The plant of badan belongs to perennial herbs. It can be found on the rocks in China, Korea and Central Asia. This herb was first introduced into the culture in the eighteenth century. Now breeders are engaged in the cultivation of various hybrids. But while officially you can count only a dozen varieties of frankincense. In the article we will consider the features of this plant as accurately as possible, learn how to care for it, plant and grow it.
Badan: plant description
The genus Badan includes perennial evergreen herbs. There are species that live only one season. The maximum height of the incense is thirty-five centimeters, but the smallest species grows to only six centimeters. His root system, although horizontal, is very thick and strong. Beautiful shiny leaves rise on long cuttings. They have a dark green tint. Nearby are beautiful inflorescences, which have a wide variety of shades: from white to bright red. Large panicles of a frankincense plant begin to bloom at the very end of spring. In one inflorescence, there are about 120 flowers. There are plants and fruits, which are represented in small boxes.
If you grow this plant in landscape design, then it will be most profitable to look next to flowers such as phlox and, of course, can not do without stones.
Growing
The cultivation of frankincense should begin with sowing seeds. And in order for the seedlings to be strong and healthy, you need to follow a few recommendations. Firstly, sowing is best planned for the winter. Secondly, you need to prepare the tank and soil for planting seeds in advance. The box must be filled with special soil for flowers and make grooves in it. They should be located at a distance of three centimeters, and their depth cannot be more than five millimeters. After that, you need to spill them with warm water and place the seeds there, after which the holes are covered with loose earth. A box with planted seeds is taken out directly to the street and left under the snow.
The container is brought into the room in March and left in a darkened room, where the air temperature does not rise by more than eighteen degrees. Three weeks later, you can enjoy the first shoots. Seedling care does not require any additional skills. It is necessary to water it in time, to loosen the upper layer of the earth, so that not only moisture, but also oxygen comes to the roots. And also you need to periodically ventilate the room where there is a container with seedlings and break through them. If oxygen ceases to flow to the roots of the seedlings, this is immediately visible on the surface of the soil. There just appears a greenish crust, which is a signal for the gardener to loosen the soil.
Already in May, you can begin to dive. To do this, you will need a larger box, where young seedlings will be located at a distance of five or seven centimeters. Aisles should be at least fifteen centimeters wide. Before the seedlings of incense are planted in open ground, it must pass hardening. To do this, two weeks before the estimated date of planting, you need to take out the seedlings for several hours in the air. Every day, the period of their stay there needs to be increased until this time reaches a day.
When to plant in the ground
Badan is an unpretentious plant that easily tolerates severe frosts, so it is suitable for cultivation in our latitudes. It is best if you plant seedlings in August, but some gardeners skip the dive period and do so already in June. You can do that. But it is better to divide the seedlings in such a way that the strongest individuals can be planted at the beginning of summer, while the weaker ones are better to wait for August.
Disembarkation technology
Since the root system of the plant is superficial, it must be planted in light and loose soil with a high alkali content. Decide in advance the place of landing. This should be the north side of the site, where there will be a lot of shade. It is needed so that the roots protruding to the surface do not overheat. But the gardener does not always have such an opportunity, and you have to plant frankincense in a sunny area. In this situation, it is imperative to mulch the soil in the root zone. Mulch will not only protect the roots, but also preserve soil moisture. But make sure that stagnation of water in its roots does not occur.
In addition to the landing site, you need to prepare the wells in advance. Their size is made according to the parameters 40 to 40. Each hole should be no deeper than eight centimeters, and they will be staggered. Sand as drainage is placed at the bottom of the pit, after which a seedling falls with a lump of earth from the previous place of growth. After planting, seedlings must be watered. Be prepared for the fact that the plant will develop for quite some time. And you will see the first flowers no earlier than three years after planting the incense in the garden.
Care Rules
For incense, planting and care in the open ground does not create absolutely any problems for the gardener. In the spring, with the onset of the thaw, you need to trim. All damaged, broken shoots are subject to removal. You do not need to touch healthy twigs, but only those that were frozen or were damaged by the wind or birds. And you can also remove those shoots that, in your opinion, have grown too much. After this, mineral fertilizers should be applied so that the plant can restore the forces lost during the winter. The next time you will need to feed the plant exactly two weeks later, when the incense ceases to bloom. During this period, new leaflets will begin to form on it.
Watering
An important point for the care and planting of frankincense in open ground is watering. The first watering should be done when buds begin to form on the shoots. Then, when the incense is already beginning to bloom, and two or three weeks after the completion of this process.
