Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Planting begonia tubers

It's going to be a busy day in the Workroom.

My friend Marlene is coming over with her two girls. They will craft and play (at least, we hope they will craft and play) while we transplant what looks like a bazillion seedlings, most of whom have been hanging over the edges of their pots, begging for just a little more room, desperate to stretch out their roots.

So while we spend the day with our hands in dirt I thought I would give you the chance to do the same.

To that end I am reposting this piece I wrote back in the beginning on how to plant up begonia tubers.

Never done this before??? Neither had I . . .and the end result was a beautiful begonia that bloomed all summer. . .

Enjoy.

planting begonia tubers
Quite some time back, I thought I try something new and plant a begonia tuber.

I had never done this before, as my relatively thrifty soul balked at the price of a tuber.

Of course, come gardening time, it balked even more at the price if the actual plant!
In the interests of my blog readers I felt I should give this a try. That way we could all learn together. This also gives you the advantage of not being out $4 should this fail! (I love it when I can come up with a good excuse!)

planting begonia tubers 2

The tuber needs to be planted halfway into the soil mix with the concave side upwards and
the pot should only be slightly larger than the tuber .

Begonias have very small root systems. The roots must be all the way to the edge of the container before you transplant it into a larger pot.


planting begonia tubers 3

Cover with soil.

planting begonia tubers 4

Water.
And here, my dear friends, is where I ran into trouble.
I reread the planting directions and saw, in bold, this warning:
-Do not let any water sit in the hollow tuber or it may rot.
What!
Well, I'll fix that!

planting begonia tubers 5

Ummm, in trying to drain the excess water from the pot, an unfortunate thing occurred.
The tuber fell out!

planting begonia tubers 6

No problem.
I can put it back.
Hang on. . .

planting begonia tubers 7

There!
I mixed a little dry soil with the incredibly wet soil.
That should do it!
Now for a quick double check on the proper way to start these guys.
I hop over to Doug green's site. http://www.douggreensgarden.com/
What!
Only water with warm water or the tuber may rot!
Oh for crying out loud!
It also wants bottom heat, so I put it on top of one of my fluorescent lights. (the old ones throw off a lot of heat.)
I have never had to worry about too much water before.
My poor plants generally worry about not having enough water.
So here we are. . .
Six weeks later. . .

planting begonia tubers 8

Whew!
I can still call myself a gardener.

3 comments:

tamara said...

I laughed myself silly over this one, Rosa! This is exactly what happens at the greenhouse when we do a trial on something new. Now, imagine yourself X 10, making $12 per hour and having to redo that pot X 1000 more......I am very happy for you that, had your tuber not worked, it would only have cost you $4 :) Love the blog!

CurtissAnn said...

Oh, honey, this is priceless! Thank you for a smile, and for encouragement.

Unknown said...

I take umbrage at the suggestion 43 is middle aged! 65 maybe, although, when I was 16, 36 seemed over the hill.
If this begonia is in a planter and kept in a greenhouse over winter, does it need to be dug up and dried, or just watered to re-start it?
Thanks from Jim @ lakeland College, Vermilion AB
jim.baker@lakelandc.ab.ca

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