Any housewife knows about such a plant as dill. This universal spice is used in almost every dish: soups, pilaf, various salads and others. It can be consumed both fresh and dried and even frozen.
But not every gardener will risk growing dill in open ground, since there is an opinion that caring for this plant is quite troublesome. But is this really true?
In order for dill to grow green and juicy, you must follow several simple rules on caring for it, which every gardener who decides to grow this plant should know.
Rule 1. When purchasing dill seeds, do not choose only one variety. Give preference to those who have different terms ripening, but similar care conditions. This will make your work easier and also ensure an uninterrupted supply of fresh herbs to the table.
Rule 2. Before planting dill in open ground, it is necessary that the soil be prepared in advance. Make sure the soil is loose and nutritious. Increased daylight hours and abundant watering will bear fruit in the form of the first sprouts of fresh dill. If the soil in the garden bed is acidified, you can neutralize it with lime.
Rule 3. For faster and better germination Before planting dill seeds in open ground, it is advisable to soak them in water for a while. The seeds will quickly absorb moisture, swell, and in a couple of days they will be ready for planting. It is not advisable to keep long time seeds in water, preferably no more than 3 days.
Rule 4. When the first sprouts appear, provide dill good care. The plant will require regular feeding and weeding. Fertilizers rich in potassium are an excellent option for fertilizing.
Rule 5. An important point is to maintain a distance between plants when planting, this applies to both open ground and growing in a greenhouse. The distance between rows should not be less than 30 cm, and between seedlings 10 cm, only then can you get good harvest. If dill is grown at home, this distance can be reduced.
Rule 6. Equally important is when the landing will take place. It is preferable if it is produced before frost in winter time, or early spring.
When planting dill in winter, deepen the seeds into the ground to a depth of at least 4 cm. In spring, 0.5 cm will be enough.
Rule 7: The choice of landing site is key. If you want to get a vitamin-rich dill harvest, choose a place well lit by the sun, since in the shade it will turn pale and less valuable in its nutritional characteristics. Even the most careful care will not be able to save the plantings. If dill is grown at home, provide it with a place in the sun.
At correct landing with all the subtleties observed, we can consider that half the work has already been done. The next important task will be to prevent the greens from drying out and turning yellow. Many gardeners face this problem. The causes of yellowing can be very different, but most often it can be associated with one of these points:
- Soil acidification
- Planting too thick
- Insufficient watering and care
- Poor soil
Diseases and pests
Any planting of dill is not immune from pests. Most often, dill is damaged by aphids. Nettle will help fight it; it is crushed and infused in water for seven days. Then simply water the beds with this composition. This method is the most natural and safe. After a few days of this treatment, dill becomes immune to this pest.
There is another one effective method combating harmful insects is the use of ash. The ash is steamed in hot water, let it brew overnight, and the next morning the infusion is filtered, grated ingredients are added to it laundry soap. After this, you can spray the dill beds with this product.
Also, infusions with onion peels or citrus peels are successfully used to combat aphids. They are also filled hot water and infuse for several days. And then, at the first infestations of dill by aphids, the beds are treated with this composition.
When growing dill, some may encounter problems such as reddening of the leaves. This indicates that the soil contains little nitrogen. Therefore, do not forget to fertilize it, but only without fanaticism, do not overdo it, because the plant very actively absorbs all fertilizers applied to the soil, and their excess can negatively affect the quality of fresh dill.
How to grow good dill (video)
The sight of fresh greenery on the windowsill improves your mood and helps you survive the dull winter season. Dill or others spices, grown in room conditions, not only will please their appearance, but will also become a vitamin supplement to your diet.
When grown in open ground, dill is unpretentious, but when cultivated indoors, all the necessary conditions must be provided to obtain aromatic herbs.
Choosing a dill variety for growing in an apartment
When growing celery or parsley, flowering should be expected in the second year of growth. The situation with dill is different: it can bloom in the first year, giving practically no greenery. Successful Harvest directly depends on the selected variety.
There are dozens that grow well in open ground. For growing on a windowsill, you should choose those that produce green mass abundantly and for as long as possible.
Among them:
- Beam
- Asparagus bouquet
- Kibray
- Superducat
- Abundant-leaved
They form a dense bush and feel good on the windowsill. Pinch actively growing shoots to encourage branching.
How to plant dill on a windowsill with seeds
Dill is difficult to germinate, like all other umbrella crops. The seeds contain essential oils that slow down hatching.
