Marion, I think I've read somewhere, either further up on this thread or on the other Begonia one, that they are quite hard to grow from seed. However, if you buy the type with the fibrous roots they will over-winter in the greenhouse away from frost and will get little corms (or tubers ) on the end....I think I've got that right but no doubt someone will tell me if I have misunderstood.
Regarding the fibrous begonias, in my experience it goes like this: If you buy the begonia plugs, at the end of Summer you can dig them up and you should find that there are little tubers on the end of them.
The idea is to let the plant die down, take off the stems, dry off the tuber and store them over Winter somewhere dry (I use dried out old potting soil but there are several ways to store them). In Spring you plant the little tubers onto moist compost set in a tray, plant them just up to their 'shoulders'. Keep them in a warm light room and after a few weeks they will start shooting. That shoot is the start of your plant, which you can plant up with the tuber completely under the soil and the shoot above (sorry - suck eggs and all that...)
I think that the tubers supplied by the garden centres and nurseries are probably a few years old, as they are bigger than the first year tubers. Consequently you will get a bigger plant from them, with several shoots coming from the tuber.
It's fun to try to grow them on yourself though (and it's free of course). I currently have some first year tubers in my unheated greenhouse, which I am about to bring into the conservatory to start shooting. I bought them as plugs last year.
It doesn't have to be complicated Tracey. Begonias are lovely plants with a long flowering period. They are also very flexible as they are happy in sun or shade and can be very forgiving if not watered as they will sit in dry soil without complaint. And there are begonias for every situation, trailers for baskets and bedding begonias for - well, for bedding.
I have only ever grown the fibrous begonias from seed. I have started the tuberous begonias from tuber and from plugs. I think the plugs are simply cuttings, or young plants grown from seed.
The only thing that you need to know is that the easiest way to start growing them is simply by buying some plug plants. All the popular stockists sell them really cheaply. Once you get to know them better, you can get into the tuber thing if you fancy it!
Mike, leaf cuttings sounds very interesting will def try increasing stock by this method
I have just been checking the tubers that I have overwintered in a cool cupboard as I did successfully last year
however, this year, some of the tubers have already started to sprout new shoots even without being in compost
given that it’s only mid march should I remove these shoots or will that be detrimental to tuber?
There also seems to be a lot of conflicting advice when it comes to planting tubers some say you should cover with compost and others have said you simply sit the tuber on top of moist compost
Dont take the shoots off, pop them on some compost, i use any old stuff that i save through the year, they dont need top class soil to start. When they start to flower, I always pick the females off, you can see these straight away, they have a green seed pod behind, that way your males will keep coming till frost. We have been growing these for over 20 years, you cant go wrong. I will pot these into 8inch pots as soon as they have made a nice bush of real leaves. You can cut the big ones in half, make sure they have about 3 or 4 shoots on each bit.
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Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
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Regarding the fibrous begonias, in my experience it goes like this: If you buy the begonia plugs, at the end of Summer you can dig them up and you should find that there are little tubers on the end of them.
The idea is to let the plant die down, take off the stems, dry off the tuber and store them over Winter somewhere dry (I use dried out old potting soil but there are several ways to store them). In Spring you plant the little tubers onto moist compost set in a tray, plant them just up to their 'shoulders'. Keep them in a warm light room and after a few weeks they will start shooting. That shoot is the start of your plant, which you can plant up with the tuber completely under the soil and the shoot above (sorry - suck eggs and all that...)
I think that the tubers supplied by the garden centres and nurseries are probably a few years old, as they are bigger than the first year tubers. Consequently you will get a bigger plant from them, with several shoots coming from the tuber.
It's fun to try to grow them on yourself though (and it's free of course). I currently have some first year tubers in my unheated greenhouse, which I am about to bring into the conservatory to start shooting. I bought them as plugs last year.
Hope this helps.
Ah! so thats how a corm starts, brilliant
Think i will set myself a challenge this year and try some seeds.
Thanks for this info
kind regards
Good luck Marion.
It doesn't have to be complicated Tracey. Begonias are lovely plants with a long flowering period. They are also very flexible as they are happy in sun or shade and can be very forgiving if not watered as they will sit in dry soil without complaint. And there are begonias for every situation, trailers for baskets and bedding begonias for - well, for bedding
.
I have only ever grown the fibrous begonias from seed. I have started the tuberous begonias from tuber and from plugs. I think the plugs are simply cuttings, or young plants grown from seed.
The only thing that you need to know is that the easiest way to start growing them is simply by buying some plug plants. All the popular stockists sell them really cheaply. Once you get to know them better, you can get into the tuber thing if you fancy it!
Planning at trip to our local GC at weekend and will be investing in Begonias
Mike, leaf cuttings sounds very interesting will def try increasing stock by this method
I have just been checking the tubers that I have overwintered in a cool cupboard as I did successfully last year
however, this year, some of the tubers have already started to sprout new shoots even without being in compost
given that it’s only mid march should I remove these shoots or will that be detrimental to tuber?
There also seems to be a lot of conflicting advice when it comes to planting tubers some say you should cover with compost and others have said you simply sit the tuber on top of moist compost
Any opinions anyone ?
Dont take the shoots off, pop them on some compost, i use any old stuff that i save through the year, they dont need top class soil to start. When they start to flower, I always pick the females off, you can see these straight away, they have a green seed pod behind, that way your males will keep coming till frost. We have been growing these for over 20 years, you cant go wrong. I will pot these into 8inch pots as soon as they have made a nice bush of real leaves. You can cut the big ones in half, make sure they have about 3 or 4 shoots on each bit.
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