In pursuit of various exotic trees or shrubs, which are not only capricious, but also require increased attention, our gardeners often lose sight of some unpretentious plants. But many of them are no less decorative and useful. Among them, a pretty shrub of irgi stands out. The plant also has a number of useful properties. In folk medicine, not only berries are widely used, but also the bark and leaves of this deciduous shrub.
Planting and taking care of the irgi plants is quite simple. And the culture itself is so interesting and unusual that it is simply amazing how it could be in the backyards of domestic garden plots. This article provides detailed information about the irga plant - photos, medicinal properties, cultivation features. Another name for the culture is cinnamon. From the Mongolian language the meaning of the word irgai is translated as "very hard wood."
general information
The irgi plant, the photo of which is presented below, is found in almost the entire Northern Hemisphere. It grows in North Africa and America, and in the countries of the Far East, as well as in the Caucasus and the Crimea. Often it can be seen in forest glades, as well as in the mountains among thickets of other shrubs. Irga is a plant that feels great on any soil. The only place where it grows is the marshy land, where there is standing water. The main condition for the normal ripening of the fruit is a sufficient amount of light. Under such conditions, the fruits become large, juicy and healthy. This feature is inherent in all cultivated varieties of plants of the pink family, which includes the irgi. A plant under normal agronomic conditions gives an average of about fifteen kilograms of berries from each bush over the entire ripening period of the fruit. In addition, they are incredibly useful and widely used in cooking.
What does the plant look like
Irga in the early spring looks especially attractive. When the first flowers appear on its branches, the bush is completely covered with very delicate villi. They completely cover the plant. Irga, whose photo this season is incredibly beautiful, gets a unique charm in early spring. She seems to be wearing a white or pink shawl. When the inflorescences begin to fall, the villi also gradually disappear. The description of the irgi plant depends on the variety of culture. In our country, the round-leaved species is more common - a native of the Caucasus and Crimea. In addition to him, spiky, Canadian, blood-red varieties are also cultivated.
From the name you can already understand how these species differ from each other. The common thing that unites all representatives of this plant is erect young shoots, painted in brown-red color. Their growth continues until mid-July. The length of the annual growth is from 60 to 100 cm. The leaves of the berry, located on the long petioles, can be rounded, ovoid and oval depending on the species. They have jagged edges. Leaves sometimes reach a length of up to 10 cm. If you look at the photo, what the plant looks like in spring, summer and autumn, you can see that a color change is taking place. When blooming, the leaves are brownish-green, in June they become bluish-green, but after collecting the berries they acquire a golden-crimson hue.
Varieties
A nice green plant of a berry has about 25 species. Some of them are distinguished by special beauty. Consider the most common of them. For example, the Canadian irgi plant found in northern gardens, also known as wine berry, can grow up to seven meters. Its elongated branches create a wide, thick oval crown. The leaves are ovoid in shape. During blooming, they are brownish, in the summer - bluish, and in the fall - golden or reddish. To the touch, the sheet plate is soft, slightly rough and with a delicate fluff. The Canadian irga plant blooms in late spring: its large white buds are collected in elegant brushes. The fruits of this shrub are similar to rose hips.
Another large deciduous plant - Irga Lamarca - is widely used in cooking. It grows up to 5 m and is distinguished by oval-shaped leaves with a toothed frame. Inflorescences of this variety are small, white. They appear in large numbers on the bush, so this plant looks very nice in the spring and summer.
Irga, photo, medicinal properties and growing characteristics of which are presented below, blooms for about ten days. Healing berries appear only on adult shrubs that are at least four years old.
Another variety, common irrigation, grows only up to three meters. A culture can grow in one place for more than fifteen years. Another garden shrub, cinnamon rotundifolia, reaches a height of four meters. She has slightly dipped shoots, painted in a bright brown color.
The berries on the bushes of this variety are first green, then red, and at the time of full ripening - dark blue, almost black.
Flowering period
All species forms of irgi have a neat appearance. Irga is a flowering plant attractive to insects. During flowering, it is covered with many buds. The hue of the flowers, depending on the variety, can be not only pure white, but also pinkish. The buds are not located singly: they are removed in delicate inflorescences.
Cinnamon blossoms in the spring. The excellent compatibility of the snowdrop with other plants makes it possible to plant it in rows mixed with other shrub plants characterized by a summer flowering period. In this case, you can get a garden that will delight the beauty of multi-colored inflorescences, both in spring and summer. After the irgi completely fades and discards the petals of its fragrant inflorescences, the fluff from the leaves also disappears. And then it turns into an ordinary shrub with a well-developed stem and a lush crown.
Fruit
During fruiting on the cinnamon, you can notice small berries with pink barrels. They are collected on one brush. The unripe fruits of most varieties of berry berries are cream colored, and become purple or purple as they ripen. The berries taste good. Their gentle sweetness and juiciness attract both young children and adults. They like to feast on the fruits of the berry and bird, after which they spread the seeds of the plant throughout the district. Berries from the bush should be picked only in a ripe form, otherwise they will not have healing properties.
The fruits contain a huge amount of useful substances - dietary fiber (up to 25 percent), glucose and fructose, vitamins C, P, and group B, pectin and phytosterols, carotene, fiber, as well as various trace elements.
Irga plant: medicinal properties
Few people know that all parts of this wonderful shrub are useful: flowers, berries, leafy part, and bark. The irga plant contains a huge amount of vitamins, folic acid. It is used in folk medicine for vitamin deficiency, in order to strengthen the immune system, as well as for the prevention of heart attack, stroke and atherosclerosis. It is believed that the berry plant also helps fight the development of cancer, strengthens the walls of blood vessels, improves vision, and prevents cataracts. It helps to heal purulent wounds. To do this, apply dressings to them moistened with berry juice.
