Cyclamen Care: Tips On Growing Cyclamen Plants

Cyclamen plants is a lovely perennial tuber from the Primulacaea family, native to Mediterranean countries such as the Greek Islands, Turkey, and some parts of Europe.

The name “Cyclamen” comes from Greek origins- Kylos, or “ring” which explains how the seeds twist and turn as they grow.

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The Cyclamen plants’ leaves are dark green, shaped like a heart, and its surface usually bears a striking pattern marked in a lighter green or white shade. The flowers are upswept and come in a variety of pastel hues.

The “regular” Cyclamen grow anywhere from 12 to 18 inches, while the mini cyclamen types reach a height of around 7 to 8 inches.

A Little Cyclamen History From England!

Cyclamen plants were known in England as early as 1735. During that time, Cyclamen flowers would bloom after 4 or 5 years of careful nourishment. Thanks to modern cultivation, growing methods, and cross-breeding, Cyclamen blooms beautifully in only less than a year.

Naturally, the Cyclamen blooms from January till March when the air is colder, then rests during the warmer summer months.

Indoor cyclamen plants are a favorite for use as indoor flowering houseplants, and it’s because of a number of things.

One, the variety of bright-colored flowers is astounding – you can see multicolored ones, pure whites, or in any shade of red.

Today’s cyclamen persicum hybrids are the most sought-after variety of the Cyclamen tuber. There are also different sizes to choose from; the miniature cyclamen varieties come in a number of bright shades, and they can bloom as much as the bigger-sized varieties!

Potted cyclamen plants are perfect for those who wish to decorate their living space with fresh, colorful blooms. You can take cyclamen flowers and put them in vases or in table decorations, where they’ll lend an exotic, delicate look in any area of the house.

#1 – Cyclamen Care

The Cyclamen plant is quite sensitive to heat, so make sure to place this lovely plant in a cool location. Otherwise, the high temperature may cause the flowers to prematurely wilt and wither.

If possible, place the Cyclamen in a bright window with indirect light facing north. The optimal temperature should never go above 68° degrees Fahrenheit.

#2 – How Often Should You Water Cyclamen?

Watering your Cyclamen plant requires a careful approach. Do it several times per week. Don’t just pour water above the tuber as it can spoil the Cyclamen buds, leaving the plant to rot.

It’s best to water from the bottom up (sub-irrigation) from under the pot and in the saucer, or around the edge of the pot.

Wait for a good 15 to 20 minutes, then remove the water that wasn’t absorbed by pouring them off the saucer. This is where “self-watering planters” excel.

Water them daily during the hotter summer months. Additional nourishment can be provided in the form of liquid plant food, but only at half strength and only on occasion.

#3 – When Do Cyclamen Bloom?

The Cyclamen flowers bloom during colder climates and stay inactive during the hotter months.

Cyclamen plants rest for a while after the flowers bloom, which is the perfect time for additional care and maintenance. Gradually reduce watering time and food.

If possible, put your Cyclamen plant outdoors and find a shady spot for it to rest on.

#4 – When Growing Cyclamens From Seed Should They Be Planted In Individual Pots?

Trying to grow cyclamen plants from seed but do not know the right time to plant them in individual pots?

After the development of two or three leaves, each plant may get lifted and transplanted to a 2 1/2″ inch pot. A good soil mixture usually comprises sandy loam, leaf mold, and well-rotted manure.

When well established you can shift them to three-inch pots, at which time they should hold six or eight sturdy leaves.

Until they become ready to shift into five or six-inch pots, they need no commercial fertilizer. It’s also important to not use a non-organic fertilizer.

During winter, give them temperatures of 50° – 55° degrees Fahrenheit, maximum light, plenty of water, and good ventilation. Keeping the young cyclamen plants growing during the summer makes a challenging stage but when fall comes they start up vigorously.

Cyclamens seem to require cool damp nights to do well. The cyclamen plant usually grows commercially from seeds. Eighteen months after sowing, it will reach its full bloom.

Purchase cyclamen seeds if you want potted indoor cyclamen flowers!

A Reader Shares: Growing Cyclamen From Seed a Slow Process

Growing cyclamen from seed may appear like a slow process. Sow the seed soon after gathering them in early spring, in a very light mixture of peat, sand, and soil.

