Cultivation of dill on a balcony or windowsill can be done all year round, although it is usually planned to plant it in room conditions for autumn-winter time. To get a good harvest, you need to not only correctly pick and plant a crop variety, but also provide the seedlings with competent care.
What you need to grow dill at home
The greens on the windowsill are a source of vitamins and a fresh seasoning for different dishes, with its fragrance reminiscent of summer. To grow a good, powerful, juicy, will have to try and stock up not only with patience, but also with necessary props:
- containers;
- fertile soil;
- drainage;
- seeds;
- lamps for illumination;
- complex top dressing.
Grades for cultivation of green culture on the window can be early- or middle-ripening:
- Grenadier;
- Richelieu;
- Gribovsky and others.
For planting in an apartment, choose early varieties of dill
They will give a quick harvest, however, they will be deprived of lush foliage. Therefore, some truck farmers prefer late-ripening, usually bushy varieties. They mature longer, but the harvest is given for a longer time, and also pleases the eye with abundant greens and a beautiful decorative view. Among the popular:
- Kibray;
- Buyan;
- Firework;
- Alligator;
- Amazon;
- Asparagus bouquet;
- Beam and others.
Approach responsibly and to the choice of soil for growing dill at home. The soil must be loose, fertile and non-acidic. It is important that it retains moisture well. Buy a ready-made substrate or prepare it yourself. To do this, mix the garden land with peat, compost and humus, sand.
Council. Container can serve as an old flower pot, up to 2 liters, or a small wide box with holes on the bottom. Rising in it should not be cramped. If the seedlings are to stand on the window, take care that the container looks aesthetically pleasing.
Preparation and sowing of seeds
Because of the high content of essential oils, fennel seeds germinate for a very long time, no matter where they are planted: in an open ground or pot. Therefore, pre-soak them in warm water, manganese or growth stimulant solution. Place the inoculum in a small container with any of these liquids, and cover the top with a piece of gauze. Soaking time in water - up to 20 hours, in manganese - 2-3 hours, in the stimulator - according to the instructions. During this period you need to change the liquid 2-3 times.
Attention! For planting, take only those seeds that have fallen to the bottom of the vessel.
After selecting suitable specimens, dry them well, and then proceed to seeding:
- At the bottom of the container lay the drainage layer of 1.5-2.5 cm. Use for this purpose expanded clay or broken brick.
- Fill the tank with soil. Moisten it.
- Sow fennel. To do this, you can make grooves or simply mix seeds with soil. The distance between the seeds is 2-3 cm. It is not necessary to deepen them, it is enough to cover them with earth (the thickness of the layer is up to 1 cm).
- Cover the container with a film and put it in a warm place. The optimum temperature for seed germination is + 18 ... + 20C. The sprouts will begin to punctate 7-10 days after sowing.
Dill seeds
Care for dill on the windowsill
Until the seeds are up, regularly water the soil and remove the condensate. When they massively germinate, empty the container from the film and place it on the sunny window sill, remembering that the fennel is a light-loving plant. In the first week after this, lower the night temperature by 1-2C to prevent stretching of seedlings. For example, open a window or take out a pot with shoots on a glass balcony.
Cold winter evenings so want to pamper yourself with vitamins and make a variety in the daily diet, adding a salad of spicy dill. Of course, fresh greens can be purchased on the market, but it is more profitable to sow seeds in pots. With the right approach to grow dill on your windowsill is not difficult, it is enough to adhere to general recommendations.
Specialists engaged in domestic breeding of spicy greens, recommend the sowing several types of dill simultaneously. Early varieties will quickly grow foliage, but will also quickly extend and begin to bloom. And later, although they "sit" longer in the earth, however they will be pleased with thicker bushes.
Seeds of dill contain a large number of essential oils, because of what is tightly sprouting. Therefore, they should be soaked in water for 42 hours. It is desirable to use warm water and change every 6 hours.
Rising hollow seeds of dill should be selected and discarded.
After the seeds are swollen, they are lowered for two or three hours into a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Then give a little dry, spread out on the fabric.
Soil preparation and seed sowing
In a container with holes for the drain of excess water, lay a layer of expanded clay and pour nutrient soil. You can use a store substrate or mix the ground from the garden with peat.
Prepared seeds put on a moistened surface, sprinkle a little on top of the soil, and cover with a film. After germination of seeds, the film is removed.
Between the seeds should leave a distance of about 2 cm, so that shoots do not muffle each other.
Care of dill shoots
Seedlings are regularly watered, preventing the drying of the soil. In dry air, additional spraying is necessary. So that the shoots do not stretch and grow evenly, the container turns every day to the sun.
