It would seem - growing dill - what's so hard? This is a plant that is known to every summer resident, gardener, even people far from agriculture. Belongs to the umbrella family. Odor or garden dill is so named because earlier instead of “finely chopped” they used the word “sprinkle”. You won’t cook any cabbage soup without it, you won’t cook okroshka, or pickle a cucumber. Now there is such a large selection of varieties - eyes run wide. Planting dill - also, it seems, does not cause any particular difficulties ... But I had time, there were difficulties.
As a plant, dill has been known for more than 5 thousand years. And as a spice, they began to eat for food in the 16th century. It is believed that he began to "walk" on the planet from Central, South-West Asia. In some places I met information that North Africa was also attributed to the homeland of this plant. Now he is known everywhere, all over the world. Cultivated almost everywhere. It is grown specially, but it also grows as a savage.
This is an unpretentious cold-resistant crop. Now it is difficult to find a site or a garden where it would not be grown.
Honestly, I never treated him as some kind of special garden plant, for the cultivation of which some specific knowledge is needed. Grew and now grows on potatoes - he sows himself, he sprouts. Tear greens or umbrellas as needed. It is impossible for our whole family to eat it, so a lot remains on the seeds that sprout in the spring - I seem to be doing nothing for this. Well, maybe I’m not all blurting out when weeding or hilling potatoes.
How to accelerate the sprouting of dill seeds
Seeds germinate slowly, as they are covered with essential oils, which prevent moisture from entering the seed, delaying germination. Sprouting can be accelerated by soaking the seeds with hot water (not boiling water) - while the excess oil will float. When the water has cooled, it must be drained, rinse the seeds with cold water.
I make it easier - I read somewhere that essential oils dissolve alcohol solutions well - pour seeds with vodka (you can’t burn them for more than 15 minutes), rinse, dry them to a loose state, sow. Shoots appear after 4-5 days.
I do such vodka seed treatment, if there is no rain ahead, there is hot weather. Usually this is re-sowing in the second half of summer. And in early spring, when the soil is moist after winter, there is enough moisture, I sow seeds without treatment with vodka - seedlings appear in 10-12 days. Seeds do not lose germination 3-5 years.
Features of planting and growing dill
A few years ago I had a small problem. The greens of self-sowing dill can only be torn until mid-summer. And then there are umbrellas that are indispensable for conservation, but you really want to add fragrant greens to borsch, salad ...
I learned that there are bush varieties that do not let out a flower-bearing stem for a long time, remain green much longer (by 1-1.5 months). I decided to sow. Here difficulties arose.
I didn’t want to rise. But I managed this - I wrote above that I planted seeds with vodka before planting.
But even if the shoots appeared, they were kind of frail, not appetizing. In addition, they quickly disappeared or formed an umbrella, although according to the idea of seed producers this was not supposed to happen so soon.
I began to look for the reasons for my failures. Found it. Something more experienced gardeners suggested, read something, and thought of something herself.
Why is dill growing poorly? Firstly, it must be sown very early. You can even in the winter or as soon as the snow has fallen. In the Kuban, it grows well, sown in the “February windows”. Secondly, it does not need to be sown densely. Thickened crops grow poorly, slowly, almost immediately after germination, the plant goes into the trunk - there is nothing to tear into the greens.
Thirdly, it can be sown by scattering seeds throughout the site. You can scatter them in ready-made beds, for example, with onions, garlic.
Fourth, if you decide to sow this spicy greens in the second half of summer, then give him a bed in partial shade - the sun until noon - the shadow after. This plant is a short day, so he needs to artificially create such conditions in the summer. It is necessary to sow it in the damp earth, not densely, it is obligatory to water it. If the soil is dry, then it immediately starts up the trunk - you won’t get a green, magnificent dill. Try to loosen aisles - all cultures love lush land.
Now I can say with a light heart that growing dill does not cause any particular difficulties.
Nevertheless, he prefers to grow on well-loosened light nutrient soils. It grows poorly on clay soil, wetlands or lowlands. He does not like excessive soil acidification.
Under the dill do not make ash and lime.
It is not particularly demanding on moisture, but responds well to adequate watering. With a lack of moisture, yield decreases. Prefers open sunny places, but in partial shade also gives a good harvest.
This is an annual plant, therefore, during one vegetative period, it goes through all stages of development - from seed germination to the formation of new ones. From the seed usually appears one sprout with two linear elongated leaves, completely unlike the leaves of an adult plant.
The soil for sowing seeds is prepared in advance - humus or any complex fertilizer is added, so that later on it does not make any fertilizers, since there is a danger of accumulation of nitrates. It is very good if you add superphosphate, nitroammophoska when sowing. Phosphorus, so necessary for plants, is well absorbed by them during germination.
When sowing dill, it must be sown so that you have to look closely - is there a seed in the groove, is it visible - then you will get normal sparse shoots. And if you see seeds during sowing, it means that they are too thick - seedlings will have to be thinned out.
Yes, I forgot to note that the seeds germinate not only in the spring, but manage to produce another crop in the fall. Here it doesn’t reach the umbrellas - I rip off almost all of it for food, freeze it for winter use. By the way, I like autumn dill more. The greens are more juicy, aromatic - the heat is gone, it has enough moisture for juiciness.