It should remain covered to twice its depth and kept moist at all times. The flat should be placed in partial shade at a temperature of 70° degrees Fahrenheit.

Fresh seed germinates in about three weeks. When it does, it is brought into full sun and kept watered for about four months or until little bulblets have formed and have 2 to 3 leaves. These are then transplanted into small pots and barely covered with the same light soil used for the seed.

In two years the reward will be two or three flowers. Finest plants, those producing as many as 30 flowers or more, are grown from five-year-old bulbs which, by the way, should never be planted below the surface of the soil.

#5 – Should I Transplant My Cyclamen Plants Every Year?

Did your two-year-old cyclamen already hold several buds this year, blast before they reached the full bloom stage?

This may seem like a point when you don’t know what to do next. Should you really transplant cyclamen every year?

Anyone who manages to grow many cyclamen plants experiences spider mite troubles. They make their presence known just when the buds appear and the plants refuse to bloom. The buds turn brown and dry and if by chance, a bloom opens, it becomes crippled.

Crippled flowers and wrinkled foliage surely indicate cyclamen mites. A person with only a few plants can keep the plants clean without too much trouble by following a certain method.

  • Purchase a can of spray material containing at least 1 1/2 percent rotenone.
  • Mix the spray in a pail of water according to directions and set the plant, pot and all, in the spray material. The spray should cover the entire plant.
  • Leave the plant in the pail until air bubbles cease to rise for about two minutes, then remove and set it aside.
  • Since any eggs on the plants should hatch inside of two weeks, repeat this treatment every two weeks or less using fresh spray material each time.

Two or three dippings should clean the Cyclamen plants of mites. Even if they did not exist in the bud, such treatment makes a good precaution as mites may hide in the crown or on the young unfolded leaves.

This dipping becomes the most effective if done after dark when the mites appear active. Mites live during the dormant period of the plant on the tuber itself and you should take proper care to free the plants from mites before they become dormant. Take the dormant tubers out of the pots in the fall, dip them in the spray material and start them over in new soil.

#6 – How Can I Keep And Make My Cyclamen Plants Bloom Again?

You own cyclamen plants that seem near finished blooming. Curious about how you can keep it and make it bloom again?

Moisture in the air surrounding cyclamen serves as the most essential requirement for keeping it growing. It requires good soil, proper drainage, and even temperature with careful watering.

But, with all this moisture in the air present. With the above conditions, you may carry cyclamen over from year to year.

Keep the plant growing. In the spring, remove the old outside leaves and shake the plant from the pot. Remove most of the soil, cut back the dead and the heavy roots, and repot the plant in a pot size or two smaller than the one it came from.

Moreover, keep the plant in a cool moist place, and in a month new growth will start. In the fall, move the plant to a larger pot and by Christmas it should again be in bud and bloom.

#7 – How To Handle The Reblooming Of My Cyclamen Plants?

Want to know how you should handle your cyclamen plants after blooming so you can get flowers from them again?

In general, the cyclamen seems like a plant not worth keeping for a second crop of bloom, but with proper care, and luck, you might get something worthwhile.

After blooming, gradually dry off and rest in a cool place. Repot in new soil in July and give full light, but no sun. If the corm shows vigorous growth, a profusion of small flowers will follow. On the other hand, if growth appears weak from the start, it probably will not amount to too much.

#8 – How To Replant Cyclamen

Can you replant a Cyclamen plant for bloom a year after?

The cyclamen belongs to the perennial group but it appears like a bit of a gamble to carry it over for flowering next year. If you want to try, keep the plant rather cool and in good bright light but indirect light, but not in sun, as long as the leaves stay green.

When the last leaf dried, store the pot in a cool place and keep it dry. After all, letting all the dangers of frost pass, set the pot on its side in the shade of a shrub. When new growth starts about August 1, shake out the old soil and repot in a fresh mixture of 2 parts loam, 1 part leafmold, 1 part each sand, and dried cow manure.

Place pebbles in the bottom of the pot for drainage and set the corm so most of it is above soil level. Water thoroughly, then be careful not to overwater. Lastly, apply moisture to the soil, never the bulb.

Get cyclamen persicum species here!

#9 – Any Advice On Growing Cyclamen Plants Indoors And Outdoors?

