Residents of Russia relatively recently became acquainted with Jerusalem artichoke as a vegetable crop, but interest in growing it in their summer cottage is growing. The fact is that this plant gives high yields, is resistant to diseases, endowed with excellent taste, and is of great benefit to the body. So, the substances that make up the product are necessary for people suffering from hypertension and diabetes. How to grow Jerusalem artichoke in the country and how to care for this plant, we will describe in this article. We will also tell you about the usefulness of the earthen pear, share recipes of traditional medicine.
What is an earthen pear?
Before talking about how to plant Jerusalem artichoke, you need to describe the plant so that people can be fully aware of what will eventually grow.
Earthen pear - this is the name Jerusalem artichoke among the people for similar taste qualities, is a perennial plant. It propagates by tubers and seeds. Externally, the plant resembles a sunflower. It is the same tall, with rich green foliage, at the top there is a medium-sized flower of bright yellow color. Can be used as a decoration of the site.
Benefit
Jerusalem artichoke during the flowering period will decorate the garden, and its fruits - tubers, will be an excellent delicacy, bringing great benefits. A biochemical analysis revealed that there are many starchy substances, minerals and vitamins in the earthen pear.
Jerusalem artichoke is almost the only garden plant that has a huge percentage of silicon in its composition. Older people begin to feel discomfort in the joints, bones become more fragile, and all because silicon in the body becomes less, and this affects the elasticity of the tissues. The balance between silicon and calcium in the body is bone health, and it needs to be maintained from a young age.
In addition, silicon helps cleanse the body of toxins. If you become irritable, get tired quickly and sometimes feel complete powerlessness, then know that this is a lack of silicon. An earthen pear quickly makes up for its deficiency, is well absorbed by the body. There is nothing easier than to grow Jerusalem artichoke in the country, and maintain a balance of all necessary substances by preparing food from it. The taste of tubers is pleasant, when cooking it becomes similar to the taste of sweet potatoes.
The main benefit of Jerusalem artichoke is to contain a large amount of inulin in it. This substance is the only naturally occurring polysaccharide that can be absorbed without insulin. Earth pear is an essential component of nutrition for people with diabetes.
Jerusalem artichoke contains vitamins C, B1, B2. Their number is several times more than in carrots, potatoes and beets.
How to grow Jerusalem artichoke in the country? When to do it? What are the features of caring for this surprisingly useful and tasty plant? Many gardeners are interested in these questions, and we decided to answer them in full.
What material to plant?
As already written, an earthen pear propagates both by seeds and tubers. If you decide to plant seeds, then by the fall it will not work to get a big crop. The bush will grow small, and only a few small tubers will form, it is from them that we should expect good fruits, but by next fall.
There is nothing better than planting Jerusalem artichoke in the spring with tubers. In the first year, you can enjoy good, large fruits. That is why, most often, in order to get a full crop, and not planting material, the tubers, or their fragments, are planted.
Where to plant Jerusalem artichoke?
This plant is quite unpretentious to the soil. It will develop well if enough oxygen and moisture get into the soil. If there is not enough humus in the earth, then this is not a problem. It is easily compensated by well-chosen top dressings.
You should not plant Jerusalem artichoke in dense chernozem, where little oxygen will come. In this case, even with sufficient nutrition, the plant will not bring a rich harvest. The soil should be well ventilated so that moisture does not stagnate.
Find an open area where sunlight penetrates well. And its preparation for planting should begin already in the fall, because planting Jerusalem artichoke in the spring is much simpler and easier if the beds are ready.
We are preparing a plot
When a site is selected, it is necessary to dig it before the onset of cold weather. Depth should be equal to the bayonet of a shovel. Without fail, the roots of the weed are removed. It is simply impossible to select all of them, but do not worry, because the lost parts will freeze over the winter. But this is not only why the site is being prepared in the fall. Before digging on the ground, lay manure, it will be an ideal fertilizer, and before planting the crop will have time to re-breed.
How to plant Jerusalem artichoke in spring?
In most areas, the plant is planted in the first days of May. How to grow Jerusalem artichoke in a summer house in the open ground, if you live in the middle lane? In this case, do not rush, tubers need to be planted only when the soil warms up to at least sixteen degrees. It could be the end of May.
Before planting an earthen pear (Jerusalem artichoke), you must choose strong, large tubers. They should not have traces of pests and diseases. The quality of the planting material determines how strong the plant will grow , the autumn harvest of Jerusalem artichoke.
If you do not have the required number of healthy, large tubers, then do not plant bad ones anyway. They will sprout late, and the crop will be mixed. In this case, it is better to cut the quality material into several parts so that each has a healthy, noticeable eye. So that the plant does not get sick, the places of cuts must be dried, and treated with chopped coal before planting.
We prepare beds
The area dug up in the fall again needs to be dug up, shredded, broken up into large pieces, leveled, and beds created. Rows on the ridges should not be more than 70 centimeters, and the distance between the trenches not less than 30 centimeters. Adhering to such intervals is extremely important, since a plant can reach two and a half meters in height over the summer, grow, and it will be very difficult for you to get through a solid wall of greenery to care for an earthen pear.
An important point in the cultivation is the depth at which Jerusalem artichoke is planted. Wells should be about fifteen centimeters deep and about thirty wide. The distance between them is half a meter.
Under warm weather conditions and maintaining soil moisture, the first stems with pointed, heart-shaped young leaves will hatch soon.
The mistake of many summer residents
Most people who do not know how to plant Jerusalem artichoke correctly believe that you can also dig tubers near roads where the land is "empty". This opinion is shared by those who saw that the plant grows by itself, in abandoned wastelands. That is why, even planting an earthen pear according to all the rules, summer residents forget about it until the fall, when it will be time to harvest. What is their surprise when under strong, healthy bushes there are only a few "skinny", highly branched roots, which can not be called tubers.
