How to grow fennel in the country: planting, reproduction, caring for plants
Before growing fennel in the country, you should understand the features and rules of caring for a spicy crop. The only way you can get a high-quality crop with high taste.
Description of the appearance of the culture
Fennel belongs to the umbrella plants, being perennial, but more often it is cultivated as an annual. His most popular variety - vegetable fennel, it is highly valued by culinary experts for its healthy fruits with a bright taste.
The plant reaches 2 m, has a strong erect stem, which is covered with a light bluish bloom, dense branches. Pivotal root, strong, massive. One plant has several branches from the root. In diameter they reach 1.5 cm.
The main varieties and types of fennel:
- vegetable;
- ordinary;
- "Garden";
- "Utter";
- Luzhnikovsky Semko;
- "Crimean";
- "Pepper";
- Rudy.
Fennel leaves one to one resemble dill... Their color is rich green. After sowing the seeds, fennel blooms only the next year, flowering continues throughout the season. The seeds have a sweetish taste, they ripen in the fall. In length, the grains reach 1 cm, in width no more than 4 mm. Moreover, they are very light: a thousand pieces weigh only 6 grams.
How to grow fennel in the country: selection of beds
The choice of a place for planting this culture should be take it responsibly, be sure to take into account the neighborhood with other garden plants.
Fennel does not always have a positive effect on plants that grow nearby.
Fennel precursors
The optimal place for planting fennel is in the beds where crops were grown that are demanding on the introduction of organic matter.
The best precursors for the herb:
- peas;
- cabbage;
- cucumbers;
- potato.
Lighting requirements
Fennel needs a lot of light, so for he will have to choose a territory that is warmed up by the sun during all day. Shade from trees or buildings can negatively affect development.
Land for planting
The soil for planting this culture should be selected enough nutritious, fertile. Preferably loamy, sandy loam or calcareous varieties of soil. The plot is plowed with organic Components. In order for the plant to calmly endure wintering, all aboveground cut the green stem, and then insulate, sprinkle with peat mixed with manure or humus with sawdust.
Vegetable variety of fennel: growing it from seed
Fennel seeds do not deteriorate and do not lose their germination when storage for 3 years. For them to sprout faster, you need them correctly prepare. Seeds should be placed on a small piece of fabric, wrapped them and immersed in a growth stimulant solution so that the tissue is well wet. IN In this state, fennel seeds are kept for about 4 hours.
Sowing in open ground
Gardeners sow seeds in different ways. Some plant fennel seeds in the spring. The main advantage of this period of planting in the beds (in April) is that the plant does not require any additional care. Some summer residents prefer to plant crops in the fall - at the very beginning of September. With this approach, the bush must be insulated for the winter.
When sown at any time of the year, fennel seeds are immersed in the soil only 2 or 3 cm.The garden bed is prepared in advance. Lime is added to the soil, as well as a bucket of humus. This amount will be required for each square meter of the site. Also add 2 buckets of sawdust and mineral compounds to the soil.
Gaps of 0.6 m are left between the rows.At temperature about +70After a week, fennel seeds sprout. At that time they are thinned out. There must be a distance of at least 20 cm between the copies.
Sowing seeds for seedlings
To obtain seedlings, sowing seeds is carried out in boxes, filled with nutritious soil. The procedure is carried out from February to March month. When the first shoots break out of the ground, the seedlings are transplanted and dive into individual containers. You can continue growing in boxes, but observing the distance between the specimens is 20 cm.After 4 weeks the plant can be plant on open beds.
With the help of seedlings, it is preferable to grow vegetable varieties of a spicy crop.
How to properly care for fennel on open beds
Cultivating a spicy plant in the garden is not particularly complex. The main thing is to remove the weed in time by weeding the beds. Tear out weeds are not the best option, it is more productive to cut them. So it will remain in the soil more moisture.
When sown directly into the soil, the culture does not always have time to form large heads of cabbage because of the long daylight hours.
Plant watering rules
It is a moisture-loving crop that is very sensitive to watering. Plants are irrigated every 4-5 days. In this case, the water consumption is from 1 bucket to 1.5 buckets for every square meter of beds. If you water the culture less, then with its long, powerful roots, it will take moisture from closely growing plants. Because of which, over time, not only the fennel will dry out, but the rest will also die harvest. Moisten the beds of fennel in the fall, if the weather is dry.
How to fertilize fennel
It is necessary to start feeding immediately after the fennel seedlings were thinned out. One of the best fertilizers for a spice plant - ordinary mullein in the form of infusion.
Fennel can be grown on the balcony.
There are two ways to fertilize the beds with a mullein:
- To apply it directly to the soil, for every 10 l manure add 3-4 liters of water and stir.
- To water the plants, you need to prepare a less concentrated solution: the mixture that is intended for introduction into the soil is taken 1 volume and 10 more volumes of water are added.
Nutrient components are added under the fennel bushes twice in its growing season. Instead of mullein, it is permissible to use chicken manure, and you can feed them the culture even more often than 2 times. For this you will need to take 50 volumes of water for 1 volume of litter.
Hilling a fennel bush
During the season, the crop is spud twice or three times. Sprinkle with earth to a height of 4 to 7 cm.If this procedure is carried out, then heads of cabbage near the soil surface will be snow-white and fleshy.
When and how to harvest fennel
With proper care, heads of cabbage grow up to 10-12 cm in diameter. They are cut off at the very surface of the soil. If you disconnect them a little higher, about 3 cm from the base, then the plant in this place will begin to release new foliage.
The best option for saving white heads is cool place and a box of sand. Before you bury them, you should get rid of all leaves, leaving only one short petiole up to 10-12 cm. When storing fennel in the refrigerator, it will not lose its original properties within 7 days, it should not be saved longer.
When cultivating regular fennel, solely for the sake of greenery, the top of the plant is cut off when it reaches 0.3 m in height. When such growth, the leaves of a spicy culture have the most pronounced, saturated taste and aroma. It is recommended to cut it in the morning or late at night.
Growing a spicy crop in the garden is not at all difficult.If properly watered and fertilized, and if you follow the basic rules for caring for fennel, the plant will give fragrant foliage and heads of cabbage for culinary creations.