Like to grow some of the cyclamen bulbs and then maybe try growing some from seeds? Looking for any advice on growing cyclamen outdoors in the landscape and also as a potted plant for use indoors?

Get this indoor cyclamen potted cyclamen flower seeds from Amazon.

We obtained our first Baby Cyclamen bulb in an unusual manner. At a country fair in Connecticut, a fellow exhibitor had three plants on display. They were in full bloom with about 30 flowers on each.

At first, he would not part with one for love or money but finally, my brother persuaded him to trade one for a rare begonia. From this original bulb, we have grown many hundreds of plants.

Now, when frost brightens the air and maple leaves are tinged with red, we look forward with increasing eagerness to the flowers of our Baby Cyclamen, exquisite flowers less than half an inch wide on stems 3″ to 4″ inches high.

These delicate pink little gems, native to the low hills of the Mediterranean from southern France to Sicily, are lovely both for house culture and for the rock garden as far north as New Jersey. Many are fragrant. These we isolate to increase our collection of sweet-scented ones.

Flowers Before Foliage

Unlike the house plant cyclamen, the first flowers of this variety (Cyclamen neapolitanum) are produced before the foliage appears. When buds appear well-formed atop the bulb, apply water and repot in a good alkaline humus soil.

The soil mixture is very important. Use equal parts sand, humus, garden loam, and well-decayed cow manure or peat for well-drained soil. You want to drain off any excess water. Next, add to each bushel of this a 4-inch potful of ground limestone.

Plants do best in partial shade in an east or west exposure. They need ample water during the growing season, thrive in an indoor temperature of from 60° – 70° degrees Fahrenheit and are seldom bothered by insect pests. Destroy mealy bugs, which occasionally appear on the lower leaf stems, with a strong soap sud spray or any good insecticide.

Flowers last over a period of six weeks. Afterward, beautifully mottled leaves mature and completely cover the bulb.

Often the blooms self-pollinate but, if you want seed, a touch of the finger from flower to flower when the sun shines on the plant in the morning will assure a good set of seeds. Do this for three or four days in succession as flowers open.

Watching seed mature is fascinating. From the tip of the dried flower, the small seedpod begins to curl back slowly down to the stem to the bulb where it rests, hugging the bulb closely through the long winter.

It continues to grow to the size of a large pea. In early spring, the little spring-like stem unfurls and the hard seedpod opens to scatter seed away from the mother bulb.

In early spring, too, the old, outside leaves turn yellow. This indicates the right time to withhold water gradually until all leaves fade. Now, the potted bulb sits in a cool airy place until flower buds come.

Cyclamen Bulbs And Flowers

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If you received a Cyclamen this year, and the flowering stopped, time to stop watering to put the tuber to rest. Leave the tuber in the soil during the artificial drought, which keeps the tuber dormant and resting.

Store the pot in the coolest place you have during the summer perhaps, in your basement. Occasionally splash some water in the pot so that the soil does not become bone dry. Otherwise, the tuber will shrivel.

When the month of August comes, knock the soil from the pot. Remove all dead leaves and part of the old roots and soil. Give the pot a thorough scrubbing with soap and hot water before repotting.

Use the same soil mixture for cyclamen as for gloxinias which feel loose and spongy, but rich in organic matter. Equal parts good garden loam, clean coarse sand, and coarse peat moss make the essential ingredients in this potting mixture. You can also include a handful of steamed bone meal added to each pot as it keeps the plants in good condition through the blooming season.

Replant with the top of the tuber showing about a half-inch above the soil line. Keep the soil moist, and in a few weeks, growth will become active. Growing cyclamen works easier in a cool, moist atmosphere.

Allow enough sun to reach the plant so that the leaves grow a healthy green on stems that are sturdy and compact. Lack of moisture in the air about the plant, and extreme temperatures will result in a pale plant that produces few leaves, no blossoms, and it will eventually die.

In Cyclamen Care Temperature Is Important

A daytime temperature of 65° degrees Fahrenheit, with perhaps a rise to 70° degrees Fahrenheit during the warmest part of the day, and then a drop to 50° – 55° degrees Fahrenheit at night should prove ideal. Perhaps you own a sunny bedroom which you do not use that could be kept closed from the rest of the house so that it would be cool.