Pre-sowing seed treatment
Seeds must be treated before planting, otherwise, even with abundant watering, seedlings can take 2-3 weeks to appear. Soak the seeds in warm water or a growth stimulant solution for a day: the germination rate of the seeds is almost 100%, they will germinate in 3-4 days.
Container preparation
For this, choose a wide pot or container with drainage holes. Place a drainage layer (a mixture of stone chips and expanded clay) 1.5-2.5 cm thick at the bottom.
Priming
The soil needs to be loose, fertile, neutral. You can use a universal substrate for growing seedlings or vegetable crops. A soil mixture is suitable: garden soil, humus, sand, peat in equal proportions.
How to sow
Moisten the soil. Plant the seeds to a depth of 1 cm, keep a distance of about 2-3 cm. Sprinkle peat on top, press down a little. As seedlings appear, thin out, leaving gaps of 7-10 cm so that the plants do not suffer from lack of space, lighting and nutrition.
How to sow dill on a windowsill, watch the video:
So that there is always greenery
After cutting, dill greens are practically not formed again. To obtain a regular harvest, re-sow after 10-14 days. Thus, on the windowsill there will always be dill with herbs about 10 cm long, ready for cutting.
How to care for dill on the windowsill
Lighting and backlighting
Lighting is required to be bright, but not directly exposed to sun rays. Place on windows facing east or west. When grown in the period March-August, the plant creates lush bushes - there is enough natural light.
Most often, dill is grown indoors in winter, so additional lighting is indispensable. Hang the phytolapma at a height of 50-60 cm above the home plantation, it gives the necessary spectrum, you can use fluorescent lamps. The length of daylight hours should be 13-15 hours. This is especially important at the stage of development and strengthening of seedlings.
If you do not provide sufficient lighting, the shoots will grow thin and weakened.
Watering and air temperature
- The air indoors is warmer and drier than in an outdoor garden bed: in addition to lighting, it is necessary to ensure optimal temperature conditions and humidification. The ideal temperature range for the plant is 16–22 °C; even when the temperature drops to +8 °C, dill does not lose viability.
- High air temperatures combined with insufficient watering only lead to the release of flower stalks, and the leaves practically do not appear.
- Follow the rule: the higher the air temperature, the more often and more abundantly you should water.
- If the air temperature is cool, excess moisture will lead to rotting of the root system.
- as the top layer of soil dries. Apply water in small portions so that a crust does not form on the surface of the soil.
- Insufficient watering is indicated by lethargy and discoloration of shoots.
- If the temperature is above 25°C, spray regularly.
- For watering and spraying, use soft water (melt, rain, tap water, standing for at least 24 hours).
Top dressing
Make sure you have enough nutrients. Every 2 weeks, apply complex mineral fertilizers for greens; the nitrogen content should be low so that the greens do not accumulate nitrates.
It happens that even if all necessary conditions at the stage of appearance of 2 leaves, the growth rate slows down - do not be alarmed, the period of growth inhibition will last about a week.
Another video about growing dill on a windowsill:
It is well known that the value of fresh dill, parsley and other herbs is not so much in adding flavor and appetizing appearance to dishes, but in the vitamins that the body needs. Therefore, housewives try to plant dill on the windowsill of their own kitchen.
But here's what's interesting: if garden bed dill is unpretentious and requires virtually no care, then in a flower pot instead of fragrant fluffy bushes Usually a frail stalk grows with several pale, odorless leaves. How to properly grow healthy dill on the windowsill? It's not that difficult to do. You just need to know the secrets, which will be discussed in the article.
In order to grow dill for greens indoors you should:
- stock up on seeds from one of the unpretentious varieties: Gribovsky, Richelieu, Kibray and others;
- Buy a package of neutral soil at a gardening store "Universal";
- on garden plot in the fall, collect loose, fertile soil;
- buy the right size containers or flower pots;
- use additional lighting, for example, a fluorescent lamp;
- use complex mineral fertilizers that contain not one nutrient element, but several. For example, two-component ammophos is a nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer (12% nitrogen and 52% phosphorus), and a three-component ammophosphate (15% nitrogen, 15% phosphorus and 15% potassium);
All of the above is quite easy to purchase; we don’t need anything special or expensive.
It turns out that there are no special varieties of dill for planting indoors. So you have to choose seed based on the ripening period. Certainly, early varieties
will provide you with greens earlier than late-ripening ones, but they quickly stretch upward.
The leaves on the stem are small and there are very few of them. But late-ripening varieties, which do not always have time to ripen over the summer, form dense bushes on the windowsill and continue to form new shoots from the axils of existing branches.
