Dill is a perennial herbaceous plant, familiar to absolutely everyone. He is loved for his delicious spicy aroma. Find out how dill is grown in a summer cottage (secrets, tips and basic nuances), and then you will always have a bunch of fragrant and fresh herbs at hand. It can be dried and frozen, as well as used for salads, soups. Inflorescences and seeds also find application, mainly in the preparation of pickles for preserving vegetables.
Seed preparation
Experienced gardeners and gardeners recommend soaking the seeds before planting dill. Growing dill seedlings is also practiced, it is mandatory for bush varieties. To soak the seeds, it is enough to wrap them in a cloth and maintain its moisture for a couple of days, until swelling. Then they need to be dried for 20 minutes in air and sown in prepared soil. Uniform shoots appear, usually after two weeks. All this time it is required to maintain constant humidity. Dill seeds are not demanding for temperature and begin to sprout actively already at +3 ° .
Dill sowing dates
Dill cultivation in the open ground can be carried out in two ways: this is sowing in spring or late autumn. This plant is quite cold-resistant and can tolerate frosts down to -6 ° C, so the seeds can be planted in the soil in late autumn (October-November), the timing depends on the region. The second option involves spring planting. They start it too early, as soon as the snow melts and the soil dries out a little. Estimated dates - from mid-April to the end of May. Dill propagates very well self-seeding. If you do not remove umbrellas with seeds in the fall, then next spring, most likely, the whole garden will be strewn with fragrant greens.
Dill: planting and care in the open ground
It is necessary to prepare a bed for spring sowing since the fall. It is required to dig the earth to a depth of about 25 cm and add a bucket of humus (per square meter). In spring, it is enough to level the bed with a rake and make grooves at a distance of 20 cm from each other to a depth of 2-3 cm. They should sow seeds, sprinkle with a small layer of humus on top. Watering is not necessary until emergence.
Throughout the summer, dill can be sown more than once, but with an interval of 20-25 days to obtain fresh herbs. Such is the period of its ripening. At this point, the plant reaches a height of about twenty centimeters. To get the seeds you have to wait a little longer until the umbrellas mature. These are the basic rules for growing dill in open ground. Everything is quite simple and will not cause difficulties even for a beginner gardener.
Shrub dill: features of cultivation
This variety has appeared on the seed market recently. Its appearance and growing technology are somewhat different from those of ordinary dill. If agricultural technology is not respected, then of course it will grow, but it will lose its elite qualities. The main feature of this variety is in its size and strong leafiness. Bush dill can grow up to one and a half meters in height, therefore, the distance between plants should be large (25 cm). It is more demanding on soil fertility and climate, and therefore it is planted in greenhouses. Growing dill in open ground is also possible, but only in seedlings (sowing in mid-April - early May). It is planted on the bed when the air temperature is set within 20-25 ° C.
The capriciousness of bush dill is offset by its high productivity. So, 20 plants will provide you with greenery not only for the whole summer, but also for the winter.
If you practice growing dill in the open ground, then flower stalks are best removed, especially in central Russia, since the seeds still do not have time to ripen even in greenhouses. The plant will only be wasted effort. This variety is best grown exclusively for greenery.
Dill Disease
One of the main enemies of fragrant greens is powdery mildew. It can appear at any time in the form of a white coating on the seeds, stems and leaves. Powdery mildew most often occurs at the end of summer, when nights become cool. As a result, the plant loses its taste and is no longer suitable for eating. The appearance of downy mildew is possible, which is characterized by the appearance of chlorotic spots, gradually yellowing.
Also dill can be subjected to phomosis. This fungal disease manifests itself in the form of blackening on the seeds, stems, and sometimes leaves.
These diseases, in principle, can occur at any time, regardless of whether you practice dill cultivation in open ground or in a greenhouse. It is impossible to treat plants with chemicals, therefore it is only possible to apply preventive measures, namely the alternation of crops, the timely destruction of weeds and infected specimens, as well as the decontamination of dill seeds. To do this, before planting, you need to warm them in hot water (50 ° C) for 30 minutes.
Growing dill: the main nuances
- Thinning. This is the case when you do not need to feel sorry for the plants. In the phase of 2-3 real leaves, seedlings must be thinned out, leaving a distance of at least 6-7 cm between adjacent bushes. This contributes to a better development of dill, it will be strong and even. For bush varieties, this is generally a mandatory procedure, and it can be carried out in several stages, gradually increasing the distance between plants to thirty centimeters.
- Greens grow in about a month, so during the growing season, fertilizer is not required. In extreme cases, if you notice yellowing of the leaves, you can water the plants with a solution of urea or mullein.
- Young greens can be torn directly with the root, but from adult plants (25 cm and above) it is better to pick off only green leaves.
- Choose sunny places for planting, where there is no stagnation of moisture and fertile soil. In the shade you will get a pale green or almost yellow dill.
Growing dill: variety selection
Often, vegetable growers and summer residents do not attach importance to the varieties of dill, because greens - it is greens. And this is a completely erroneous opinion. In the modern seed market, the choice of dill varieties is very large. As a rule, all of them differ in terms of maturation, and sometimes by cultivation agricultural technology. Therefore, carefully read the labels on the bags with fragrant seeds. It is worth noting the following varieties of dill.
- Mid-season: Anna, Gribovsky, Umbrella, Lesnogorsk, Salute, Patterns.
- Late ripening: Alligator, Borey, Superdukat.
- Shrub varieties: Buyan, Bouquet, Sultan.
Harvesting and drying
Gathering greens for drying or freezing is carried out 25-30 days after emergence. At this point, the plant grows to 15-20 cm in height. Before freezing, greens should be washed and allowed to drain water. Then dill must be crumbled and packaged in bags or containers. You can also dry it. This should not be done in the sun, but in the shade, in a well-ventilated area. Store dried dill in jars with tight-fitting lids or in paper bags, the same applies to seeds.
Be sure to plant aromatic dill on your site ! Planting and care in the open field will not require much time and effort. But as a result, you get not only tasty, but also very useful spicy greens, and the seeds are perfect for use in pickling and pickling vegetables, in addition, they have medicinal properties.