Cypress lovers can not only admire it in open areas, but also grow its decorative look at home. In the article you will read about the botanical description of the plant, its cultivation from seeds and the intricacies of home care, as well as how to cope with possible pests and diseases of the tree.

Botanical description of the plant

Cypress is an evergreen tree with a pyramidal crown of silver-blue or green. Bark of a plant of red-brown color. In the natural habitat, trees can grow up to 30 m, in indoor conditions its growth is usually no more than 2 m.

The leaves of the plant are needle-shaped, often and tightly pressed to the branches. With age, each of them grows to the branch by two-thirds so that only the tip protrudes. Starting from the second year of the life of the cypress, small cones of male and female ripen on it. Their diameter is about 1-1.5 cm.

Inexperienced gardeners often mistake cypress as a home cypress. You can distinguish them by the color of the needles. The first color is dark green, and the second is light green. However, the care for these two plants is very similar.

Video: Description and expansion of cypress

How to collect cypress seeds

You can get seeds for planting by buying them in a special store. But if possible, it is better to collect planting material yourself.

Important! To check the germination of seeds, several of them can be opened. Dead seed will be empty with a little resin, live —contain the germ of white or yellow.

The season of cypress cones begins closer to the fall. It is better to collect them from trees growing in a group in order to get healthier seeds after cross pollination. Cones can be torn from cypress or pick up intact lying on the ground.

After collecting the cones, you do not need to open them yourself, you need to wait until this process happens on your own - then the seed flies out with a little shaking.

Features of growing plants from seeds

Cypress is a heat-loving plant, for this reason it is necessary to grow it at home from seeds, ensuring an optimal temperature and avoiding drafts.

Before planting the material in the soil, it is mandatory to do stratification. For its implementation, you need to withstand the seeds in the refrigerator for about 3-4 months. This procedure is necessary for cypress to give normal seedlings. Before planting in the soil, the seeds must be soaked in warm water for 10-12 hours, so that they swell.

How to grow cypress from seeds

After preparing the seeds, you can proceed to the next steps. Proper planting and seedling care must be taken. Next, all stages of cultivation will be considered in more detail.

Did you know? Cypress wood releases phytoncides that infect moths.

Proper fit

The optimal time for sowing is April - May. To plant seeds, you must step by step follow these steps:

1. Pour prepared pots with a mixture of earth with leaves, peat mixture, turf and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 1.
2. Spread the seedlings on top and cover them with a layer of soil up to 1 cm high.
3. Spray the top surface of the earth from a spray bottle.
4. Place the containers in a warm place and cover with foil.
5. Once every 3-4 days, open the greenhouse.

Seedling care

2-3 weeks after planting, shoots should break through. When this happens, the shelter must be raised and sprinkled with seedlings with a mixture of sand and earth.

It is necessary to provide the sprouts with good ventilation, for which it is necessary to remove the film more often, and after a while get rid of it completely. It is also necessary to maintain optimal soil moisture, avoiding overflow and aridity of the soil.

Transplanting seedlings

When the sprouts reach a height of 5 cm, they need to be transplanted into separate containers. To perform the transplant correctly, follow the instructions:

1. Take plastic glasses with a capacity of 0.5 l for transplantation.
2. Make a hole in the bottom.
3. Pour in a glass a layer of expanded clay in 2-3 cm for drainage.
4. Pour into a glass soil from the ground with leaves, peat mix, turf and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 2.

Growing and caring for a plant

After planting the sprouts, it is necessary to ensure proper cypress cultivation and care. You should also take measures to prevent damage to the plant by pests or diseases. Further in detail about all the subtleties.

Watering

Despite the fact that indoor cypress is quite hygroscopic, you should be careful when watering. Overfilling is detrimental to the plant, since stagnation of water can provoke rotting of the roots.