Early ripening varieties include Gribovsky. Its advantages are high yield and disease resistance. This variety has a pronounced aroma, is not afraid of temperature changes, and is undemanding to care.
Late-ripening high-yielding variety Kibray with large dark green leaves, has excellent taste and is not affected by a disease that is fatal to many plants called powdery mildew. The disease is caused by a microscopic fungus that forms grayish-white spots on the leaves.
As the spores mature, droplets of liquid appear that resemble dew. Most often, the disease manifests itself with sharp fluctuations in temperature and humidity, as well as with excessive application of nitrogen fertilizers. Infected parts of the plant disappear, and the yield decreases sharply.
Another interesting mid-season variety - dill or Richelieu. Its bluish-green lacy leaves have a strong smell, for which they are valued. To obtain fresh greens for both early and late ripening varieties, it is enough to provide fertile soil, regular watering and removal of weeds.
What containers are best suited for growing dill on a windowsill? It can be regular flower pots, wooden box or plastic container. The size of the containers depends on your family's needs for fresh herbs. Pots for dill should not be small, because the plants have a taproot system.
Housewives usually prefer containers with a volume of 1.5 - 2 liters. When purchasing, a prerequisite must be the presence of one or more drainage holes at the bottom of the pot to drain excess water.
In open ground, dill grows well in a wide variety of soils, but indoors the composition of the soil plays a very important role. The land must be fertile, then you can do without additional monthly fertilizing. In addition, care should be taken to drainage, which is placed at the bottom of the pot.
It could be broken brick or expanded clay. Above the drainage layer is poured humus-rich soil. It is best to buy a specially treated sterilized substrate in a specialized store, in which pathogens and pests are destroyed under the influence of hot steam.
The container with the soil mixture is prepared. You can start sowing.
- Dill seeds are rich in essential oils, so they take a long time to germinate. To speed up this process, you need for 2 days soak the seeds in warm water. In this case, the water should cover the layer of seeds. The water needs to be changed every 6 hours.
- Ways sowing there are several:
Attention! Dill seeds must not only be soaked before sowing, but also disinfected. To do this, after soaking for two days, place the seeds in a pink solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) for 2-3 hours.
- seeds need to be planted directly on the surface of a damp substrate, and then sprinkled with a mixture of humus and peat;
- in rows in moistened grooves about 1 cm;
- beam into holes, the depth of which 1 cm, sprinkling the seeds on top with soil.
Each of the proposed methods is good in that a dense crust does not form on the soil surface, which can prevent seed germination.
It is important to remember that the sowing density should be no more than 0.3 g/dm².
You can learn some tricks about growing dill at home from this video:
Spicy herbs are simply irreplaceable in cooking - without their taste and aroma, even the most exquisite culinary masterpiece will be bland and inexpressive. One of the most popular aromatic seasonings is dill, the addition of which gives any dish a piquant taste and unique aroma. In addition to high taste qualities dill has numerous healing properties due to the presence of vitamins in its composition, essential oils and mineral salts.
It has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the heart, regulates the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, is used as a sedative, diuretic, wound healing and antispasmodic agent, is indicated for use by nursing mothers to improve lactation, and dill water is excellent for colic in newborns. The use of seeds and umbrellas for home canning not only improves the taste of marinades and pickles, but also contributes to their long-term storage.
The presence of fresh dill in the diet in the summer is not a problem, but in the autumn-winter period fresh herbs can be grown on the windowsill. It is worth noting that cultivating dill at home is quite troublesome, but if agricultural practices are followed, the crop will grow no worse indoors than in a garden garden, and the bright greenery will bring a touch of spring freshness to the interior.
Features of pre-sowing preparation
Despite the fact that dill seeds remain viable for quite a long time, it is better to choose fresh material for sowing. High-quality seeds, cool and slightly moist to the touch, have a specific, pronounced aroma that disappears when long-term storage. The content of essential oils in the shell of dill seeds significantly slows down their germination, therefore, to speed up the process, the seeds need special processing.
One of best methods pre-sowing preparation is considered to be bubbling - soaking dill seeds in water enriched with oxygen through an aquarium compressor. The procedure takes 18-20 hours at a water temperature of at least +20° C. Treated seeds must be immediately planted in the ground. In the absence of such equipment, the seeds are simply soaked for 2-3 days in warm water, which should be changed 2-3 times a day. To make the procedure more effective, you can add a small amount of a growth stimulator or a few crystals of potassium permanganate to the water. Some experienced gardeners recommend using milk or whey instead of water for soaking. At the end of the procedure, the seeds should be slightly dried and sowing can begin.