But such a schedule of irrigation is established only if during this period there are no rains at all. If the summer is rainy, then you do not need to water the plant.
An important issue in the cultivation of frankincense remains the protection of the root system from the sun. In general, it is customary to simply leave dead leaves below that create a good shadow. But if you need the incense as an ornamental plant, then you need to remove them, and the mulch will be a good protection for the roots.
Breeding
Propagation of canoe can take place by planting seeds for seedlings and through the division of the bush. We examined all the features of the seed method earlier, but it's worth a little talk about dividing the bush.
Badan has the property to grow, and in the process, new outlets are formed on which there are roots. They are located at the very surface of the earth, which greatly facilitates the process of digging without damaging the maternal rhizome. To separate the sockets, not too old, but also not year-old plants are chosen. This process can only be carried out when it ceases to bloom. And more precisely, this is the period from the end of May to the beginning of autumn.
Each segment should have not only a strong rhizome, but also three living buds. Leaves need to be removed. Only the presence of two or three young leaves is allowed. For the landing of delenoks, it is necessary to prepare the wells in advance in order to transplant them immediately after separation. Place the pits at a distance of about forty centimeters from each other, and as for the depth, stop at around five centimeters. Delenki take root much faster than incense seedlings. And you can admire the flowering in a couple of years.
Transfer
The plant of incense is very fond of capturing territories that do not belong to it. It grows quite a lot and often evicts its neighbors. Therefore, despite the fact that the plant does not like transplants, the place of its growth needs to be changed every five or six years.
It is better to transplant at the beginning of autumn, at the same time it is possible to carry out reproduction through division of the bush. The distance from one plant to another should be thirty centimeters. In the first fourteen days, transplanted plants need abundant watering.
Disease
Badan is an unpretentious plant, and we talked about this at the beginning of the article. This helps him to defend himself when attacked by various diseases. However, waterlogging of the soil, which is contraindicated in this case, can cause an invasion of various fungal diseases.
Quite often, a manifestation of ramulariosis is observed. Recognizing it is quite simple. Brown spots appear on the leaves of the incense, which are still “decorated” with a red border on the edges. This applies to the top. But a clearly visible white coating appears below. When the disease gains momentum, the affected leaves dry out. They must be removed immediately, since it will be impossible to cure. But the plant is treated with a solution of "Fundazole" or other drugs, which include copper.
Pests
If the incense is planted in the shade, then two pests can attack it: slobbery pennies and nematodes. Actellik enters the fight with the first. Processing plants is carried out in two stages. To do this, you need to choose a rather warm and necessarily dry day.
But the fight against the second pest can be dragged out. And here everything is not so simple. The difficulty lies in the fact that the plant will have to be dug up and put the rhizome in a solution of potassium permanganate. And after that, the place of his landing must be radically changed. And do not forget to etch the soil in which the nematodes are wound. For this, you can use insecticides. And take note that at this place it will be possible to plant plants only after a year.
The period after flowering
In the boxes of the plant of incense quite a lot of small seeds. But they must be skillfully preserved. To do this, you need to look in advance at the plant for large inflorescences, and at the moment when they begin to fade, you need to put on a gauze bag. This is necessary so that the seeds do not wake up. Collect them in September. A box with a small piece of the stem must be cut and dried in a dry, warm and well-ventilated place. They are in this position for two weeks. After this, the seeds can be removed from the box and put into storage.
Although incense is considered a frost-resistant plant, there are species that are afraid of frost. To preserve such plants, you need to cover them with leaves and dry grass in the fall.
Properties of frankincense
Quite often from gardeners the question sounds - what is the use of frankincense? Useful are all parts of the plant: from roots to seeds.
If you turn to traditional medicine, you can find good recipes using incense, which will be very effective in treating cervical erosion, fibroids and malignant tumors. In addition, the plant is used in almost all areas of medicine. It can relieve headaches, help in the treatment of hemorrhoids, rheumatism, acute respiratory infections and even with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. And this also includes various lung diseases, flu and much more.
There are many drugs that can be purchased in pharmacies, the action of which is aimed at strengthening the walls of the capillaries, they can heal wounds and quickly stop blood flow, can lower blood pressure and slightly increase heartbeat.
But there are contraindications. If you use the incense too long, it can cause constipation. It is better to refrain from using tinctures from this plant for those who have increased blood coagulation. And if you are hypotensive, then in no case do not drink tincture from the roots, which lowers the pressure.