Tincture from the inflorescences of iergi will help normalize blood pressure and sleep. It is difficult to list all the ailments in which this miraculous shrub helps.
Location and Ground Requirements
Irga is a long-liver. Shrub grows in the wild for about seventy years. Moreover, over time, its trunk becomes like a tree. On the site, you can choose any place for planting irgi: after all, the plant is unpretentious and can develop normally even in shading, in addition, it is not afraid of drought and drafts.
But if there is a sunny place in the garden, then it is ideal: in this case, the branches do not have to stretch up in search of sunlight.
Irga is also not demanding on the soil. The main condition is that the place is not swampy. You need to know: the more fertile the soil, the more healthy the plant will grow on the site and the richer the harvest.
Landing
The place for the irgi must be prepared in advance, first of all having cleared it of all weeds. Before planting, you need to dig it and add phosphate and potash fertilizers at the rate of 40 grams of each type per 1 sq. Km. m
Seedlings should be one or two year old. If you plan to plant several bushes on a site at once, then experts recommend that they be planted in a checkerboard pattern one and a half meters from each other. The layer of earth that was dug from the hole must be mixed with compost and sand in the proportions 3: 1: 1. At the bottom of the pit, you need to fill up a little fertilizer - potassium and phosphate, as well as humus. Saplings should be sprinkled with a pre-prepared mixture and water abundantly around the trunk. When moisture is absorbed into the soil, you need to add a little more earth, level the hole, and mulch the soil. After this, the bush needs to be slightly trimmed, leaving no more than four buds in each shoot.
Care Tips
Irga is considered unpretentious culture. Many gardeners say that after planting they don’t remember about it until the very season when the time comes to harvest. Although it would be nice if this shrub will still receive minimal attention. It consists in regular watering.
In some cases, the plant needs pruning so that this beautiful shrub does not lose its appearance. Yes, and rejuvenation of the plant will only benefit, for example, in terms of yield. From time to time it is better to weed. Irgi has a very developed root system, therefore it is recommended to water it only in drought.
Fertilizer and fertilizing
The first fertilizer after planting irga should be given after it reaches five years of age. Once a year, you should dig a trunk circle with the addition of 300 g of superphosphate and one bucket of humus.
In addition, from early spring to mid-July, you can also feed the plant with liquid organics. For this, a solution of chicken manure diluted in water in a proportion of 1:10 is suitable. For each bush you need to cook about 5 l of the mixture.
Breeding
Cinnamon can be grown from seeds. But in this case, you need to be prepared for the fact that with this type of reproduction all varietal characters will disappear. Seeds extracted from ripe berries should immediately be planted in the ground to a depth of two centimeters. They need to be well watered, and mulched on top. In winter, the seeds undergo a natural stratification and in the spring young shoots appear from them. In some cases, the seeds germinate in the same fall.
Another method is propagation by green cuttings. From an adult bush, cuttings about 15 cm long should be cut, remove all leaves from them, leaving only the top two. The lower section must be placed in a special solution for the formation of roots. After this, the cuttings should be washed with cold water and placed in a greenhouse at an angle, sprinkled with a layer of sand on top. The distance from the greenhouse dome to the top of the planting material should be about 20 cm. Watering the cuttings is necessary so that water does not fall onto the basal part with a stream, but only splashes. After a maximum of three weeks, they will take root normally, so during the day you can open the greenhouse.
There is another way - reproduction by layering. To do this, you need to choose strong young shoots, dig them in early spring, after pinching the tops. When a young shoot emerges from the kidneys, it must be covered with earth. There are three ways of reproduction of virigins, but experts call the simplest division of green cuttings.
Diseases and pests of irgi
Cinnamon has a fairly good immunity, but from time to time it still suffers from tuberculosis: the plants first brown, and then the leaves dry and dry. Following them, branches are affected, on which small red tubercles begin to appear. After detecting these symptoms, you need to immediately cut off and burn the diseased parts, and spray the bush itself with copper sulfate or Bordeaux fluid. Some gardeners in order to prevent this procedure in the spring.
In addition to tuberculariosis, sometimes it is possible to meet phylostictic spotting on the irga, manifested by wilting of leaves on which brown spots appeared. The treatment for the bush is the same - with the help of vitriol with the removal of the affected parts.
Another disease - gray rot - is manifested by the appearance on the leaves of spots that spill over. The green part of the bush begins to turn yellow, then it is covered with fluffy gray mold. As a result, the foliage falls. The cause of this disease is excess moisture. Therefore, the first thing you need to eliminate it, and if possible - transplant the irga into a drier place.
As for the pests affecting the shrub, the most important enemies of the cinnamon are irgaceous seed eaters. Already by name, you can immediately guess that this parasite, penetrating into the fetus, begins to eat seeds. There, in the berries, he pupates. Sometimes on the irga there is also a speckled moth, which harms the foliage of the bush. As a result, it dries. These pests must be fought with the help of either kalbofos or fufanon.
Some recommendations
Black currants, raspberries, gooseberries quite calmly grow next to the irga plant. Neighborhood with other plants, such as birch or Manchurian walnut, is not recommended. They inhibit the berry and consume a lot of moisture.
Irga will not bring unnecessary trouble, will not take a lot of time, but she will decorate the infield and will delight the harvest of delicious and incredibly healthy fruits.
In addition, it is winter-hardy, so even Michurin once recommended this crop as a stock for apple trees and pears in the north.