Excess water from the pan after watering must be removed. Between moisturizing procedures, the soil should dry out a little. From spring to autumn, you can allow the soil to be slightly moist. In winter, watering should be reduced. At a room temperature of about + 8 ° C, you need to moisten the tree every 10 days, about + 13 ° C - after 7.

Wintering

When growing cypress, seasonality must be observed: in summer, it should be warm, and in the cold season it’s not hot. In winter, the plant should be kept in a cool room, the temperature in which will not be higher than + 15 ° C, ideally it should be +8 ... + 10 ° C.

Important! It is strictly forbidden to put cypress on the windowsill in winter, under which the switched on radiator is installed. This can be detrimental to the plant.

Cypress can winter on the insulated balcony. If there is a fear of freezing of the roots, you need to cover the pot with polystyrene foam or wrap it with rags.

Top dressing

Homemade cypress needs regular top dressing. For this, it is necessary to use special complex additives for conifers. For example, Activin or Rosafert. In spring and summer, fertilizer must be applied every 2 weeks. In winter, you do not need to feed the plant.

Pruning

A tree initially has a crown of the correct shape, which over time occasionally needs to be trimmed and trimmed. The main pruning is done in the spring. It is needed not only to give the plant a perfect look, but also to stimulate the growth of new shoots. At the same time, long shoots and dried branches are removed.

Pruning cypress should be done once a year. The tree will begin to stretch up, and the side shoots will grow slowly, which will allow the crown to form naturally.

Transfer

Young trees should be replanted every year in the spring. The most suitable for this procedure is April or May. This is necessary to increase soil aeration, as well as to improve the nutrition of a young plant. After reaching the age of three years, trees need to be replanted as necessary.

The root system of these plants reacts poorly to third-party intervention and the destruction of an earthen coma, so a transplantation method is used for transplantation. It consists in replacing only that land, which is easily shaken off from the roots of cypress taken from the previous pot.

Did you know? In Byzantium, cypress wood was used for writing icons and making iconostases.

For transplantation, you must follow this step-by-step instruction:

1. Prepare soil from deciduous humus, peat, sand and sod land in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 1.
2. Place a drainage 2-3 cm high at the bottom of the container for planting.
3. Pour a layer of soil into the pot on which to install the root ball of the tree.
4. Add the mixture to the container so that it is full, but the root neck of the plant remains above the ground.

Possible diseases and pests

Cypress can be affected by some diseases, the most common of which are:

• root rot. Often appears with waterlogged soil. The plant becomes stained, becomes lethargic and slows its growth. If no action is taken, the tree may die. At the first signs of this disease, it is necessary to treat it with a fungicidal agent (for example, "Trichodermin" or "Previkur"), and then make a transplant into a new soil. In this case, it is necessary to trim the damaged roots and sprinkle the cut with activated carbon;
• Fusarium This disease begins with rotting of the roots, and then affects the whole tree. The plant turns yellow, fades and may die over time. Most often, the affected plant cannot be cured, in which case it must be destroyed immediately. To avoid the disease, it is necessary to periodically ventilate the room and loosen the soil, as well as to carry out the disinfection of working tools. And at the first signs of a plant's disease, you can use drugs: Fundazole, Vitaros, Topsin-M, Bental or Previkur. The solution is made up of 2 grams of the drug per 1 liter of water.

Among the pests, the most dangerous for cypress are:

• scale shield. Insects about 5 mm in size have a wax shield covering the body. These parasites suck out the juice of the plant, after which the leaves dry and fall off. To combat the scale, you need to spray the tree with Aktara, Karbofos or Aktellik solution (0.15%);
• spider mite. An insect about 5 mm in size is green, brown or orange. Signs of damage to them are: cobwebs on the plant, quickly drying and falling leaves. To get rid of this pest, you need to spray the tree with Actellik solution (0.15%) and moisten the air next to the cypress.

Cypress is an evergreen shrub that will decorate any home. Following all the tips and recommendations for caring for the plant, you can grow cypress, which will delight you with a beautiful view and pleasant aroma.