General description of tolmiya, creating conditions for indoor cultivation, selection of soil and fertilizers, reproduction, problems with cultivation and pest control. Tolmia (Tolmiea) is a plant in the form of a small shrub, ranked among the family Saxifragaceae. It is quite extensive, as it contains about 30 genera and more than 600 species of representatives of the planet's flora. However, this plant is distinguished only in one genus. The homeland of this unique representative of the green world is considered to be the coastal zones of the Pacific Ocean, which washes North America. Tolmia prefers to settle in areas of light forest or mountainousness. All the amazingness of this, at first glance, a familiar bush, is its unusual way of reproduction for the green world.
Tolmia is an evergreen plant, and with the arrival of cold weather this does not in any way affect the properties of its leaf mass, only if there is not enough light, then its leaves will become a little paler, but they will not lose their beauty. Its height may approach 40 cm. The leaves are somewhat reminiscent of currant leaves (after all, this relative is also part of the above-mentioned family). In the place where the leaf blade is attached to the leaf petiole, small "children" are formed - daughter plants of tolmiya. As the "young growth" grows on their leaves, the same young shoots are also formed. Under the weight of their rapidly forming mass of young tolmias, the stalks with leaves begin to bend over to the soil. And it is natural that young plants, barely touching the ground, begin to take root and can already lead an independent existence. Because of this exotic way of reproduction, tolmiya was popularly called "hen with chickens", "a thousand mothers", and the most interesting thing is "youth in old age". In the botanical world, this plant is called "Forest Chistets". Of course, in nature, the soil next to the mother tolmiya is completely covered by a green fluffy rug of continuously propagating plants.
In tolmiya, a rosette is formed from sheet plates. The leaves are large, their surface seems to be covered with wrinkles, the color is bright or dark green, variegated colors can also be found. The stem of this plant is short and practically invisible due to the deciduous mass. The petioles of the leaf plates are not long; on the surface of the leaf there is a dark emerald pattern of veins. The top sharpens a little, but at the base it is as if the outline of a heart is carved. The entire surface is covered with the smallest hairs, like a downy and very decorative.
Flowering occurs with inflorescences in the form of a spikelet, which reaches half a meter in height. It contains completely nondescript small flowers of cream, milky or pale lilac shades. It is recommended to remove them immediately so that they do not spoil the entire decorative appearance of the bush.
In no case should be treated with preparations to give shine to the sheet plates - this will lead to their burns! When grown in our latitudes, "a thousand mothers" are often chosen for decorating at home not only premises, but also a personal plot. It is planted in flower beds in park and garden areas, used as a ground cover plant that looks like a green rug. In natural nature, tolmia covers the entire ground layer in forest areas and with its roots, as it were, holds the soil together, and can prevent soil shifts. But there is an opportunity to grow this beautiful green bush as an ampelous culture at home, which, turning sour with shoots from a pot, attracts the eye with leaves of a rich emerald color.
For growing indoors, growers use only one or two species of the whole set.
Recommendations for growing tolmiya in conditions
- Lighting and location selection. This "brood hen with chickens" must be placed in a spacious place immediately, as its diameter will be rather big. It must be remembered that by lengthening, the tolmiya shoots are able to reach out to other pots with plants, and take root in them, so you should immediately decide if this is necessary. For a pot with a "thousand mothers", you need to choose windows with wide window sills or hang the pot in a flowerpot next to the window. The plant loves enough good lighting, but at the same time it does not withstand the scorching sunlight on its leaves at lunchtime. Therefore, you can put the pot on the windows of the east or west location. Tolmia feels great in a small shade, so north-facing windows of the room are suitable. If there is no way out, and the plant is on the south side, then the owner should hang light curtains or attach tracing paper or paper to the glass.
- Temperature indicators for a plant, it is necessary to stand closer to indoor. In the summer seasons, the temperature is 18–20 degrees, and with the arrival of autumn, it can be lowered to 10 degrees. If the temperature rises, the leaf stalks will become too long and the leaf plates themselves will quickly age and die off. Tolmia loves frequent airing of premises, stagnant air is harmful for her.
- Fertilizers for tolmiya, they are applied once every 14 days. Top dressing can be a complex mineral solution. Since autumn, they begin to reduce feeding, and in winter they are not carried out at all. The “brood hen with chickens” responds well to the introduction of organic matter (for example, mullein solution).