Sowing technology
As a sowing container for dill, you can choose a small plastic container with a tray or a clay one. flower pot with low walls, equipped with drainage holes, and as a soil universal will do peat mixture for vegetable seedlings. For self-cooking substrate, garden soil is mixed with humus, peat and sand in a ratio of 1:1:1:1, after which the mixture is subjected to heat treatment (fried in the oven or scalded with boiling water). For every m? About 30-40 g of seeds are consumed on the soil surface. The sequence of sowing work is as follows:
- The soil mixture is poured into a prepared container with drainage placed at the bottom and watered moderately.
- Seeds are sown in rows in grooves 2 cm deep or evenly distributed over the surface, sprinkled with a thin layer of soil.
- To create a greenhouse climate, the crops are covered with polyethylene and placed in a dark and very warm (+20° C and above) place.
- When the seedlings appear, the film is removed and the container with the seedlings is placed on a light windowsill.
- To prevent excessive stretching of the sprouts, the temperature in the place where they are kept should be lowered (it is enough to open the window slightly or “settle” the seedlings on a glassed-in loggia). The optimal temperature indicators for the well-being of young dill are from +16° C to +18° C, a decrease to +8° C is acceptable.
- At the stage of formation of the second pair of leaves, excessively dense crops should be thinned out, leaving a distance of 2-3 cm between seedlings.
Unlike dill grown on country beds With minimal care, home plantings need to create suitable conditions for full growth. All stages of caring for an indoor “dill plantation” are important and require maximum attention:
- During the period of germination and active growing season, seedlings need to be provided with abundant watering, while avoiding the accumulation of excess moisture, which can lead to root rot and plant death. The danger of waterlogging is especially high when plantings are kept in a cool place. In a hot and dry room, seedlings may suffer from a lack of moisture - the problem is easily recognized by the limp, discolored leaves and shoots of dill. In addition, in the heat, plants do not grow green mass well and quickly produce flower stalks, so the frequency of watering the crop directly depends on temperature regime– the warmer the room, the more often the dill is watered. For irrigation, it is recommended to use melted, rain or settled water at room temperature.
- The most important factor for homemade dill, especially in the autumn-winter period, is lighting. Daylight for the full development of seedlings should be at least 13-15 hours, so it is recommended to equip the planting site with fluorescent lamps or special phytolamps suspended at a height of 50-60 cm above the plantings. It is advisable to carry out additional illumination in the first half of the day for 5-6 hours.
- As a rule, at home, heating is the most difficult to maintain. optimal temperature(from +16° C to +22° C) for dill beds. So that the heat and dry air do not destroy future harvest, at temperatures above +24° C, dill requires frequent spraying with cool water and regular ventilation. At night, containers with herbs can be taken out onto the glassed-in balcony.
- To quickly increase the leaf mass, it is recommended to feed dill twice a month. Culture responds well to the introduction of complex mineral fertilizers or liquid concentrated fertilizers.
At home, the crop is practically not exposed to diseases and pest attacks, so the health of dill bushes directly depends on compliance with agrotechnical standards.
Dill varieties for home cultivation
Many varieties of dill are suitable for growing at home, but some of them received the highest ratings experienced gardeners. From early ripening varieties The following varieties have proven themselves well in home cultivation:
- "Gribovsky" is one of the most popular varieties of the crop. Resistant to diseases and sudden temperature changes, easy to care for. The dark green leaves have a pleasant taste and a pronounced spicy aroma.
- “Grenadier” is undemanding in care; very juicy greens in light shades have a delicate taste.
Early ripe dill is ready for cutting after 30-35 days. Dill ripens a little longer (40-45 days) mid-season varieties. In addition to greens, it can be grown for umbels and seeds, which are ideal for canning. For home grown varieties adapted:
- "Aelita" is a tall, densely leafy bush with a dark green crown. The aromatic leaves have a rich, spicy taste.
- “Richelieu” - in addition to its high taste qualities, it is distinguished by its external decorative effect due to its openwork foliage with a bluish tint.
For dill late ripening varieties characteristic features are an expressive aroma, tart taste and high content useful substances. Special attention deserve varieties:
- “Kibray” is a vitamin variety with wide, yellowish leaves and a pleasant sweetish taste.
- “Salute” is a high-yielding variety with bluish-green leaves that grow back quickly after cutting.
Despite long terms ripening, late-ripening varieties of dill are considered the most suitable for growing in captivity.
Cultivating dill at home is not an easy process, but the presence of fresh, fragrant and incredibly healthy greens on the table, regardless of the season, will more than compensate for the work and troubles of the indoor gardener.
