Dill is an annual herbaceous plant, unpretentious to care and resistant to frost. These characteristics make it possible to cultivate it in open ground without any special difficulties. However, even when growing such an undemanding plant, it is necessary to adhere to agrotechnical recommendations.
Optimal conditions for growing dill
Before sowing dill, you need to pay attention to the following conditions:
- Neighborhood with other crops on the site. Dill coexists well with almost all vegetables, but it is worth considering that greens can not be planted very close to their stems, otherwise dill will take away all moisture and nutrients.
Any crops, with the exception of celery, can be the predecessors of this green. If dill is planted, including in order to get seeds from the bushes, then there should not be fennel nearby: these crops are freely pollinated.
- Temperature. Although dill seeds germinate at a temperature of 3-5 degrees, it is recommended to plant them when the air warms up to 16-18 degrees.
- Suitable soil. To get a generous harvest of greens, you need to plant dill seeds in a well-moistened, previously deeply dug, loose neutral soil. The acidity of the earth also matters: greens do not rise well if this indicator is below 6.3. The soil in which dolomite flour or lime was added is not suitable for this crop.
- Illumination. When choosing a site for planting dill, you need to give preference to lighted beds, although the plant can develop in partial shade.
The advantages of growing dill in open ground include:
- ease of care and harvesting;
- unlimited space;
- getting a plant more vitamins and nutrients.
It is not necessary to plant early, quickly ripening dill varieties in late spring and early summer. The fact is that with a daylight duration of 15 hours, the crop immediately produces a peduncle.
Landing time
During one season, dill yields crops several times, so you can plant a crop from spring to late autumn. Planting time depends on the purpose that the gardener pursues: if you need fragrant greens, then work is carried out in spring and autumn, and if you need umbrellas with seeds, then in summer.
Since dill seeds tolerate frost well, they can be planted in open ground immediately after snow melts at an air temperature above 5 degrees. You can start landing in late April, and finish in mid-May. In summer, this can be done at any time.
In autumn, dill seeds are planted from October to November, before frost, so that they do not have time to germinate. Before winter, dill is planted in order to receive the first greens in spring as early as possible.
Seeding can be done throughout the season.
Soil preparation
Preparing the soil for planting dill seeds is necessary in several stages:
- Fall dig the ground deeply and fertilize (humus, mullein or bird droppings at the rate of half a bucket per 1 sq. m). As mineral top dressing, use superphosphate or potassium salt (200 g and 150 g per 1 sq. M, respectively).
- In the spring thoroughly break open the beds so that liquid and air flow freely to the seeds.
- A couple of days before planting seeds water the beds in the soil.
After preparatory measures, you can start planting dill seeds of the selected variety.
Grade selection
Choosing a variety of dill for planting, you need to carefully study its characteristics. The fact is that some varieties give abundant greens, while others form peduncles and are intended for collecting seeds. Types of this culture are distinguished not only by purpose, bush height and shape of flowers, but also by maturity.
Early ripe varieties
These include:
- Gribovsky (from germination to the first harvest leaves 30-45 days). The culture is undemanding to weather conditions: even in the cold summer, bushes give a lot of high-quality greenery. You can plant seeds of this variety, starting in April and ending in July, several times. The height of the outlet of Gribovsky dill reaches 25 cm. The leaf weight of one plant reaches 1 kg. The variety is resistant to many diseases and pests.
- Further (from germination to harvesting - 38-40 days). This is a fruitful variety: from 1 square. m collect 2-2.5 kg of green mass. Far East dill is grown commercially for sale. A feature of the variety is the presence of wax coating on the leaves. The farthest is resistant to pathogens, tolerates rainfall without dying.
- Redoubt (first harvest - 1.5 months after seed germination). During the season with 1 sq. Km. m collect 1.3 kg of leaves.
Early ripening varieties quickly form inflorescences-umbrellas: they form faster than the leaves ripen. That is why it is impossible to collect a large amount of greens from them.
Mid-season varieties
Popular representatives of this group are:
Mid-late grades
These crops ripen slowly, the process takes about 45-57 days. Popular species include:
In total, about 70 varieties of dill are known. In order to provide themselves with juicy fresh herbs for the whole season, gardeners recommend planting several varieties of this crop at once with different ripening periods.
Landing
You can plant dill with seeds and seedlings.
Seed cultivation
Since dill is an unpretentious culture, even without preliminary soaking its seeds will yield a crop, but its quality and quantity will directly depend on the preparation of seed.
To accelerate the germination of seeds, before planting them in the ground, do the following:
- Place the material in a fabric bag and lower it into water at a temperature of 50 degrees.