- Watering. The plant loves when the soil is constantly moist, but not flooded with water. Moistening is carried out when the top layer of the substrate has dried. In the autumn-winter period, watering is reduced. It is required to use only soft water at room temperature (20-24 degrees). Better to collect rainwater or watered with distilled water.
- Transplant and selection of substrate for tolmiya. You can transplant a green bush at home at any convenient time, as needed, if the root system no longer fits in the container or the "hen with chickens" has grown a lot. In the bottom of the pot, holes are made for the drainage of water that has not been absorbed by the roots of the plant. You should also pour into it a layer of about 1–2 cm of drainage material (expanded clay of medium fraction or pebbles). Important - the size of the material should be such that it does not fall out into the drain holes.
The transplant substrate should be lightweight and with good hydro and air permeability. Store soil may also work, but it is better to use fern mixtures. Some growers make up the soil mixture on their own from the following components:
- from equal parts of leafy earth and river sand;
- turf soil, coarse sand or perlite, top peat soil (or humus) (in proportions 1: 1: 2);
- leafy land, sod, river sand (in a ratio of 2: 3: 1).
As for the air humidity, it should be high enough when growing a “brood hen with chickens”. However, this problem cannot be solved by spraying, since the leaves of the plant are covered with hairs, and the ingress of water drops can lead to their decay. Therefore, you should reduce dryness at home in other ways:
- Place humidifiers next to the pot.
- Pour water into the vessels and place them next to the tolmiya.
- A pot with a plant can be installed in a deep vessel, into which a little water is poured into the bottom and a moisture-retaining material is poured (expanded clay or pebbles, crushed bricks can be used). It should be checked that the bottom of the pot is not in contact with the water level; for this, you can put a saucer under the pot with tolmiya.
It is important to remember that high humidity at low temperatures can lead to rot.
Self-breeding tips for tolmias
You can get a new green lush bush of "thousands of mothers" in several ways: by dividing, planting leafy cuttings, jigging "children".
In order to carry out reproduction using a leaf cutting, it is necessary to select only those leaves on which young plants are already visible. Taking a sharpened knife, it is necessary to cut off the stalk with the leaf plate. The petiole itself is recommended to be shortened to 3-5 cm. A not very deep container is taken, a layer (1 cm) of drainage (small expanded clay or pebbles) is poured onto its bottom and filled with a substrate. The soil mixture can be sandy, sandy-peaty or fresh earthen. The soil is slightly moistened with a spray bottle. A recess is made with a stick in the substrate and a leaf is planted there to the base of its petiole. A container with a seedling needs to be wrapped in foil or placed under a glass jar, this will help maintain a high level of humidity (create conditions for a mini-greenhouse). This design should be placed in a warm place with good shade. When the cuttings have roots, they should be transplanted into a larger pot with a substrate that is suitable for an adult tolmiya. The young plant must be placed in a permanent place of growth.
When a decision is made to propagate a "brood hen" by dividing the bush, then it is required to do this only when the tolmiya bush has grown strongly. You can combine this operation with the transplantation process. It is necessary to dry the soil a little in the flowerpot, then gently tapping on the walls of the pot, turn the bush over and remove it from the container. It is required to carefully divide the root system of the plant with your hands, if this does not work, then take a sharpened knife and simply cut the rhizome of the tolmiya. Slices should be sprinkled with activated charcoal or charcoal crushed into powder and planted in pots of the appropriate size. The soil is taken the one that would suit an adult specimen.
You can also get a new bush by simply pressing the plant shoot into a pot filled with a layer of drainage and suitable soil. The container is placed next to the mother plant. The stem is held down to the ground with a pin or stiff wire. It is necessary to regularly moisten the soil in the pot and within a short time the "baby" will take root successfully. In this case, the young bush is separated from the mother tolmiya and the young plant is looked after as usual.
After 2-3 weeks, the tolmiya planted in any of the ways is rooting.
Problems of growing tolmiya and pest control
If, during the cultivation of the plant, the conditions of care were violated - for example, tolmia grew for a long time in dry air, then it is usually affected by spider mites, scale insects, thrips.