Once every two weeks, young plantings are fed with complex fertilizers with a mineral composition. Ready greenery can be cut off after a month and a half, and the vacant place is sown with new plantings.
Grow fennel on the windowsill - video
May-26-2015
It's nice when you always have fresh greens on hand, which gives any dish a new flavor and flavor. That is why many mistresses wish to master (or have already mastered) a simple science of growing dill at home. How to grow dill at home, on the windowsill? At home, this plant, as in any business, has its own nuances. It would seem that it may be easier to plant dill seeds in any flower pot of the right size and, when the time comes, harvest. But the result of this "work" is likely to be a few stunted sprouts. In this article, we will talk about how to grow fennel on a windowsill in winter. So:
How to grow dill at home
You can sow fennel in any season. True, it will be necessary to observe several conditions: plants necessarily require good lighting and loose fertilized soil. If we talk about varieties of this spice, then there are no special hybrids for domestic breeding. But you can find many varieties with different maturation periods. Thus, early varieties of dill outperform late-ripening by a week and a half growth. Of course, I want to rather enjoy the fruits of my labors, but do not rush. The fact is that such plants will not be as thick and fragrant as we would like. And they do not live very long.
Dill variety for growing on the windowsill
Experienced gardeners prefer the late-ripening varieties ("Russian size", "Tetra", "Gourmet", "Salute", "Alligator"). Summer in Russia does not last long, so these varieties do not have time to finally ripen in the open ground, but they are perfect for window sills.
To collect the best crop even on a small window sill, buy one pot of rectangular shape to fit the sill (or make it yourself). Pots for greenery should be of sufficient size and depth. At the bottom of the pot necessarily poured some drainage (for example, expanded clay or a small pebble).
How to prepare the soil for dill
In order to plant dill, a mixture of neutral soil (for indoor flowers) and loose garden land is suitable - approximately in the same proportions. If you want to prepare the soil yourself, then, in order to avoid the appearance and reproduction of harmful microorganisms, it should be fried in an oven (30 minutes), and then let it stand for 1 day.
Seeding dill seeds in the ground
Seeds of dill for 2 days before planting it is desirable to soak in warm water (water should be changed every 6 hours). This procedure, although not mandatory, but directly affects the time of emergence and the growth of plants in the future. If the seeds were stored for more than 3 years, they must be soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate (manganese) before planting.
Dill seeds are planted in well-moistened soil. Above them, a layer of peat is sprinkled with 1 cm, which should be tampered with. The required number of seeds is calculated by this formula - for 1 square decimeter of soil - 0.3 gr.
At the end of the planting works, the box or pot is covered with polyethylene or glass and placed in a warm place for 7-9 days (until the first shoots appear). In the cold season, the best place for germination is to put a container near the heating batteries. When the first green leaves appear, the pot or box can be moved to its permanent "residence" - on the windowsill.
Dill is a light-loving plant. Therefore, to grow this spice it will be better to choose the windows facing the south side. In all other cases, and also, when the light day is too short (December-February), the plant will need to be lightened (approximately 5-6 hours). For this purpose, over the greenery, at a distance of about 50 cm, install lamps (daylight, white light or phytolamp).
Dill growing on the windowsill, best feels at a temperature of about 18 ° C. If the temperature rises substantially higher, the dill will grow flaccid, light and will always tip to the side.
How often to water dill, grown on a windowsill
Dill needs enough moisture, especially during germination and growth of young shoots. You need to water the plants often enough. With the onset of hot weather - even 2 times a day. In winter, enough water will be irrigated once a day (if the battery under the windowsill does not overheat the ground). Water is used for more than 12 hours. The water temperature is not lower than 30 ° С.
Harvesting
You can start harvesting the first greens 4-6 weeks after sowing. You do not need to wait for new shoots. Just plant a new dill seed in the place of the broken green. As you can see, it is not difficult to grow dill on a window sill from seeds. You will need only a little work and patience, but all year round you will be provided with fresh greens of dill.
In winter, the human body feels a lack of vitamins, and in order to avoid winter avitaminosis, everyone can arrange a mini-garden on which to grow a vitamin rich greens.
A popular kind of greenery for growing on a windowsill is dill. The first to eat it began to take ancient Greeks, who first used it only as a medicine.
it the plant is used in cooking for the preparation of various salads, as well as as a seasoning for fish and meat dishes, or for soup.
Adding dill to cheese or cottage cheese will make it taste more spicy. And the young potatoes with fragrant green dill can not leave anyone indifferent.
Properties of spicy dill
Caloric value fresh dill is only forty calories per hundred grams, while the calorie content of the dried plant is 260 calories. In the leaves of dill contains a large number of salts of magnesium and iron, which have a positive effect on the processes of hematopoiesis.