- Water needs to be changed every 4-5 hours.
- The next day, the seeds are ready for planting in open ground.
To clean the material from possible pests, you need to place it in a solution of potassium permanganate and incubate for 2 hours.
Before planting, not only seeds are prepared, but also the ground: in the selected area, you need to make grooves and pour them with a weak solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection.
Dill can be sown densely, without dividing the site into beds, or by the lower case method. In the second case, the plant is planted in rows, observing a distance of 20 cm between each. The seeds themselves are sown densely, at a distance of 5 cm.
Deepen the seeds in the soil no more than 2-3 cm, even if they are planted in the winter.
Growing seedlings
If you plan to plant dill seedlings in open ground, then early bush varieties are used for this. Their seeds are pre-sown in pots or a box (on a windowsill or in a greenhouse). It is necessary to transplant dill into open ground when the seedlings reach a height of 3-4 cm.
For seedling cultivation, it is recommended to use dill of the Almaz variety. Seeds need to be sown about a month before the planned planting in the soil (in early to mid-April).
In the soil for seedling germination, you need to make grooves with a depth of not more than 1 cm and place the seeds at a distance of 0.5-1 cm from each other. Between each row, keep a distance of 1.5-2 cm.
After planting, pour seeds, cover the box or pot with foil and leave in a warm place. Recommended temperature is within 20-25 degrees.
Outdoor Dill Care
Dill will not require significant effort and time, but subject to agrotechnical recommendations, this culture will certainly please the gardener with a juicy and plentiful harvest.
Watering
Watering dill bushes is often and plentifully recommended, because without moisture the leaves will slow down development and the plants will throw an arrow. Fill the beds so that they stood water, is also not worth it - in this case, the greens will be less fragrant.
The recommended volume of liquid is 20-30 liters per 1 square. m
Watering is recommended in the evening or in cool cloudy weather.
Top dressing
In the growing season, fertilizers are not applied. All dressings are laid in the soil before planting seeds or dill seedlings.
Fertilizing during the growing season will be needed only if the plant is slowly developing. Under such conditions, you need to make a little fertilizer. If the bush turns yellow, it means that it lacks nitrogen.
Weeding and cultivation
The first weeding must be done after the bush is well rooted. While he is still weak, weeds should be regularly removed. In the future, this event can be performed once every 2 weeks.
Loosening is performed to a depth of 5 cm after rooting the plant. If the soil is loose by itself, it does not need to be further cultivated.
Shelter in the heat
On too hot days, dill can wilt. To avoid this, you can make a semblance of a canopy over the beds with greenery.
Pest and Disease Control
Most often, fungal diseases affect the culture:
- powdery mildew;
- cercosporosis;
- blackleg.
Their development is associated with poor soil composition, excessive moisture, violation of crop rotation rules. In the process of decay, it is recommended to use a solution of Fundazole.
To prevent the occurrence of diseases and pests, it is necessary to cultivate the soil before planting with biofungicidal preparations.
There are no pests that specifically affect dill bushes. It is affected by insects that parasitize on nearby crops. That is why you need to pre-distribute the areas of sowing.
Harvesting and storage
You need to collect greens from bushes that have not yet thrown up the inflorescences, umbrellas, that is, while the plant is young. In this case, the leaves are compactly collected, have a pleasant green color. After the appearance of the umbrella, they become coarse and lose both external and taste.
Rules for collecting dill:
- first you need to thin out the beds with young shoots;
- first, cut the greens from the lower tier of the bush, then the side shoots, and then everything else;
- if seeds are needed, then the bush with formed umbrellas is trimmed with scissors under the root or pulled out of the soil.
Fresh leaves of dill are not stored for long: they quickly lose their elasticity and turn yellow. In the refrigerator, green bundles are stored for no longer than a week, at room temperature - about 2 days.
If long-term storage of dill is planned, the harvested crop must be frozen, previously washed, dried and finely chopped greens. Then lay out in bags and place in the freezer.
Also dill can be dried. It is recommended to do this in partial shade, spreading it on the fabric. After the leaves are dried, you need to finally dry them in the oven at a low temperature (40-50 degrees). Dried dill should be stored in glass jars, tightly closed with lids.
Dry and frozen greens can be stored throughout the year. Seeds collected from umbrellas are stored for up to 2-3 years.
Dill will give a large amount of greenery while providing all the measures to care for it in the open ground. When choosing a variety, you need to pay attention to the ripening period. You also need to consider that some types of dill quickly form inflorescences, and therefore are suitable only for collecting seeds.