Begonias - mini plants advice

jimbugalee

I planted about 50 mini plant size begonias but they don't seem to be doing as well as my other mini plants.

Would there be any reason for this? I planted them in a peat based compost simply because I ran out of normal compost. Maybe they don't like this?

I'm keeping them in the kitchen in one of those little 4 tier greenhouse things and move them outside occasionally towards the end of the day to water. All my other mini plants kept in the same conditions are doing well.

Here's what they look like. You can see the empty spaces of ones that have died.





Any advice appreciated thanks!

Kay_Peel

Hi there.

I think you can save the remaining ones. The main trouble comes from the peat - it dries out very easily. I'd be tempted to plant the plugs into bigger pots with some multi-purpose compost which holds water better.

The other things you can do are:

1. Stand the seed tray in a tray of water in the morning. Let the plants soak for a good half hour. Try not to water the plants from above - instead water them gradually from below.
2. Put them out in the morning and bring them inside in the evening. It's very mild and sunny where I am, so all my seedlings and plants have to play outside during the day.

I think that as soon as you get them out of that peat and into something that holds its water, your little plants will romp away.

jimbugalee

Thanks so much Kay. I'll do that straight away and see if I can save the ones I have left. I have some other plants in peat but they seem to be ok, the rest are in compost. I didn't know whether I could put them outside yet so will do this week and bring them back in in the evening.

gardenroute

Its hard to tell from the photos.
If the leaves are turning soft and rotten, it could be low temps, even just a cold draught through a badly fitted window could be doing it. Or it could be a fungal disease.
If the leaves are drying out before dying then it could vine weevils or chafer grubs eating the roots.
Half an hour seems like a long time to be sitting in water, especially if they don't dry out in between waterings, 2 mins is ample for such small plants.
A worrying amount of peat is used by the horticultural industry, pretty much every plant you ever buy is grown in peat, one of the reasons for this is its ability to hold onto water so I not sure that its the peat.
My advice:
1. Keep them out of draughts
2. Try a fungicide and/or insecticide.
3. Not too much water, remember these are succulents. They have no resistance to rot.
4. Most of important of all. Next year do not buy bedding so early unless you have the means to look after them. One of my friends owns a garden centre and she says that the people who come in first to buy the bedding are nearly always back buying more plants a few weeks later. She sells a lot more bedding by stocking up earlier than she should.

jimbugalee

Good advice - thank you. My boyfriend bought these mini plants for me so I've tried really hard to grow them all. I have about 300 in total. The rest are doing fine, it's just the begonias. Some of the leaves have rotted so I thought maybe they got too wet. I don't think they dry out.

I keep them in the kitchen in an enclosed shelving unit (one of those ones with clear plastic all over). I don't zip it up though. No draughts - we've just had new windows! I think the ones left aren't doing too bad but I'm disappointed I've lost over half

gardenroute

maybe its the mini greenhouse thats the problem. Another thread on here was talking about ventiliation in them. Maybe its a combination of high humidity and temperatures but with too little light. Some windows will not get enough light anyway and combined with the misted plastic could create a problem.
It could be that in the warmth and low light levels the plants are putting out large soft leaves that cannot live in such a humid environment.
You could try taking some of them out of the greenhouse, and just leave them on a sunny windowsill or even put them outside on a nice day and then bring them in in the evening.

peter_the_piper

Really plugs that small should still be receiving a bottom heat of about 10deg C until they are quite a bit bigger and more established. It may well pay you to get larger ones, give them some warmth for a week or so after potting up.