Essential oils, which are found in dill, contribute to the processes of formation of bile and digestive enzymes. Dill is also used as a remedy with cystitis and kidney disease.
Secrets of growing dill on a windowsill
It is worth noting that the dill on the windowsill can be grow regardless of the time of the year. This plant does not require the creation of special conditions, and care for it will be quite simple. But for growing dill in winter-autumn time it will take a little more effort, than in the spring-summer.
It may seem that growing dill at home is a simple task that it is enough to throw a couple of seeds in the ground and the greens on the windowsill will be on the table all year round. But sometimes it happens that instead of a large bunch of dill from the pot only a few sluggish shoots stick out, the leaves are pale, almost yellow, and the smell of the plant is completely absent.
In this case, it is worth paying attention to some tricks of cultivation dill in room conditions.
Dill planted in spring or summer does not require establishment additional lighting. In order for the plant to grow dense and juicy, it is enough to simply use high-quality soil, and also put the pot on a well-lit sunlit window sill.
But in order to get good results in winter and autumn, it is necessary to install special daylight phytolamps that will help extend the light day for plants for several hours, and can also be used on rain days when there is a lack of sunlight.
Without the use of such lamps care and growing dill will become more complicated: it will start to turn yellow, the branches will become sluggish and lifeless.
If you want to grow dill on a windowsill of seeds, then for this purpose it is best suitable varieties, which quickly ripen. But you can also use later varieties, which shoots are less stretched, and although the plant grows slower, and sometimes does not have time to ripen in the summer on the windowsill, it later gives thicker shoots, which are replaced after cutting with newer and newer ones.
Before planting seeds in the ground, they should be left for several hours in solution of potassium permanganate, which has a pronounced pink color.
You can plant seeds, as in large pots (volume of one or two liters), and transplant from small containers to large ones. The depth of planting of seeds should be about one or two centimeters.
In this case, you need to take care of drainage in advance. The soil must be well moistened. For drainage, it is best to use claydite stones, which are laid a layer of several centimeters on the bottom of the tank.
If the seeds that you are going to use for planting, more than three years, then they must be left overnight in a container of water at room temperature.
After you plant the seeds in the soil, cover the pot polyethylene before the appearance of the first shoots. It takes a little more than a week. In order to prevent the plant from fading from lack of sunlight, it is necessary to install additional lighting in the room in winter and autumn, which will help dill to compensate for the lack of sunlight.
In order to to avoid pulling out sprouts, in the first week the temperature in the room should be reduced by two to three degrees. It is best to do this at night, when you are ventilating the room where the containers with plants are located. You can also make fennel from the window sill on the glassed balcony, the temperature there is usually a few degrees lower.
For growing a plant is best suited temperature from sixteen to eighteen degrees. If the temperature exceeds the optimum, then you will need to take care that the duration of the illumination also increases. Minimum temperature, at which the plant continues to grow normally - this is eight degrees. Therefore, you can not be afraid to leave the fennel on the glass balcony until late autumn.
The window sill on which the plant will stand should be illuminated by the sun's rays at least three to four hours a day. First shoots from dill can be cut in four to five weeks. At the same time, their growth is quite active.
In summer, the plant you need to water often, in the cold season it is necessary to ensure that the amount of moisture does not exceed the allowable rate. The plant is positively affected daily spraying its water.
If you used dill planting quality soil, then during the growth he will not need any additional fertilizers. Period of life this plant - no more than one year, and at this time the mineral resources of the soil will be more than enough.
Most the plant of dill is harmful hawthorn aphids, which leads to the drying of the leaves. When growing dill on a windowsill, it almost does not lend itself to the influence of diseases such as fusariosis. In order to avoid the appearance of diseases, it is worth using only treated soil.
Here, perhaps, and all secrets of growing dill on a windowsill. If you follow all these tips, the spicy greens of dill will grow on the windowsill in winter and summer.
And for the most sophisticated, we suggest you read the video about growing dill at home.
Homemade greens saturates the body with vitamins, gives dishes an appetizing appearance and unsurpassed flavor. Growing dill on a windowsill is a simple matter. The main thing is to follow the recommendations for breeding it at home, and then a fresh fluffy crop will appear in the flower pot.
What is needed for breeding dill
To grow a mini-garden on a window sill or balcony, you will need:
- choose a variety of spices, prepare seeds;
- prepare a flower pot (container) of the right size, 15-20 cm deep and necessarily with drainage holes from the bottom;
- collect garden soil and purchase land for indoor plants;
- when growing a house in winter, use additional lighting;
- application of mineral fertilizers complex.
Apparently, the preparative cultivation of dill at home will require minimal investment, strength and knowledge.
Variety choice
Seed material for breeding fresh greens from seeds should be selected based on the timing of its maturation.
