The star of Bethlehemusually ends its life right after Christmas. However, if we have decided to overwinter poinsettias and grow them for the next year, it is worth taking seedlings from them.Breeding the star of Bethlehemat home is quite difficult, and the plants obtained will not be as beautiful and plump as those bought in flower shops, but you can try. Seehow to make Christmas star cuttingsand learn how to reproduce this plant.
Breeding the Star of Bethlehem, photo: Stars For Europe
The star of Bethlehem can be vegetatively propagated at home - from apical cuttings.Star seedlings can be taken from plants that have been overwinteringand dormant after flowering. Of course, they must be he althy, in good condition, with no signs of physiological disturbance and not attacked by diseases of the star of Bethlehem. Usually around April they start to grow again and immediately after that you can get seedlings from these plants.
In practice,poinsettia seedlings can be picked from April to JulyA good time to collect Bethlehem seedlings is in July. The purpose of this cut is to obtain a compact plant habit, the same as those sold at Christmas in flower shops. The remaining shoots after trimming the plant can be used for cuttings. Usuallyproduces 3 to 6 pretty seedlings from one star of Bethlehem
To make Star of Bethlehem seedlingsfrom the plants we have, cut the apical fragments of the shoots 15-20 cm long. Each taken fragment of the shoot should have 2 to 3 fully developed leaves. The taken seedling is placed in water to allow the milk juice to flow out, and then placed in a mixture of peat and sand mixed in a 1: 1 ratio. Instead of sand, you can also use garden perlite. Before placing in the ground, the tips of the cuttings can be dipped in a rooting agent.
Place the pots with Star of Bethlehem seedlingsin a well-lit place, but not too much sun. The plants are watered regularly to prevent the soil from drying out. You should also take care of high air humidity, reaching 90%. For this, the plants are covered with foil or halves of mineral water bottles, which form a kind of miniature greenhouse. The covers must be removed once a day to ventilate the plants.
Flowering seedlings of the Star of Bethlehem, photo: Stars For Europe
If everything is done right,the little Bethlehem stars will take root in 3-4 weeksFor your plants to grow nicely and bloom profusely, you need to provide them with liquid fertilizer for flowering plants. In autumn, preferably in October, we start darkening the Bethlehem stars in such a way that they spend 14 hours a day in complete darkness (e.g. under a cardboard cover). For the remaining 8 hours, they should be provided with plenty of sunlight. After 4-6 weeks, their apical leaves, called inflorescences, should turn red. This way we will haveBethlehem stars blooming before Christmas
