Perilla: Agricultural Technology, Care, Varieties, Seeds, Use

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The new green Perilla crop comes to our gardens from Japan

Perilla is the name of a green plant, not everyone knows, and very few people have tried juicy and fragrant greens. Meanwhile - in vain, because the plant is very useful, and to everyone, without exception, because it contains almost all the macro- and microelements necessary for a person, many vitamins and biologically active substances.

This spicy greens came to us from such a distant and at the same time close to us Japan, where it is commonplace and has been grown for many hundreds of years. Perilla itself is a perennial plant (from the labiate family). Therefore, after sowing a seed once, then for a long time, forgetting about the need to acquire new seeds, be content with its delicate greenery, often reaching a height of 60 centimeters.

Sometimes perilla is also used as an ornamental plant, because the stems and leaves of this plant are colorful. They can be green, pink-purple, and red.

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In general, perilla can replace many other plants, for example, carrots - a recognized leader in pro-vitamin content. But perilla surpassed it in this regard - carotene in the leaves up to 8.7 mg%, and vitamin A - up to 4800 mg%. In addition, its leaves are rich in minerals and essential oils.

Usually two forms of perilla are grown, which are used for different purposes: for the production of seeds, from which the essential oil is subsequently obtained, Basil perilla is grown, but Perilla of Nanjing is used for salads, thanks to the presence of spicy-flavored greens.

The red-leaved forms of the perilla are not only able to decorate the garden, but they will add a mysterious charm to any dish, and thanks to its large, wrinkled and dry-to-touch leaves, such a perilla is also suitable as an element for creating any floral arrangement.

As for the varieties …

In Russia, there are not too many varieties of perilla of their own, and few people know about their existence. Therefore, gardeners often use Japanese varieties, among which the most popular are Aoshiso (green-leaved) and Akashiso (red-leaved), which are distinguished by stable and high yields of green mass.

And although varieties of Japanese selection still occupy a large part of the plantings of perilla, Russian varieties are no worse. Among them there are especially interesting ones, such as, for example, the Rosinka variety, which is distinguished by early maturity, cold resistance and a rather long growing season - up to 150 days.

Slightly less popular, but also quite good is the Memory of Covas variety; of all its characteristics, amazing early maturity can be distinguished.

What Perilla Loves

Many people love perilla, but what does she love? It turns out that her favorite soils are loose, but not sandy, as many think, but highly nutritious.

Perennial perilla is cultivated not to obtain seeds, but for tender greens in an annual culture, growing it with seedlings. For this, the potting method is used. Given that perilla seeds germinate very slowly, a number of manipulations must be carried out before sowing them. The most effective of these is considered to be soaking the seeds in water for 48 hours. In this case, it is necessary to change the water every ten hours.

Seeds for seedlings are sown in April-May, usually in boxes with soil mixture. Sow thickened, so that then select the strongest shoots and plant them in the ground of a greenhouse or film greenhouse with a distance of 20-30 centimeters between them.

Cleaning soon

You won't have to wait long for the first harvest: as soon as your greens start to bloom, you can start cutting the shoots. You need to do this at a height of 10-12 centimeters from the ground, or you can just cut off those branches that you like. You can make two such cuts per season. The yield of green leaves, for the sake of which, in fact, the perilla is grown, depends on the conditions of its cultivation and is approximately 0.5-5 kilograms per square meter of the garden.

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Leaving is not very difficult

And it consists in loosening the soil and timely (as the weeds grow) weeding and, of course, in periodic watering.

Gardeners often combine business with pleasure, growing perilla for the consumption of leaves and as a decoration for flower arrangements. In this case, the preparation of greens should be carried out before flowering. Fresh greens are stored for quite a long time - up to a week, especially well - placed in a sealed container in the refrigerator, slightly damp. Any container can be, except for plastic bags, in which the leaves of the perilla can rot. If you want to preserve the perilla until the next harvest, then it will have to be salted.

To sow, one must receive

Perilla seeds can be obtained in a fairly simple way by transplanting. To do this, in the fall, the most well-developed plants are selected, transplanted into flower pots and placed in some warm and bright place, for example, on a windowsill. In winter, perilla, as a rule, blooms and then produces seeds.

There is another way in which you get the seeds in the summer. But for this, perilla needs to limit daylight hours to 9-11 hours, because perilla is a short day plant. After placing the plants in pots, they are kept in the light for about 9 hours for three weeks, and then they are removed in a dark room. If there is no such room, you can simply cover the railing with some opaque material.

Why all the trouble?

And then, the perilla greens have a very pleasant and soft lemon or aniseed aroma, it tastes very tender and juicy, as if lightly peppered. Perilla is consumed both fresh and salted, pickled, used to prepare various sauces.

Dry perilla leaves are ground into powder, which is used as an aromatic additive to vegetable and meat dishes. Usually, such a powder lasts for a very long time, since it is used in very small quantities. For the production of such a seasoning, varieties with green leaves are suitable. But the red-leaved forms are used as an integral part of most pickles, and, in addition, they give them a pleasant color.

In the homeland of perilla, red-leaved varieties are used for salting stachis, which, as a result, acquires a beautiful color and pleasant aroma.

Perilla also has a healing effect. Especially valuable are the fatty and essential oils contained in the leaves and seeds. Decoctions and infusions of seeds and herbs have a fairly strong analgesic and antiseptic effect, a calming effect, especially for bronchitis, coughs, colds. It is often used as a diaphoretic.

Perilla is also used in cosmetics, perfumery, especially in Japan, where extracts and perilla oil are widely used, which have antiseptic and anti-inflammatory effects. Its oil helps to care for problem skin, relieves irritation and itching, moisturizes and nourishes the skin. They help to take care of the skin of the body, face and decoctions of perilla greenery, they nourish skin cells, have an antioxidant and warming effect. Creams and masks for the skin of the face, shampoos are even prepared on the basis of the natural material of perilla, and the seeds are often used in very delicate children's cosmetics.