Varieties are divided into categories, each of which has its own characteristics.
- The early - wait for the crops to crop for a long time, usually the greens appear 3-4 weeks after planting, but the stems and leaves will be few. After the first leaves, the dill of this species begins to bloom. This includes Gribovsky, Carousel, Early Miracle, Aurora and Grenadier.
- The middle-ripening - the greens will appear at home 10 days later than the early ones, but there will be more bushes. This class includes Umbrella, Richelieu, Pahuchiy and Kibray.
- Late-ripe - spice in the mini-garden will grow later, but the fragrant thick dill will be much larger. Such high-yielding varieties are the Giant, Alligator, Buyan and Russian.
In order to always grow fresh spicy grass in the pot on the balcony, you can choose several varieties with different maturity. You can take an elongated container, divide it into three parts and plant early, late and mid-ripening dill varieties at the same time.
Seed preparation
To collect a quality and lush harvest at home, it is necessary that the seeds quickly and well germinate in the soil. They must be soaked for 1-2 days in warm water, changing the liquid once every 12 hours. Those that stayed to float on the surface are unsuitable for planting, so they should be collected and discarded. The remaining seeds remaining at the bottom of the container are suitable. They need to be drained and dried well.
Some experienced vegetable growers who cultivate dill on the balcony, after removing the bad seeds, soak the remaining for 3-5 hours in a light, light pink solution of potassium permanganate. So the inoculum is disinfected.
Ground preparation and container selection
As for the open air, the spicy greens grow on any kind of soil, but at home, plant it better in fertile soil, only not sour. Perfectly suitable mixture of prepared since last year of garden and soil for indoor plants. You can mix the substrate with humus, peat. The earth must be loose, air-permeable.
At the bottom of the container for dilution of dill on the balcony it is necessary to lay a two-centimeter drainage layer (broken brick, expanded clay). It will help drain excess liquid when watering the plant and protect potted greens from overflow. The prepared soil is laid on it.
When growing greens from seeds, any containers can suit: a plastic container, a wooden box or a flower pot. The main thing is that the dishes should not be small, because dill has a core root system.
Ideal for these purposes is suitable packaging for 1.5-2 liters of volume. A mandatory condition is the presence of small drainage holes on the bottom of the tank.
Seed sowing
The soil when fresh grass is grown on the balcony must be watered from the spray gun, make shallow grooves in the ground. The depth of the pits should be no more than 1-1.5 cm. In the holes, sow seeds, do not put them too tightly on top of the ground, moisten the contents of the pot with water from the spray gun.
Next, cover the container with a cellophane bag (polyethylene film) to achieve the effect of the mini-greenhouse, put it to germinate for 7 days in a dark place with an air temperature of not higher than 18-20 ° C. The film retains the moisture of the soil.
When the seedlings shoot (about a week), you need to remove the extra sprouts so that there is an interval of about 3 cm between them. Place the container on the window sill.
Additional lighting
Dill - light-loving grass. Sufficient lighting for fragrant greens is more important than warm air. When breeding her house in the spring and summer months, a container with sowing should be placed on a lighted window sill.
In the warm season, the greens should be fed with sun rays at least 6 hours a day. With cloudy weather, dill is better to be lightened with lamps.
When growing a mini-garden on the balcony in winter, it must be additionally illuminated. To do this, white fluorescent lamps are suitable. Artificial lighting in the cold months should work no less than 12 hours at an altitude of 50 cm from the crops.
Comfortable temperature and humidity
When planting greenery at home it is important to observe the optimum air temperature and humidity. Dill is fairly hardy to cold, but the best temperature for a good harvest is 17-20 ° C. Boxes and containers with greens can be stored on the balcony before the first autumn frosts.
Humidity of air should be kept within 40-50%. Otherwise, with increased moisture, the leaves of dill can affect the fungal disease, and excessive dryness simply destroy the plant.
Secrets of success
There are a few tricks to make the harvest of the house fluffy and thick.
- Water the dill when the top layer of the soil dries, standing water. The first time, until the seedlings are strong, it is better to irrigate them from the spray gun.
- It is necessary to fertilize the plant with nitrogen fertilizers 1-2 times a month.
- Every day turn sides of the container with different sides to the light. So, when grown on the balcony, dill will grow evenly.
Growing fresh fennel at home is not an easy matter. Green will give the room its aroma, saturate the body with vitamins all year round and decorate any hearty dishes.
The main thing when growing the greenery of the house is to choose the right seeds, prepare a fertile soil, maintain a comfortable temperature, monitor the humidity and lighting.
- lowering the body's immune defenses
- drowsiness
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- headaches, as well as various pain and spasms in the internal organs
If you feel frequent ailments, you just need to clean the body. How to do it