User Question:Hello! I am an amateur but passionate gardener. I sowed some pansies some time ago, the sowing went well, but it is the transplanting of pansies that causes me problems . I can't get plants that flower like at my nursery. What should I do ? Should I add fertilizer to the seedbed? In the transplanting soil, compost? How do I transplant my plants?
Thank you for your concern. I don't want to compete with anyone, only to have personal satisfaction.
Sowing is done in a light substrate, a mixture of potting soil / sand / soil, a filtering substrate that still retains a little water. But you don't put fertilizer in a seedling. a fertilizer would tend to "grill" the sprout or accelerate growth; we are then left with etiolated plants.
Transplanting is done in a bucket, in a fertilized soil but lightly. If the nitrogen (N) content is too high, the plant grows well, makes a lot of foliage at the expense of flowering.
I would say that in the fall it is not very serious. It is better to delay flowering and have plants that stand up and have good rooting. On the other hand, most pansies do not flower in the fall but in the spring like many biennials. The varieties you see in bloom right now are not the same varieties as the spring ones, although the "autumn" ones come back to flower in late winter.
So the varieties flowering in spring and a little in summer, make foliage in autumn. This is why I greatly prefer to plant so-called green pansies in autumn, that is to say without flowers. Rooting is done before spring. Plus, when the time is right, the bloom is stunning. But it is increasingly rare to find non-flowering pansies on the autumn market. It's the same with the other biennials:forget-me-not, primrose, viola, poet's carnation, wallflower...
If the pansy does not flower in autumn, it is either a variety that only flowers in spring, or a fertilization error that promotes growth to the detriment of flowering. But as long as the plant is beautiful and healthy, there is nothing to worry about. Just a little patience.
pansy Viola cornuta
