Methods of propagation of ficus Benjamin

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, which raises the question: how to propagate Benjamin’s ficus and still not destroy their own bush?

Methods of propagating Benjamin’s ficus

Cherenkovy

It is easiest to propagate Benjamin’s ficus by 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 small th branch with a small bud.

The step-by-step preparation of the 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 100% healthy. The length of chopped cuttings should be approximately 14-15 cm.
• Rooting at half-lignified branches that 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.
• The twigs prepared in this way are laid on a clean, dry surface for several hours to dry.

After carrying out the above procedures, they begin to propagate the cuttings with water or soil.

Water method

For this method of breeding 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 cuttings are 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 cuttings of ficus Benjamin

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 it will develop soon root system. Landing should only occur when the roots grow to 1-2 cm.

Soil method

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 correctly harvested and dried cuttings, before starting propagation of Benjamin’s ficus at home, should be decontaminated with charcoal crushed into powder. The soil should be a little moist.

It is necessary to plant the cuttings in the soil to a depth of 2 buds. To accelerate germination, you can create a greenhouse on the same principle as in the first version. You should not forget about airing.

Slices of cuttings need to be decontaminated

In the future, the soil should be regularly moistened with water, after adding the root formation stimulator to it. It is advisable to alternate watering: plain water, water with additives, plain again.

As soon as young leaves appear on the table, you can be sure that the shoot 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 Benjamin ficus is completely hardened.

Seed propagation

If there is nowhere to take the cuttings for breeding ficus, you can buy seeds this forever 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 the 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 to seeds, the plant needs constant care:

• the temperature where the box with seedlings is located should always be within 22-26 ° С;
• regularly and moderately moisten the soil (about 3 months) throughout the entire period of germination.

As soon as the first pair of leaves peeps out of the ground, the seeds have sprouted and the ficus can be planted.

Seed propagation method not very popular with gardeners, as breeding takes a lot of time and there is not always a guarantee that, despite constant care, at least one seed will germinate.

Shedding

So usually a flower is propagated, in which young shoots are poorly developed, but have good lignified branches.

Choose the strongest branch and make an incision of a ring-like type on it, then treat the branch with a stimulating root formation tool. The place of the cut is wrapped in polyethylene and the bandage is tightly fixed.

As soon as the roots appear on the branch, the roots are carefully cut with a sharp knife and planted immediately in a permanent pot.

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 dilution of Benjamin’s ficus, 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 blanks can be made from one branch.

Nutritious soil is placed in a seedling container with a leaf and almost the entire stem is stuck there, leaving only a leaf stalk on the surface.

The leaf is rolled up and fix the structure 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.

To summarize

These are all known ways in which Benjamin’s ficus are propagated. The main thing is to approach the plant with love, and it will definitely give the first roots, and then the bright green young leaves, no matter whether it is propagation by cuttings or seedlings from purchased seeds.