Vallota - home growing and care

Vallota is a flower of South American descent, and it owes its name to the French naturalist Pierre Vallo. The plant belongs to the genus Amaryllis and stands out from the family in that:

1. The leaf plate is purple-green in color.
2. A small oval bulb representing the root system is covered with pale crimson flakes.
3. The budding of daughter bulbs is due to repulsive legs, so they come to the surface, and as they grow, the root ending is formed, which draws the bulbs that appear into the ground. In other species, the children ripen in the bowels of an earthen coma.

Wallota flowers are located on a long peduncle, which has no sepals, and they are collected in an "umbrella". You can usually count from 3 to 9 flowers on a plant. Depending on the variety, they are bright red, and pale pink, and orange. The leaves resemble the shape of a sword, and their dark green color at the petiole turns purple.

It should be remembered that this plant is considered poisonous.

How does a plant tolerate heat and cold?

It’s easy to take care of the wallot, it grows quickly and is a strong and stable plant.

Since her homeland is located in a warm climate zone, Wallota loves fever. Therefore, it is necessary for the plant to create comfortable conditions with bright light and warmth. But in the hottest days it should be protected during the day from too intense sun. If the air temperature exceeds 25 degrees Celsius, it is better to remove the plant from the windowsill in the afternoon. On such days, you will need to irrigate it from special devices, but make sure that moisture drops do not fall on the flower petals - this can harm their surface.

Leaves should be kept clean by wiping them with a soft sponge or a damp cotton cloth. If during hot weather the plant is not hidden from the sun and watered, burns may remain on the leaves.

In winter, the room in which the wallota is kept should be cool - no higher than 12 degrees. The main thing is that the plant does not experience sharp temperature changes and does not fall under a draft. Observing these simple rules, you can achieve more abundant flowering, since then the plant hibernates and during this time builds up strength to be active in the warm season.

Important! If the room temperature is below 8 degrees Celsius, the roots can freeze, and then the plant will die completely.

Watering

Wallot is watered as well as other bulbous plants, which means that it does not allow excessive moisture in the soil.

When active growth occurs, watering is required only after the topsoil has completely dried out. In cold weather, especially from January to April, when the plant is at rest, the lower the temperature, the less often should be watered. Some gardeners believe that at this time should not be watered at all. The surest way to determine the wrong watering - wallota begins to lose leaves. In this case, the mode needs to be urgently changed.

When spring comes, new leaves will begin to appear, the plant will need strength for growth, which means that watering should increase. During the growing season after water procedures, if there is water left in the sump, it must be removed, since wallota is one of those species that is better to get less water than to be waterlogged. Between watering, the soil should have time to dry by more than 70 percent.

Breaks between regular irrigation depend entirely on the time of year and the conditions in which the flower is contained.In the summer, watering should occur twice every 7 days, the winter period dictates a different schedule - about once every 15 days.

Top dressing

Plant nutrition is required. It will be useful from spring until the final autumn bloom. But again, and here the opinions of experts are different: some are sure that in winter it is necessary, though rarely, to add fertilizers, despite the sleeping state of the plant.

You can buy ready-made complex fertilizer, saturated with the necessary minerals, for flowering indoor plants or bulbs. In order for the plant to develop, mineral fertilizers alternate with organic ones.

At home, you can prepare nutritious soil yourself. To do this, you will need:

• turf land - 3 parts, deciduous - 1 part;
• sand, preferably river, - 1 part;
• humus - 1 part;
• bone meal - 1 part.

A small amount of mullein and peat is added to the mixture as desired. Feeding should be done no more often than every 14 to 20 days. Be sure to drain.

Transfer

The plant reacts very painfully to the transplant, even if the new soil is better than the previous one. The root system of valotta is very sensitive, and therefore an irreversible process of decay may begin. Therefore, flower growers are advised to transplant the flower only if the grown plant needs more space. If the pot is too narrow, the mother bulb produces more vigorously, and then pushes the daughter bulbs out. But they too deplete the main bulb, therefore it is advisable to separate them as quickly as possible.

In a new place, part of the mother’s bulb is not buried: here, over time, “children” will begin to appear. The wider the new capacity, the more the plant will develop in breadth, becoming much denser.

In the first few years, they try not to transplant the plant, but since the earth is depleted, the time for transplantation will come anyway. This procedure is carried out after 3 to 5 years.

How does reproduction occur?

Caring and proper care gives positive results, and the bulbot bulb produces peduncles. Most often, this pleasant event occurs twice during the season, 2 to 3 buds can open immediately. The life span of a stem with flowers is less than a week. After that, there is no need to rush to pick off the peduncle. You should wait until it thoroughly dries, and only then carefully cut it very shortly.

Reproduction occurs:

1. The seeds. The most time-consuming process, because it is rarely used at home. It will be necessary to sow seeds in the autumn, moistening the soil and covering it with glass. It will be necessary to ventilate the soil, observing a temperature regime of 16 - 18 degrees. In a month, sprouts will begin to appear. The first dive should be done when the seedlings are 6 months old, during planting, the bulbs are completely immersed in the ground, and after two years, during the transplant, the upper part should remain outside. Flowering will begin in 3 years.
2. Child bulbs. In this case, begins to bloom in 1 - 2 years. The main bulb provides daughter bulbs, which remain to be separated and planted, half deepening, in separate pots with a substrate. They usually take root quickly, and grow well. Watering should not be done very often, especially this rule applies to the first months.
3. From the onion, cut into 4 parts. They are planted in a substrate, and grown as subsidiaries.

What can harm a plant

Since wallot does not tolerate an increased level of moisture, with improper care, it begins to undergo a disease such as gray rot. Various pests appear in such soil, which are also detrimental to a delicate plant. That is why it needs to be planted in soil that has been disinfected. This is especially important for young bulbs.

Most often affects wallota:

1. Spider mite. You can identify it by noticeable traces - the pest braids the plant with a thin web and leaves white dots.
2. Aphid. It reproduces very quickly, creating numerous colonies and migrating, attacking other plants. He loves juice, especially young leaves. After aphids stay, the leaf plate curls, the plant may die.
3. Shield. Having settled on a plant, he can drink all the juices and destroy it. Leaves a sticky fluid on which a sooty fungus develops.
4. Thrips. Dangerous pests can hide in flowers and buds.
5. Mealybugs. They look like small tubercles, and a specific white cotton coating appears on the leaves because of them.
6. Fusarium - destroys, first of all, the roots, especially if the plant is young.

From each category of pests and from diseases there are many chemical pesticides that are sold in specialized stores.