Petunias, despite belonging to heat-loving plants, are not afraid of cool weather. But with prolonged rains, plants may experience some problems: cessation of growth and flowering, the appearance of root rot, decay of flowers, and others. How can you help plants overcome such a wet and cold period?
Cold, prolonged rainy weather negatively affects the health of petunias. The roots of plants are located in non-dry, moist soil, which leads to poor ventilation of both the leaf mass and to restriction of root respiration. At such a time, the soil in the flower beds in the root zone should be loosened more often.
Top dressing that supports flowering is washed out into the lower soil layers with precipitation. Plants at this time are experiencing a lack of nutrition, which can manifest itself in the chloroticity of the leaves, crushing the size of the flowers. Petunias can even suspend their flowering. In such cases, they must still be fed.
It is advisable to apply fertilizer mixtures regularly, but in small doses, including in the fertilizer kit a full range of mineral nutrition with trace elements. When chlorosis appears on the leaves, it is necessary to resort to leaf dressing with instant fertilizers, fertilizers in a chelated form (iron chelate).
The most vulnerable to bad weather are varieties with double and large-flowered varieties.
Their flowers look sloppy in rainy weather and rot on plants. Here it is necessary to manually clean the petunias from the blooming buds. If such varieties are planted in containers, then it would be nice to put them under a canopy during the rains so that they do not get wet and a strong wind does not break them.
Slugs are the main enemies of plants in wet weather. In case of a large invasion of slugs, one should resort to the help of preparations such as Thunderstorms, scattering granules around the plants.
To cope with the stresses caused by bad weather, drugs such as Epin or Ecoepin will help.
If petunias start to wither, then it may be a root disease. In this case, tablets of the biological preparation Glyocladin can be added to the root zone.
