Forcing Vegetable Plants In Winter

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

← Read the beginning "Winter vitamin mini-garden in your apartment"

And even rhubarb

In our gardens and orchards, we actively use rhubarb, starting from early spring until about mid-July. Using distillation, its shoots can be had from December to spring. Moreover, it is worth noting that the petioles of rhubarb grown in indoor conditions are more delicate and have an intense pink color.

To achieve the desired result, in mid-October (before the snow falls and the soil freezes), rhubarb rhizomes are dug up with a lump of earth and left on the soil surface for one to two weeks. Plants must be exposed to low temperatures (without this technological technique, intensive regrowth of leaves cannot be achieved during forcing). Then the rhizomes are placed in a box (wide pan) close to each other, sprinkled with earth on top and watered a little.

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After that, they are covered with black paper or black covering material to prevent light from entering the plants. The container with plants is kept in a cool room at a temperature of 10-15 ° C (I have approximately the same conditions in the entrance; perhaps a garage, basement, and similar rooms are suitable for these purposes). From time to time the plants are watered.

And in 4-5 weeks the harvest is ready, and you can start cutting the petioles. Do not forget to feed the plants with complex fertilizer after the next harvest.

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Forcing vegetable plants

Good results are obtained by forcing leaves of root and leaf parsley, root and leaf celery, lovage and beets. True, not always. In order for the distillation to really be successful, several rules must be followed.

1. All named plants, with the exception of lovage, must go through a dormant stage. Therefore, it is advisable to keep parsley and celery on the site not dug out as long as possible, and transplant it into a prepared container not earlier than the end of October. And the beets should lie in the cellar until around December to prepare for a successful forcing.

2. For 2-3 weeks, the leaves of parsley, celery and lovage are cut off, trying not to damage the growth point.

3. One of the important conditions is the correct choice of packaging. In the presence of long rhizomes in parsley, celery and lovage, the height of the selected container should be at least 15-20 cm so that the roots are located freely enough.

4. The soil should be very light and loose (I prefer to mix in a 1: 1 ratio of fertile soil from a greenhouse with semi-rotted sawdust and add additional crushed charcoal to this mixture).

5. In connection with the tendency of the plants under consideration to decay, special attention should be paid to drainage. Broken shards or expanded clay are suitable as drainage. A layer of sand is poured on top, and only then the soil mixture is laid.

6. Root crops are planted so that their heads are above the soil surface. There are recommendations that if they do not fit in a pot, then you can cut the root vegetables in half (this, of course, only applies to celery and lovage), and sprinkle the cuts with crushed coal to prevent decay. True, nothing worked for me from this method (I tried it for two years in a row), so I prefer to plant root crops only whole.

7. After planting, the neck and head of the plants should be sprinkled with crushed coal, and the top of the soil with dry sand. All this will also prevent the development of fungal diseases.

Charcoal (one tenth of the total soil volume) is added to keep the soil from souring. This technique can reduce the risk of developing root rot to some extent.

8. During the first two weeks after planting of root crops, an increased regrowth of new roots occurs, therefore, the planted plants at this time are placed in a dark place with an air temperature of 12-16 ° C. As soon as buds begin to appear and leaves grow, pots or boxes with plants should be moved to a lighter and warmer place (18-20 ° C).

9. To ensure oxygen supply to the roots, the soil should be loosened regularly (a normal fork is perfect for this).

10. The optimum temperature for forcing is 10-20 ° C, however, at temperatures above 20 ° C, plant leaves wither quickly. Therefore, an increase in temperature is highly undesirable. In addition, an increase in temperature contributes to the development of fungal diseases. Insufficient air supply to the roots can also cause root rot, and as a result, the death of plants.

11. All of these plants are very undemanding to light conditions, although the improvement of these conditions naturally leads to better quality greenery.

12. Watering should be strictly limited (about 1 time per week), otherwise root rot, a real scourge when forcing root crops, will be inevitable. As a result, the plants will die very quickly. Of course, in order to protect plants from this scourge, limited watering does not hurt to combine with the introduction of trichodermin.

13. In the event of rot, you can try to save the plants (though this is not always possible) by removing the affected leaves and dusting the affected areas with ash or fluff lime. In addition, you need to water the plants with Trichodermine solution.

14. When cutting overgrown leaves, it is imperative to leave petioles 3-5 cm long. After each cut, you must not forget to feed the plants with complex fertilizers.

Magic sprouts

It will not hurt to please your body in winter with ordinary plant sprouts, which will replenish your already significantly depleted vitamin reserve, add strength and energy.

