Triangular oxalis: home care, photo and description
Graceful sour trees from the 17th century have found their place as indoor and garden plants. Descriptions of caring for triangular sour cherry at home and photos will help novice and experienced flower growers get acquainted with this spectacular and completely non-capricious culture.
Among the hundreds of species are:
- plants propagating by tubers and scaly rhizomes;
- perennial and annual crops;
- flowering varieties and specimens, striking with the unusual foliage.
Where does oxalis grow? It is safe to say that this or that species was met by everyone. The fact is that the range of this genus includes many regions with a warm and temperate climate, from southern Africa to central Russia. Triangular oxalis, for example, came to window sills and gardens from faraway Brazil.
Descriptions and features of the sour plant
The color of the leaf blades in potted varieties is most often deep purple or purple. But there are varieties with green or reddish leaves. Moreover, on each lobe, spots of a different shade are clearly visible closer to the base of the plate.
A characteristic feature of most acid plant plants is the ability to fold foliage at sunset, in the hottest and cloudy weather, when the sky is threatening with rain.
Small, graceful triangular sorrel flowers have five petals and are white to lilac in color. Like leaves, corollas close at night, react to touch and direct sunlight. After pollination, in place of the flowers, fruits are formed, which, when ripe, open up, as soon as they are touched. Small seeds are germinable, but at home, the reproduction of acid is carried out in parts of thickened rhizomes.
Sour acid care at home
If this plant appears in the house, the florist does not have to spend a lot of time caring for triangular acid at home. Still, room culture needs to find the right place to feel good.
The western or eastern windows are suitable for light-loving acid, where the plant is protected from the scorching midday rays, but do not experience a lack of light. It is important that drafts do not disturb the sour cherry, and that the heating devices are located far from the pot and do not dry out the air.
Unpretentious sour plants do not have special requirements for the temperature in the room where they were placed, air humidity and soil in the pot.
Optimum temperature:
- in the summer months is 20–24 ° C;
- during the cold period of the year, when the time of relative dormancy begins at the acid plant, 16-18 ° C, but not below these limits.
If there is such an opportunity, from spring to autumn, when the weather permits, triangular sour cherry can be taken out into the air. Moreover, the plant easily acclimatizes when kept in a pot or when planted in the ground.
Summer is a time of active growth, therefore, in caring for triangular acid, in the photo, at home and in the garden, they must include frequent and abundant watering... In this case, moisture should not linger in the ground. The excess water is drained, and a powerful drainage layer is provided in the pot. With the arrival of autumn and a decrease in air temperature, the need for moisture in acid plant decreases. The soil only needs to be slightly moistened, especially since the plant's growth stops.
The dormant period, during which the culture practically "falls asleep", lasts no more than one and a half months. With the appearance of new foliage, in the spring, the usual care is resumed, including watering, spring transplanting and feeding.
Fertilizers can be applied twice a month using a complex composition for flower crops, but only in half the concentration. A month after the beginning of the growing season, the sorrel plants bloom.
Transplantation and reproduction of acid
Plants are transferred to fresh substrate every spring at the beginning of the growing period. But before transplanting the acid plant, you need to choose a pot for the plant and a suitable soil. Wide pots are used for this shallow root crop.
Oxalis is not capricious, so a universal soil mixture is suitable for growing. The soil should not be too nutritious, otherwise the plant actively grows foliage to the detriment of flowering.
If the diameter of the container allows, several pieces of rhizomes can be planted in one container at once. It is by the division of elongated scaly rhizomes that the acid plant multiplies. Rhizosomes are laid out on a damp substrate and sprinkled with soil 1–2 cm.
With regular home care, triangular oxalis, as in the photo, rises and grows to the size of an adult plant in 1–1.5 months.
If the grower has seeds at his disposal, they are distributed over the surface of the moist soil, irrigated from a spray bottle and kept in greenhouse conditions until shoots appear.