A specific dill smell appears in the plant, starting from the 4th-5th leaf. The older the plant, the more fragrant greens it is.
Dill is growing very fast. From the emergence of seedlings to harvesting greens takes about 40 days. After that, you either cut the greens or leave "on the umbrella."
I never practiced it myself, but I met information that he very well tolerates picking, transplanting in the presence of the first or second real sheet. Therefore, it can be grown through seedlings to get greens as early as possible. That is how farmers grow it, agricultural enterprises in winter in greenhouses.
Bush dill
I said above that I sow only bush varieties, and the usual one that I use for canning, it sprouts on the potato field after winter. There are so many of them - he sows himself, he comes up without my help in spring. But such a dill quickly reaches the umbrella stage. Then I get juicy fragrant greens from the bush.
In bush varieties, this period is 50 days. They do not bloom for a long time, that is, the harvesting period of greens is extended for 2-3 weeks, and for some even longer.
Bush from ordinary varieties is different in appearance. The plant, while young, does not have a stem. Leaves grow from the root at an acute angle. The rosette of leaves is raised, a flower-bearing stem does not form for a long time. Therefore, do not root it out - just break off larger, more fragrant leaves. New leaves will grow from the center of the outlet. After 5 days on this plant, the harvesting process can be repeated.
Ordinary dill necessarily has a flower stalk. After breaking off large lower leaves, new ones at this place do not grow.
I wrote above that it is growing very fast. That is, the conclusion suggests itself that if we want to be with fragrant greens all summer, then we need to sow it several times. This is indeed so.
Now there are many varieties with different ripening dates. Having sown several with an interval of 1.5-2 months, you will be with greens all season.
For example, if you sow such varieties as Alligator, Amazon, Salute, then in 1-1.5 months you will go green, you will eat it 1.5-2 months - until mid-summer. In the first half of June (in the Kuban it is the last days of May) you can sow dill again to provide yourself with greenery until the end of summer.
The third crop I get is already in late autumn. Harvested potatoes, peeled potato field from plant debris, autumn rains passed. Delicate bushes rise again themselves, without my help. They do not grow up to an umbrella state, but it is this greenery that I freeze. All winter I add to borscht, salads, meat dishes.
Varieties of dill
As I said, now many dill varieties are bred. It is difficult enough to decide which one to choose.
They are distinguished by maturity, by the shade of the leaves, by a stronger or weaker aroma, and, of course, by taste.
What to look for when choosing a variety. This is not such an easy task as it seems. The state registry contains about 50 names. What is the difference between one and the other? There are many subtleties. Some are visible only to specialists. For example, there are such varieties Redut, Max. How do they differ from each other? Both of them belong to the same group in terms of maturity - medium late, both are designed to produce greenery or umbrellas. And the differences are the leaf pattern, leafiness, pubescence, the length of the leaf segment. Redut more rarely have leaf branches, while Max has thicker ones. But we are unlikely to notice such differences in our garden.
The most popular varieties among summer residents are Alligator, Amazon (the seller of the seed store told me this in secret). They are very similar. These are bush varieties that give a lot of fragrant greens.
I sowed the Alligator. What I liked - a lot of greenery, cut off juicy slightly bluish leaves all season, the umbrella began to form only at the end of summer.
True, I sowed it where the sun is only from morning until 11:00, and then the whole hot day is a shadow, only about an hour before sunset - again the sun.
A good grade is Kibray.
Refers to the bush. But still, he forms an umbrella before the Alligator.
There are a lot of umbrella varieties, it seems to me that there are more of them than bush varieties. Umbrella include Grenadier, Richelieu, Carousel.
There is a group of varieties that occupy an intermediate position - for example, Max, Redut, Umbrella, which give enough greenery. The umbrella also manages to ripen.
The variety Preobrazhensky is interesting. It gives a lot of greenery, the rosette of leaves is powerful, compact, but the umbrella ripens early enough.
Some varieties can be appreciated not only for their rich rich taste, but also for unusually delicate beautiful foliage. That is Richelieu. The leaf is quite rare, with long segments, thin, elegant. This variety is good because it blooms quickly. That is, we won’t get much green from it, but we will get umbrellas for salted early cucumbers.
Dill Disease
The main problem of dill is fusarium wilt. This is an infectious disease. It is transmitted with seeds. It often occurs under adverse conditions - sudden changes in air temperature. Chemical processing of dill is unacceptable for us - we eat leaves.
Therefore, the way out.
Firstly, this is the treatment of seeds before sowing - soaking them in a solution of phytosporin, potassium permanganate.
Secondly, if you know that the site is infected, for example, I did not have one year of dill harvest, then trichodermin is added to the soil in advance. It is advisable to do this before sowing. Trichodermin is not a chemical drug, it is a spore of the fungus, which also needs to create conditions for development. It is brought into moist soil, that is, before sowing dill, water the bed, and then sprinkle with a peat substrate with mushroom spores. Trichodermin successfully fights with fusarium wilting of dill.
I hope that now you grow dill will not cause difficulties.