Ficus Benjamin is a very beautiful and unpretentious plant that attracts the eyes of guests. Often the owners of the bush are asked to give a sprout, in connection with which the question arises: how to propagate Benjamin's ficus and still not destroy their own bush?
Methods of propagation of ficus Benjamin
Cherenkovy
The easiest way to propagate Benjamin's ficus is cuttings. As seedlings, stems from the top of the crown, growing between the leaves, are suitable. You can grow a beautiful healthy bush even from a small twig with a small bud.
Step-by-step procurement of material is as follows:
- We take a very sharp knife, disinfect it and carefully cut the branch at an angle of 45 ° C, making sure that the mother plant is 100% healthy. The length of chopped cuttings should be approximately 14-15 cm.
- Rooting at half-lignified branches, which have already acquired a brown color, is more successful. Each stalk used for seedlings should have at least 1-2 leaves.
- A white liquid is released from the cut shoot, which after drying forms a dense film that prevents the formation of roots. To prevent this, juice is removed from the plant, after which they get rid of the lower leaves and cut off part of the length of large leaves, if any.
- Twigs prepared in this way are placed on a clean, dry surface for several hours, to dry.
After carrying out the above procedures, they begin to propagate by cuttings in the water or soil method.
Water way
For this method of propagation of ficus Benjamin at home use filtered water at room temperature. It is there that seedlings germinate as quickly as possible. So that it does not deteriorate, a little activated carbon is thrown into the liquid.
The cutlery is immersed in water so that the leaves on the stem do not touch the water. It is advisable to put seedlings for germination on the windowsill, but so that not a single direct ray of the sun hits the ficus. Water should be added in descending order.
To speed up the process, you can make a mini-greenhouse on the windowsill: mark the container with the cuttings in a plastic bag. At the same time, the design is periodically ventilated, otherwise it will not work to propagate the ficus Benjamin stalk
Already at the beginning of the third week of germination at home, the bark on the shoots is covered with white dots, which means that the root system will soon develop from them. Landing should only occur when the roots grow to 1-2 cm.
Soil way
First of all, it is necessary to prepare the soil. To do this, take equal parts of sand, peat soil, perlite and mix everything well. An ordinary box is suitable for seedlings.
Slices of properly harvested and dried cuttings, before starting the propagation of Benjamin's ficus at home, should be decontaminated with charcoal crushed into powder. The soil should be slightly moist.
Plant cuttings in the ground is necessary to a depth of 2 buds. To accelerate germination, you can create a greenhouse on the same principle as in the first version. At the same time, one should not forget about airing.
Slices of cuttings need to be decontaminated
In the future, the soil must be regularly moistened with water, after adding a root formation stimulator to it. It is advisable to alternate irrigation: plain water, water with additives, plain again.
As soon as young leaves appear on the table, you can be sure that the escape has taken root. The plant needs to be allowed to stand in the greenhouse for some more time so that it can adapt. The greenhouse is cleaned gradually, every day increasing the airing time until the ficus of Benjamin is completely hardened.
Seed propagation
If there is nowhere to take the cuttings for breeding ficus, you can buy the seeds of this always green flower in the store. Planting must be carried out in moist, nutritious, specially prepared soil to a depth of 0.5 cm.To prepare the substrate, take one part of turf soil, one part of perlite, one part of leaf humus and bone meal at the rate of 10 g per 10 l of the mixture.
When propagating seeds, the plant needs constant care:
- the temperature where the box with seedlings is located should always be in the range of 22-26 ° C;
- throughout the entire period of germination, regularly and moderately moisten the soil (about 3 months).
As soon as the first pair of leaves peeps out of the ground, the seeds sprouted, and the ficus can be planted.
The seed propagation method is not very popular among gardeners, since breeding takes a lot of time and there is not always a guarantee that, despite constant care, at least one seed will germinate.
Layering
So usually propagate a flower in which young shoots are poorly developed, but there are good lignified branches.
The strongest branch is selected and an annular-type incision is made on it, then the branch is treated with a stimulating root formation agent. The place of the incision is wrapped in polyethylene and the bandage is tightly fixed.
As soon as the appearance of the roots on the branch became noticeable, with a sharp knife it is carefully cut and planted immediately in a permanent pot.
For plant survival, it takes time and constant care. It must be placed in a well-lit room where there are no drafts and the optimum air temperature is constantly maintained.
The mother plant at the cut point must be treated with charcoal powder.
Leaf propagation
For mass breeding of ficus Benjamin, it is best to use the leaf propagation method. For this, a small piece of the stem with one leaf is cut from the middle section of the shoot. If everything is done carefully, several pieces can be made from one branch.
Nutrient soil is placed in a seedling container with a leaf and practically the entire stem is stuck there, leaving only the leaf stalk on the surface.
The sheet is rolled up with a tube and the structure is fixed with rubber. For convenience, you can insert a small wooden peg inside.
The container with plantings is placed in a plastic bag and tightly closed so as to create good greenhouse conditions. Leaving consists in periodic airing and watering. Active growth of cuttings will begin in the fifth week.
Summarizing
These are all well-known ways in which the reproduction of Benjamin ficus is carried out. The main thing is to approach the plant with love, and it will certainly give the first roots, and then the bright green young leaves, it does not matter if this is propagation by cuttings or seedlings from purchased seeds.