- Spider mite manifests itself by the appearance of dots on the leaves, as if the entire leaf plate is punctured with a needle - these are bite sites, and the pest sucks vital juices from the plant. After such exposure, the leaves turn yellow and dry out. And also the reverse side of the leaf plates, cuttings and stems are covered with a thin translucent cobweb.
- Shield looks like small brown spots on the back of the leaf. These are the eggs of the parasite, subsequently the whole plant will begin to become covered with a sticky sugary bloom (waste products of the pest). This plaque in the future, if no action is taken, will entail the appearance of a sooty fungus.
- Thrips appear on the plant by loss of color from the leaf plate up to transparency. And the whole lump is covered, as if with punctures from a needle - this thrips sucks the sap of the plant with its proboscis. In the future, young leaves become deformed. Like the scabbard, it is able to secrete a sticky coating, which will lead to fungal infection of the plant.
To combat these harmful insects, you can apply folk methods so as not to affect the bush with chemistry:
- soap solution is made on the basis of laundry soap (30 gr.), dissolved in a bucket of water. Then the mixture should be infused for several hours, then it is filtered and the tolmiya bush is sprayed;
- an oil solution can be created on the basis of rosemary essential oil (1-2 drops) per liter of water, let it brew a little and spray;
- as an alcohol solution, a pharmacy tincture of calendula is used.
If after the expiration of a week, pests are still noticed, then it is recommended to re-process. In the event that sparing agents do not give the desired result, the plant must be treated with a systemic insecticide (for example, "Aktara" or "Actellik").
It can appear on the leaves, like a fluffy whitish layer - this is the action of oidium, the causative agent of powdery mildew. Then you can save the plant by processing drugs that contain sulfur or caratan, or any remedy for this disease is used. Nim can act, for example, "Bayleton" or "Rubigan".
Of the difficulties that can also arise during the cultivation of the "thousand mothers" bush, one can single out:
- with insufficient illumination, the shoots of the tolmiya lengthen, and the leaves turn pale;
- leaves begin to droop if the plant has not been moistened for a long time or the soil has been flooded;
- the leaf plates have turned yellow, the edge has dried, the surface is twisted, this means that the humidity of the air is greatly reduced;
- if the leaves that are from the very bottom of the bush begin to turn yellow for no apparent reason, then this is a natural aging process of the plant, when the leaf plate begins to change color towards a yellow hue, then it is recommended to remove it together with the petiole.
Interesting facts about tolmiya
Since the plant has an amazing ability to reproduce itself, it is a source of great energy flow. Tolmia fills the whole room with optimism. Many flower growers emphasize its influence on the elimination of fear, despondency, helps to pass grief and attacks of hypochondria, gives strength to change the monotony of life for a person. It is always a pleasure to return to the house where tolmiya is grown; it brings streams of light joy to everyone around. It also has more prosaic abilities - to purify the air and neutralize harmful fumes from plastic or office equipment.
Types of tolmiya
Tolmey Menzies (Tolmiea menziesii). The plant has a developed rhizome and reaches a height of 20–25 cm with a diameter of about 40 cm. The surface of the leaves is wrinkled, rough to the touch, completely covered with fine hairs. The color of the leaves is saturated - either bright green or dark emerald hue. There is a cultivator "Taffs Gold", which has yellow specks and specks of various sizes on the entire green surface, and maybe even some golden patterning.
The flowering process occurs at the beginning of summer days and is manifested by the appearance of a spike-shaped inflorescence with small flowers of milky-green shades, on some there is a weak reddish pigment. The flower shape is tubular.
The peculiarity of this plant is that the tolmia will begin to produce its "children" only when the roots completely encircle the earth in the pot and there will be practically no more of it. Old leaf blades dry up and fall off, turning into a nutritious soil for young growth. In natural nature, tolmia also occupies an earthen area with the help of creeping root processes, and in the place where the rhizome has reached, green "islands" of bright green leaves of young tolmia plants are formed. At the same time, the sizes of young leaf plates vary from 5 cm to 15 cm in diameter. And the old bush in this case begins to die off.
Tolmeya Menzies diploid (Tolmiea menziesii diplomenziesii). This plant practically does not differ from the previous one, but the difference is in the structure of the ovaries. It is separated from the first view.
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