Jerusalem artichoke, although unpretentious, needs a specially designated area, and will not fully develop, growing in an unsuitable, untreated place. How to plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers correctly, we figured out, now let's talk about proper care of the plant.
Before germination
An earthen pear is not a potato, and it requires care even of the moment when the first sprouts appear above the ground. In order to get a healthy plant and a good harvest, it is important to follow some rules:
- The appearance of a dense earth crust, which will not allow moisture and air to pass through, should not be allowed. To do this, the soil is carefully loosened. In order not to damage the plant, focus on the ridges that remained when the tubers were instilled.
- Stable measures are being taken to eliminate weed grass, that is, weeding.
- Plant care lasts from planting until harvest.
- Jerusalem artichoke is fed once a month.
From planting a plant to harvesting tubers in autumn, soil moisture must be maintained. To do this, try to produce abundant watering if there is insufficient rainfall.
Care after sprouts
At the time when Jerusalem artichoke will actively grow, build up green mass, which usually occurs in the first half of summer, it is necessary to introduce fertilizing with compounds that contain a lot of nitrogen. Before planting Jerusalem artichoke, such fertilizers are not needed, there will be enough manure, but during the period of active growth the plant will need this component. With the approach of July, replace the fertilizer with potash-phosphorus.
Watering should be done, focusing on the weather and the condition of the bushes. This is the most important point after planting Jerusalem artichoke correctly. If the plant does not have enough moisture, then it will grow slowly, and the crop will consist of small, highly branched tubers. In addition, drought can contribute to the attack of pests on the plant. With excessive watering, Jerusalem artichoke is also at risk: it will be affected by various types of rot and slugs.
When the plant reaches growth from 30 to 40 centimeters, it is necessary to spud it. This event will allow the formation of additional roots, which will lead to a higher yield.
Further care
In the middle of summer, Jerusalem artichoke will grow up to a meter, and it will be difficult for him to independently keep heavy greens. So that the stems do not break and continue to grow, divide the plantings into bushes, erect strong supports in the form of pillars and tie the bushes to them with strong wire or thick threads.
To further increase yield, re-raking in the second half of July is recommended. Around the same time, the plant will begin to bloom, do not leave the color on the bushes, it will take away all the nutrients from the tubers. Cut them by shortening Jerusalem artichoke to one and a half meters. The collected bouquet will perfectly decorate the room if you put it in a beautiful vase.
Harvesting and storage
It is not enough to know how to plant Jerusalem artichoke and take care of it. You must also be aware of how to keep the crop for a longer time.
From the appearance of the first sprouts to harvesting, an average of 120 days passes. But it’s not enough just to dig out the tubers, it is necessary to influence the formation of a thick skin, because without it the crop will not be able to be stored all winter, even if the conditions are ideal.
A month before the planned excavation, stop feeding the plant, and two weeks before harvesting, cut the stems so that thirty-centimeter cuttings remain above the ground. These procedures allow the tubers to be even more saturated with vitamins and minerals, they form a thick skin.
Growing Jerusalem artichoke in Russia showed that this plant is very frost-resistant. If there was a freeze when the shoots appeared, then they would not be affected. Tubers can easily overwinter in the ground, and can withstand a temperature drop of -40 degrees, but provided that the snow layer is more than 30 centimeters.
Summer gardeners specially leave some tubers for wintering in the soil, so that in the first spring days they have tasty root crops that retain all the useful properties. But for this it is necessary to be vigilant and dig them immediately after the snow melts, otherwise the tubers will begin to sprout. Absolutely all fruits are removed from the soil, as they can become an annoying weed.
Store Jerusalem artichoke in an underground or other basement under the same conditions as potatoes. Before placing the tubers in the underground they are well washed and dried, laid out on a dry floor under a canopy.
ethnoscience
As we already wrote, Jerusalem artichoke is not only a tasty, but also a healthy delicacy. In order for the plant to benefit, you need to know how to use it correctly. We offer you to familiarize yourself with the most useful recipes for the preparation of Jerusalem artichoke:
- If you have diabetes, then you can eat Jerusalem artichoke as follows: pick flowers and stems, rinse well under running water, cut the salad. You can add other vegetables, but without them Jerusalem artichoke will be a very tasty dish, you just have to season with vegetable oil. Tubers are also useful for you, they should be eaten at 50 grams half an hour before meals. They eat directly with the skin, without any seasonings and salt.
- To adjust the pancreas, increase hemoglobin and lower blood pressure, prepare a decoction. For this, it is necessary to pour five tubers of Jerusalem artichoke with one liter of water, boil them until soft. The resulting broth is drunk all in a glass during the day. This broth is recommended to be taken three times a week.
- To increase immunity, you can prepare a vitamin drink from leaves and stems. The material is collected during flowering, and dried before it begins. After that, 20 grams of greens is poured with a liter of boiling water, insisted until cool, filtered and drunk. You can drink such a drink up to a liter per day instead of tea. Add jam or honey if desired.
- From headache and heartburn will save the juice from the tubers. It is necessary to grate the fruit, squeeze, mix the juice with the same amount of water. Take two tablespoons in the morning, before breakfast. Juice is well stored in a refrigerator in a closed can.
Conclusion
As you can see, the earthen pear is quite simple to grow, it does not require complicated care, it is only necessary to weed, water and tie it in time. For your little work on the site, you will get a rich harvest, tasty and very healthy fruits. We hope that our article on how to plant Jerusalem artichoke and care for it will be useful to you. We wish you an excellent harvest and good health!