by Brad Thompson
This article is to give you
info on how to grow begonias indoors and in terrariums. Except
for the growers that are blessed with a climate where they can grow
begonias outdoors year round, most growers have to learn how to grow
begonias indoors. Sometimes it's only for the winter months, but for
some plants and people it's a year around proposition. Most
houses, especially those with forced air heat, are not perfectly suited
for growing begonias indoors. Most begonias can be grown in your home,
however, if you are careful to provide each with its particular
requirements. There are also a few tricks that will help make growing
them in the house more successful.
1. Location and
The first consideration is where exactly are the begonias going to
live. The best light for growing indoors is to use fluorescent
lighting. This will give you the most control over the amount of light
your plants get. It doesn't have to be an expensive or lavish setup.
Even a simple shop light with ordinary cool white tubes will suffice if
you want to save money. A more expensive, but possibly more useful idea
if you plan to start a larger collection of plants is to purchase a
light stand. These can be bought from most mail order catalogs. The
lights should run about 14 hours a day, but I have left lights on 24
hours a day and the plants did fine. The tubes should be just a couple
inches above the tallest plant on the shelf.
Most of us also have natural light that we would like to take advantage
of. There are begonias that will grow in nearly every window location
except probably not well in a north window. Some plants in terrariums
may grow fine in a north window, however. Different areas of the
country vary as far as light intensity during the months of the year.
You might have to experiment to find which plants grow in which
windows. If you find that the plants are stretching, they need more
light and if they are stunted and burning then they need to be farther
from the window or moved to a window with less light. A good share of
begonias will grow in a south window and most will grow in either an
eastern or western exposure.
2. Pots and
How your plants are potted and what soil mix you use will have a lot to
do with how successful you are. Begonias hate to be over-potted or
over-watered. It is hard to kill an under-potted begonia, but they can
die pretty fast if over-potted. Don't move begonias to a larger pot
until roots have filled the current pot. If you find that a certain
plant never seems to dry out, it is probably in too large of a pot.
Move it down to a size that fits the rootball after you've removed all
the soggy wet mix.
For growing indoors you should always use a soil-less mix. Nearly all
soil-less mixes are mostly composed of peat moss with additions of
perlite and/or vermiculite. You can also make your own by mixing two
thirds peat moss or a peat based mix with a third part perlite. A
couple of commonly available peat based mixes are Sunshine and Fafard.
If you use plain peat moss you should premoisten it before using
because it can sometimes be hard to wet in the first place. When I use
peat, I wet it with boiling water to get it slightly damp and then use
it after it cools. I wouldn't recommend using any amendments you would
commonly use outdoors such as leaf mold or manure, or even garden soil.
These will cause your mix to stay too wet indoors and also invite
diseases. A peat mix is the perfect mix for indoors since it drains
well, but holds the perfect amount of moisture for the plant without
staying too wet. I would use the same mix for begonias in terrariums.
As far as watering goes, a good pot for using indoors is the type
called a self-watering pot. There are many brands and they work well
for most begonias. You should also only use a peat-based mix for these
types of pots; anything else will stay too wet. Allow the mix to dry
out slightly before refilling the reservoir again.
Regardless of what you have read in indoor gardening
books, there are few plants that want to stay constantly moist.
Besides, constantly moist is near impossible to achieve. Allow the
surface of the mix to dry out slightly and then water thoroughly till
water runs out the bottom when using conventional pots. Don't use
saucers unless you fill them with pebbles so that the plant doesn't sit
in water. You can use bottom watering, but empty the water out of the
saucer after a couple of hours. Most begonias will also grow well using
wick watering such as is used for African violets and gesneriads.
Humidity is the biggest problem with growing begonias indoors. Although
begonias don't like to be in wet soil, they do like humidity in the
air. You can achieve enough humidity for many types of begonias by
simply misting them daily. You can also use a humidifier. If you are
growing plants under fluorescent lights a simple way to keep good
humidity is to cover the plant stand with a plastic tent (make sure to
use nonflammable plastic). They will still usually benefit from misting
inside the tent because if the light fixtures are inside the tent they
tend to keep it warmer and the air will dry out faster.
There are many begonias that are easier to maintain and that you will
have greater success with if they are grown in terrariums. It's
possible that your past attempts with terrariums have soured you on
them, but if you follow a few simple rules you should do well with
them. Most people keep their terrariums too wet and this is the most
common reason for failure. You should only use a sterile medium for
growing and this should only be damp.
The two most common mediums are the peat mix listed above or plain
green sphagnum moss (don't use the brown florist type sphagnum). If you
use peat moss, first put in a layer of perlite or pebbles in the bottom
covered by a thin layer of mix. This will allow any extra water a place
to drain. If you use sphagnum, wet it first with hot water and squeeze
out the extra water before using. Peat and sphagnum are already
basically sterile and if you take the added precaution to wet with
boiling water before use, it will be even more so. There will always be
some glass fogging after planting, but if it's excessive, crack the lid
open until it has dried out enough that you can close tightly.
Terrariums require less light than plants in pots and should never get
direct sun. They should also not be fertilized often. Since the soil in
a terrarium never gets flushed, the salts will build up and damage the
All plants that are actively growing do best with regular fertilizing.
There are many brands of fertilizer formulated so you can fertilize
every time you water by adding a few drops to the watering can. You can
also just mix your own weak fertilizer such as quarter strength and use
once a week.
Begonias grown indoors can be pinched or pruned any time of the year.
Any plants you bring indoors from outside will probably adjust easier
if you trim them back. This will also give you cuttings to start a back
up plant in case your plant doesn't do well with the change of
Indoor plants in nice warm conditions are very prone to mealy bugs. The
easiest and least toxic mealy bug killer is plain rubbing alcohol. You
can brush the mealy bugs with a cue tip or artist brush dipped in the
alcohol and they die on contact. For a badly infested plant you can
also put the alcohol in a spray bottle and spray the entire plant. It
won't harm the plant. Avoid spraying the soil directly as a precaution.