In general, the history of the use of sprouted seeds is quite amazing. Sprouts were part of the food and medicines of many tens of peoples of the East and West. They have been in use long before the advent of the Bible. Ancient manuscripts say that around 3000 BC, the Chinese regularly ate bean sprouts. The emperor who ruled in China at that time mentioned the medicinal properties of seedlings in his treatise on medicinal herbs. Root crops are watered less often than onions, since excess moisture leads to rotting of the sprouts.

He argued that sprouted beans can help in a wide variety of cases - obesity, muscle cramps, as well as digestive and pulmonary disorders. And an extensive work on Chinese pharmacology of the late 16th century "Pen Cao Kang Mu" also contains information about the role of seedlings in medicine.

Its author believed that sprouts can reduce inflammation, have laxative properties, cure dropsy and rheumatism, and make the body slim. The Chinese and other peoples of the Far East still germinate, for example, soybean, wheat and barley seeds and use them daily for food.

Yes, and we have legends about the amazing healing power of tiny sprouting grain from ancient times. Ancient healers considered plant sprouts to be an elixir of health and longevity.

Modern scientific research has shown that plant seedlings have tremendous vitality and energy. A tiny green seedling contains many trace elements, minerals, proteins, enzymes, vitamins. For example, according to the conclusions of scientists, 100 grams of wheat germ contains more vitamin C than eight glasses of orange juice! Sprouts are at the top of the list of so-called "live" foods. In no case should you use pickled seeds to get seedlings.

For example, alfalfa sprouts are very popular foods in Europe and America. They are especially rich in proteins and amino acids, vitamins A, C, groups D, B, E and K, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sodium and chlorophyll. Their taste is sweetish, the smell is nutty.

And in the countries of the Far East, soybean sprouts, rich in choline, proteins, amino acids, especially methionine, vitamins A, B, E, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and chromium, are very common products. Their taste resembles the taste of fresh green peas.

In Russia, the most famous product used for seedling production is ordinary wheat. Its seedlings are rich in proteins, amino acids, vitamins A, C, group B, E.

The sprouts of daikon, mustard and watercress have a pronounced pungent taste. In the East, they are quite widely used with sandwiches, as a side dish for fish and meat dishes, in the preparation of sauces.

In general, all sprouted seeds can be used as fresh herbs: in salads, broths or soups, baked with eggs, meat and vegetables.

Sprouts can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. There they stop growing, but retain all their nutritional properties.

Well, now more to the point. So, you still have seeds that you will not use for next year, or there are too many of your own seeds that you have collected. In both of these cases, you can use these surpluses to your advantage.

For example, seeds of beans, peas, beans, radish, turnip, radish, daikon, mustard, watercress, cabbage, wheat, oats, etc. can be germinated and used as a variety of additives to any dish.

These small plants can be put in a salad, added to a finished first or second course, and sprinkled on sandwiches. It is better not to heat sprouts, as they are very tender, perfectly digested by the body, contain an almost complete set of vitamins and mineral salts, which are easy to lose during boiling or frying. They are not the main food in winter, but an excellent flavor and vitamin supplement. In seedlings grown on soil, the aerial part is used, which is washed before use.

Sprouts can be obtained in several ways:

1. The easiest way is to germinate them in bowls with a soil layer of 4-5 cm. Before sowing, the seeds are soaked in water for 12 hours, then they are washed, evenly distributed over the surface of the bowl and covered with a 1 cm layer of soil. The seeds can be sown very thick. Since the seeds have already swollen, water the bowl sparingly. But it is worth covering it with glass or film so that moisture does not evaporate from the surface layer of the soil. As soon as shoots appear, the bowl is transferred to a lighter place, and after a few days you can harvest - an elongated stem with a couple of cotyledon leaves and a small first real leaf.

Seedlings grown on the substrate are used completely, but they must also be washed. The fact is that during the transformation of seeds into large-sized seedlings, numerous processes take place in the plant (reserve nutrients are converted into more digestible carbohydrates and proteins are synthesized by enzymes, vitamins, biologically active substances), as a result of which it throws out many products of its vital activity through the roots, these substances can give the seedlings an unpleasant taste, so they should be well washed before use.

2. You can also germinate seeds on any classical substrate: sand, cloth, cotton wool, filter paper, etc. However, from my point of view, the most ideal substrates are ordinary moss, and even better sphagnum or sawdust. In this case, take a suitable pallet (any vessel with a wide flat bottom and low edges will do). The selected substrate is laid on the bottom of it in an even layer, the swollen seeds are evenly laid out on it, lightly sprinkled with the substrate and watered with water, the seeds should always be moist, but should not be covered with water. As soon as the first true leaf appears, the crop can be harvested, it is not worth germinating the seeds longer, since the supply of nutrients in the seeds is not enough to form a larger plant. The whole plant can be used as food.