When the plant grows in full bloom, brought into a warm room for decoration for a few hours, or perhaps a day or so. When cyclamen feels hot and dry, their leaves turn yellow quickly and buds and blossoms soon disappear.

You can easily grow cyclamen in a greenhouse. A greenhouse with a collection of tropical plants makes a great “hothouse” for the cyclamen.

Pots of cyclamen may be sunk in this thrive during the winter and produce many blossoms. Azaleas can also thrive in this same bench together with rex begonias, gloxinias, episcias, and other tropical plants.

Unfortunately, most cyclamen species are not cold hardy which is why they can’t be planted outdoors in gardens that suffer hard winters. However, there are some tougher varieties such as cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium for this particular use.

Normally, planters discard cyclamen tubers after they bloom and new plants are grown from seeds that come into full flower from 15 to 18 months after sowing. This planting happens during August or September. The seeds are large enough to be easy to handle, and they are not at all difficult to grow.

Plant them a quarter-inch deep in regular potting soil. Keep moist and cool (50°-60° degrees Fahrenheit) and germination will occur in four to eight weeks. When they grow large enough, move them 3-inch pots, and the following summer moves the plants to 5 or 6-inch bulb pans where they will give a beautiful display of color during winter and spring.

Propagation by Division

You can also propagate cyclamen by cutting apart the tubers like a potato with each section holding one leaf or “eye”. Do this as soon as the plants finished blooming.

Slice the corm into sections. Dust the cut places with a rooting hormone, and root them in moist sand. A cool north window is an ideal place to root the cuttings. Make a “tent” of clear plastic over the cuttings to increase humidity around them.

After they become well-rooted, pot in 3″ inch pots of regular potting soil. Summer by sinking the pots to their rims in a shaded, cool part of the garden. Keep them moist at all times, well-fed and in good growth, for them to bloom the following winter.

Sometimes, cyclamen appearing anemic and sickly may be affected by nematodes. Nematodes cause knots to form on roots, and eventually, food gets cut off from the plant. Bagged potting soil usually comes sterilized to avoid nematodes.

Cyclamen mites deform the leaves and flowers. Try neem oil sprays as a preventive treatment. If your plant does become infested, burn it immediately.

Aphids feed on young leaves and buds of cyclamen plants. Tiny black, threadlike thrips give the undersides of the leaves and stems a scaly look, and streak the flowers. On the other hand, red spiders attack plants growing in a room that is too hot and dry.

Cyclamen stems and leaves seem very succulent and full of water. If one of the stems rots and falls over others, it may cause rot on healthy growth. Watch your plants and keep bad leaves and stems trimmed off.

A cyclamen plant received at Christmas time and placed in a cool east window where the air feels moist should continue to bloom through the winter. If buds seem to stop coming in February, keep the plant in the same place and fertilize it regularly with a house plant water-soluble fertilizer or time-release fertilizer. Buds will appear again in March or April.

#10 – What Is The Secret To Blooming Cyclamen Plants Outdoors Over 20 Years?

Florist cyclamen has bloomed in a California garden for 20 years. At times, they seem difficult to grow indoors, yet the owner prepared two garden beds – one under a tree and the other on the north side of a garage. This does not fail according to them in every season of the year.

The plants bloom for four months during the late winter and early spring. During this period, temperatures may fall to as low as 15 degrees, but the plants always carry through, Blooming starts at temperatures varying from 37 to 47 degrees at night and an afternoon high of 45 to 55 degrees, perhaps 60 degrees.

The florist uses soil from a compost pile to which they added 1/2 cupful of bonemeal per gallon and if the soil feels heavy, a cupful of sand.

The mixture should be rich, porous, and slightly acidic. Alternatively, you can use leaf mold, peat moss, or cow manure.

The plants increase in numbers by seeds, usually sown from August through October. You can also sow them monthly to provide a succession of blooms throughout the year. The farm uses the same soil mixture for the seed and one can also inject this in the pots directly into flats 1/4 inch deep and 2 inches apart from each way.

In May, the successful gardener gives the flowering plants a feeding of liquid fertilizer – a level tablespoonful of good garden fertilizer per gallon of water. This helps build up the corm for next season’s flowers.

