and dry out it . Make about 4 - 5 2 - inch slit in the bottom to furnish for drainage . save the appointment and plant variety on the container with a permanent marker .
Step 2
Combine adequate part peat moss , well - washed sand and Perlite to create your pot culture medium . Do n’t use sand instantly from the outdoors – rather , purchase some that has been packaged strictly for potting role . say the recording label carefully to make certain it contains no limestone , which serves to sweeten soil . azalea scorn sweet or piquant dirt .
Step 3
Fill the plastic seed starting container about half full of potting medium . Moisten the mixture equally with distilled water until it runs out the bottom prick . permit it debilitate very well so that it ’s not inebriate or wet . Fungus and disease will endanger marshy seedlings .
Step 4
Finely mill a handful of sphagnum moss by fray it vigorously against the screen of your kitchen strainer . Spread about 1/8 column inch of the milled bog moss over the surface of your potting medium . Thoroughly moisten it by fog with distilled water from a plastic spray feeding bottle .
Step 5
Spread the azalea ejaculate over the milled sphagnum , giving them as much space as potential so that they ’re not too close to each other . Mist them with a little dilute azalea plant food , which is the only feeding they ’ll take for several months .
Step 6
seal off the start container in a clear pliant bag , which will provide the necessary level of humidness . place it about 12 inches beneath an cheap shop promiscuous fixture fitted with 1 - 2 40 - watt fluorescent bulbs . If such a set - up is not potential , even a portable desk lamp can be sufficient . Just position it about 4 column inch above the starting container . get out the lights on 18 to 24 hour day by day because foresightful days facilitate vegetative development . Your seedling will germinate in 2 to 3 weeks .
Care for Your Seedlings
Inspect the open of the medium every 4 to 5 days until the seedling burgeon forth . There ’s no need to irrigate them since the sealed plastic bag retains moisture and humidness . start the cup of tea about 1/3 of the way to begin acclimating the seedling to humbled humidity floor when they develop at least 2 sets of truthful leaves . Keep them evenly moist but not mucky .
Transplant the seedlings into a plastic 6 - jail cell starting flat , using the same medium that you planted the seeds in . Evenly dampen the metier . Partially seal the compressed in the plastic bag about half open , and fructify it back under the lightness . The seedlings will be minuscule and seem to be growing lento , which is normal . They ’ll begin to mature quicker once they get 4 to 5 lot of leave-taking . After a couple week , completely remove their plastic dish , but keep them under luminousness .
Begin acclimate your azalea seedlings to the outdoors after all danger of frost has passed , and they have develop 5 to 6 sets of leaves . Set them in a shady spot every morning for a week , and convey them in around noontime and set them back under lights . Let them outride out all day during the following week , but bring them in at dusk . you’re able to now call on the light off .
Transplant seedlings in their permanent domicile . Choose shaded to partially shade well - drain locations . Keep them uniformly moist but not wet , and feed swimming fertilizer per the publicity instructions .
