Being Benevolent

 

Being Benevolent

Last week, I went to my mom’s place for few days. Though, I made satisfactory arrangements for my plants diet but still there were few gaps. During my three days absence, they were being watered only for a single day. On my return, I observed my plants, and realized that in a Dahlia pot, the leaves had turned yellow and they were drooping.  Another Dahlia pot was rich in foliage and its leaves were also drooping but they had not turned yellow. I thought for some quick remedies to fix the issue asap.

Before talking about my quick remedies, I would like to share an analogy between kids and plants. My pediatric has prescribed several medicines for boosting my daughter’s overall growth. Most of the time I give her medicines at proper timing, maintaining a decent gap between medicines. But there are days when I stuff her with more than one medicine at the same time. And here all my efforts of being benevolent go haywire. Her system does not support two medicines in one go. She loses her appetite, remains grumpy and irritated, refuses to play and keeps nagging for everything.

I have recently realized the same with my plants. The moment, I realized that were several yellow leaves on one of the Dahlia pots, I quickly removed all of them. Why I did that? I thought, that those yellow leaves would take all the nutrients from the pot soil and would hinder the flower growth. The pot was watered in one go. But I was wrong here, I will discuss it later. What I did in the other pot is more important to mention. I provided adequate water in gaps, so that the thirsty plant can naturally absorb the water. The next day, I realized that my former pot’s Dahlia withered and the color faded too. On the other hand, the latter pot was seemingly fine and What I want to mention, is that, neither your kid nor your plant grows healthily with hasty actions, despite being done out of genuine care, concern and guilt. We need to have patience with them. We need to learn their do’s and don’ts so that we can save and protect them timely.

               

With this, here goes my to do list for Dahlia’s care, growth and maintenance.

• Blooms marvelously from January till March end in Northern India.
• Provide it with solid fertilizer once in a month. I will soon write in detail about it.

·        ·   The liquid fertilizer should be added fortnightly. It contains mustard cake and other ingredients soaked in water for 7-10 days. The detail of it is coming soon as well.

·      ·     Before giving solid fertilizer, remove three or four inches of soil from the pot and then add the fertilizer and water it thoroughly.

·      ·     Dahlia loves Potash. It promotes flowering. Add a tea spoon full of it in an 8-10 inches pot, fortnightly. 

·           ·   Instead of Potash you can also provide banana peel liquid fertilizer in every ten days.

·    ·   You can give sea weed extract directly in the soil, fortnightly to promote healthy growth and plant  immunity.

·     ·   Foliar spray of sea weed extract maintains the quality of leaves. It also prevents any pest or fungal attack on the plant. Do it once in a week.

·        ·   Weekly fungicide spray is also needed to avoid fungal attack.

·        ·   Neem oil spray, every week, will prevent insects or pest attack.

·       ·   Timely remove the yellow leaves. DO NOT OVER DO IT.

·        ·   Remove spent flowers.

·        ·   Keep the soil moist. Do not over water it.

·        ·   Provide it the morning sunlight for 6-7 hours.

·        ·   Dahlia’s cannot survive in extreme winter (0 degree Celsius) or summer (35-40 degrees Celsius).

·       ·   They give heavy flowering so maintain the timely nourishment of the plant.

·        ·   They grow best from bulbs and small plant cuttings.

                          

In another blog I will share the details of how and when to grow Dahlia plant from cuttings as well as from bulbs.  I will conclude by sharing an observation. During this learning process I realized that shortcuts do not go long way with plants or with kids. They need, as I mentioned earlier, passionate patience, consistent care, tender touch and fair feast. And then rest assure that they will bloom to spread their beauty and mesmerize the outer world with their magical effects.

See you soon with another subject till then… happy reading!!!