The growing cycle generally ends in June when the corms become gradually dried off. From there, they take up the corms to get it sorted but they leave them in the beds due to the absence of summer rains. In September or October, a few corms will show sprouting eyes, and they reset them about 8 inches apart.

Tips On Cyclamen Care & Maintenance

Cyclamen plants require regular grooming. Remove the withered leaves and old flowers as they can replace them profusely during the months of September to March.

Repot your cyclamen by placing them in a larger pot filled with either potting mix, like an African violet mix of fresh peat moss.

Remember that these sensitive tubers aren’t too keen on extreme temperatures, so make sure to bring them indoors come wintertime!

Mold in plants, especially the Cyclamen can be deadly to the plant. It appears as small, brown patches and may appear in the Cyclamen’s rotting stems and the blooms, or it can leave gray mold deposits nearby.

Cyclamen flowers should bloom in large numbers and the leaves should be large as well. The appearance of small leaves and flowers could mean that your Cyclamen is suffering from malnutrition.

Don’t overcompensate by feeding over the recommended amount of plant food or providing water that your plant could not absorb.

Remember that liquid plant food should be at half strength and only water around the edges.

Withering and dry spots can appear if the Cyclamen leaves are exposed to prolonged direct sunlight.

Check for the presence of aphids when you see curled leaves or crooked leaves underneath. Neem oil is a good natural insecticide to get rid of aphids.

Grooming should be done naturally to prevent deformation. Don’t use a “leaf shine”. Instead, use soft brushes for cleaning and leave out the sprays for your other plants.

Cyclamen Plant Buying Tips

When shopping, look for hardy cyclamen plants exhibiting fresh, green, and juicy leaves. The buds under the leaves should be abundant. The best selection of Cyclamen appears during the fall season until Christmas time.

Many think that Cyclamen houseplants are just a one-time tuber for gifting, but once you get familiar with it and know better, you can make the Cyclamen bloom during the colder months time and again.

These plants aren’t hard to maintain, as long as you water them carefully and keep them away from direct sunlight.

Video: Tips On Watering, Selecting And Requirements Of The Cyclamen

Cyclamen is a wonderful indoor plant during the winter season. In the video below you’ll learn the best conditions for cyclamen indoors, important watering tips, selecting plants, and more.

Attractive foliage, coupled with a long blooming period where it produces lots of colorful flowers makes cyclamen an excellent color addition indoors.

There is a wide variety of flower colors ranging from soft pastels of pink, white and purple.

Cyclamen Propagation: How To Grow Your Cyclamen Collection

Making new plants out of your existing Cyclamen plants can be fun and rewarding. You can utilize a soft paintbrush on a well-developed bloom, gently flicking on it until the pollen falls down.

Collect the pollen and return it to the flower’s stigma. Continue to water the plant and place it in a cool spot. With luck, the seeds will ripen somewhere from May to June.

Collect the seed and stem, then let it mature further by placing it in a dry, airy area for around 6 to 8 weeks.

Put the seeds in a special sterile seed soil, then put the soil in a mini-greenhouse or tray that you can easily cover with plastic.

TIP: The plastic containers you find at the grocery with spring mix and spinach make excellent “starter greenhouses” for seeds.

Ensure that the soil mix is moist; place the container in the dark to allow germination for about 4 to 8 weeks. Allow more light as they grow and make sure the soil mix is moist at all times.

Separate the healthy seedlings when they appear to have a few leaves. Place them in separate pots with a thin soil layer until they grow to maturity.

Alternately, you can propagate your Cyclamen using the division method.

Cut the tuber in two during the Cyclamen’s rest period, dip it into a fungicide solution, then replant it in separate pots to allow further growth.

How To Grow The Cyclamen Plant No Instructions: A 20 Plant Real World Test!

Question: I need help with how to grow the cyclamen plant I received over the holidays and need assistance with cyclamen fertilizer, growing, and care as a houseplant. Does cyclamen grow from a bulb or from seeds? Anita, New Hampshire

Answer: The flowering cyclamen plant is one of the loveliest holiday houseplants, and yet it is probably the least satisfactory holiday plant when brought into the average home.

It’s not at all unusual, in fact, for a plant to last only ten days to two weeks – that being the approximate life of the blooming cyclamen and the larger buds that are on the plant when it arrives.

The smaller buds usually fail to develop under ordinary care, and so the cyclamen plant is worthless as far as the bloom is concerned as soon as the large buds have finished flowering. Read on to learn more about cyclamen plant care.

How To Care For Cyclamen Plants As A Houseplant

To find out just what conditions cyclamen need to make them last longer, 20 flowering plants were placed in New Hampshire homes.

And to ensure they are getting no better than average care, no instructions were given with the plants, and no plants were given to the people who had grown cyclamen before.

Ten of the 20 plants were unsatisfactory, the majority of these falling within the first two weeks they were in the homes.

What Caused These 10 Cyclamen Plants To Fail?

Nine of the ten failed for lack of water or because of drying and high temperatures. The other one failed because it developed crown rot from standing in a pot full of water.

The cyclamen wilts quickly when watering is neglected, and, even though it is then watered and revives, the smaller cyclamen flower buds often “blast”.

The first “rule to follow” for getting the most from your Christmas cyclamen plant is to check the soil surface often and never let it get so dry that the plant wilts severely.

We like growing cyclamen because they can tell you when they need a drink. The blooms wilt slightly first, and apparently no damage results if the plant is watered immediately before the foliage shows signs of wilting.

Tips For Successfully Growing Cyclamen Plants

Now let’s see how the most successful cyclamen plants were grown, In other words, how can we help our own cyclamen blooming cycle last two to three months or even longer?

Four of the ten successful plants were given sunny windows, and six were given little or no sun but good indirect light.

For these trials, it would appear that an east, a window would be ideal or a south window with the shade of light drapery.

Too much sun will cause rapid drying and therefore would lessen your chances of success. Of eleven plants kept in sunny windows, seven failed. Still, good light is necessary if you want your plant to bloom for two months or more.

If you live in a home where the night temperature is kept above 65° degrees Fahrenheit, you would do well to trade your cyclamen for a poinsettia.

The plants studied in, this experiment were subjected to night temperatures ranging from 45° degrees Fahrenheit, on a sun porch, to 72° degrees Fahrenheit. None of the plants grown at above 65° degrees Fahrenheit were satisfactory.

How Should You Fertilize Your Cyclamen?

Feeding of cyclamen plants is not necessary, since these plants have been well grown and fed for 15 months or more by the growers at the nursery. A weak liquid fertilizer may, however, increase the size and color of the last flowers.

What Kind Of Pest Control Is Needed On Cyclamen Plants?

Insects need not be a problem on cyclamen plants, although a knowledge of the principal pests may help you select insect-free plants. The cyclamen mite is by far their worst enemy.

These pests are too tiny to be seen without the aid of a powerful lens, but they cause characteristic curling and deformation of the leaves, especially the new ones.

Be on your guard for this pest, and pass up any plant that shows the least symptoms of cyclamen mites.

Should a suspicious-looking plant be sent to you as a gift, be very careful that it is kept away from your African violets. The cyclamen mite is the African violet’s deadliest enemy also.

Red spider mites, which are larger and more easily seen, may also be present, although you may not detect them until the plant has been in your home for several weeks.

Unless you examine a plant closely, the first signs you will see are a webbing over the foliage and flowers. The tiny plant spiders and the webbing are easily removed by syringing the plants in the kitchen sink.

Regular washing in this way will be necessary, but this pest need not cause you to lose your plant.

A few people are successful in carrying cyclamen over from year to year.

But unless you have a cool, partially sunny window in which to grow them, the chances are very much against you, for the cyclamens are not low-maintenance plants in the home. There are two ways they may be handled.

How To Handle Cyclamen After The Flowering Season?

After flowering, some growers allow their cyclamen plants to “rest” by gradually stopping watering until the leaves have all dried.

The cyclamen tubers may then be shaken out and repotted in a good house-plant potting soil mixture like those used for African violets. Watering the potted cyclamen once a week or even less often will suffice until growth is resumed.

Another method, which is just as successful, is to shift the plant to a larger container after flowering and keep it growing. It will lose some of its leaves, but not all, and will rest to some extent.

In either case, regular foliar feeding will be needed to keep it growing actively. A cool, partially shaded porch, or a lath-house, will give you an ideal location for growing cyclamen through the summer.

It’s not easy, but it’s lots of fun for those who really love to grow plants.

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