Sowing parsley is not a complicated matter. But in order to get a rich harvest, you need to try. Desire and desire, coupled with knowledge of the entire process from preparing seed to pest control, will make it possible to consume delicious succulent greens all year round. We will talk about the features of planting and caring for parsley further.
Planting parsley
To obtain dense healthy greenery, it is important to observe the timing of sowing parsley, to carry out agrotechnical measures on time.
When to plant parsley?
Parsley is planted as soon as the earth warms up a little with the sun, in April. But you can plant it in the winter. Landing should be done in October for this.
It is good if tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes or pumpkin seeds grew in the garden before the parsley. The predecessors of the umbrella family are not recommended, although the plant gets along well next to them.
A place for spring planting should begin to be prepared in the fall. To clear the site of weeds and plant debris, treat with fungicidal composition if necessary. While digging the soil, apply fertilizer. It can be both mineral and organic. For example, saltpeter (1 tablespoon per 1 sq. M), wood ash (350 g / sq. M), humus, manure and slurry (3 kg per 1 sq. M).
In this case, organic matter has an advantage, because during the winter during the decomposition process, trace elements and substances will gradually stand out and accumulate. The necessary nutrition will already be in the soil in the spring and its action is longer than that of the mineral.
If the site could not be prepared in the fall, then it is necessary to do this in the early spring in order to have time to complete the work 2 weeks before the expected date of planting. At this time, use humus and ash to improve the quality of the soil. They will make it loose, and improve the quality of the composition.
Favorable conditions for growing
Under optimally selected and provided conditions for parsley, it will delight you with thick healthy and tasty greens. These conditions include:
- Suitable soil. The plant prefers loose, light, fertile and non-acidified land.
- Adequate solar heat and light. Parsley cannot stand shade, the plant becomes frail and stretches out in search of light.
- Agrotechnical measures. Provide timely moderate watering, loosening the soil, weeding.
How to plant parsley?
In the prepared area, grooves are made up to 1.5 cm deep. Leave the distance between the rows 35-50 cm. So it will be convenient to care for the plants and the bushes will not touch each other with leaves and create a shadow.
When sowing seeds in the grooves, leave a gap of 1.5-2 cm between them. The standard sowing rate is 1 g of seeds per 1 sq. m square. Cover the filled rows with earth. Water the plot.
When planting in autumn, additional watering is not required.
To provide yourself with fresh herbs for the entire season, plant parsley in stages, sowing seeds every week.
Watch a video on how to plant parsley in a prepared area:
Growing parsley on a windowsill
With the onset of winter, when parsley is covered with snow and already does not yield useful greens, you can get it from plants grown on the windowsill in the house.
Ground preparation and landing
First of all, prepare the planting containers and soil. For planting, flower pots, long tubs or any other container are suitable. The soil can be purchased at the store, but it is better to prepare it yourself. To do this, mix:
- 2 parts of peat;
- 1 part of the land from the garden;
- 1 part humus;
- 1 part river sand.
It can be made easier, but then the soil will be poorer in composition. Add compost and a little sand to the garden soil.
Any planting mixture, even purchased, must be subjected to a disinfection procedure, otherwise the fungi and bacteria that it contains will begin to multiply and adversely affect the parsley. This work can be done in several ways:
- Place the tray with soil in the oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 200 ° C.
- Steam the ground using a steamer-type construction.
- Prepare a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate and pour over the mixture.
- Dilute Fitosporin according to the instructions and distribute the composition over the ground.
After processing, dry the landing mixture. If necessary, apply complex mineral fertilizers.
To reduce the time of emergence of seedlings, you can use a simple method. Soak parsley seeds in milk. Sprinkle the soil in pots with quicklime three times with an interval of 15 minutes. Sow.
To plant seeds in pots, just follow some simple steps:
- At the bottom of the container, make a drainage layer a couple cm high.
- Fill the container with soil in 3/4 parts.
- On the surface of the substrate, make grooves with a depth of 1-1.5 cm and spill them with water.
- Sow seeds in the grooves and cover them with soil.
- To process the earth with water using a spray gun and cover with a transparent film or glass.
- Place the pot in a warm place until emergence.
At this stage, it is important for the plant to have high humidity and an air temperature of at least 25 ° C. When shoots appear, the film (glass) is removed from the surface of the pot, and the container is rearranged to a cooler place. The optimum temperature for parsley growth at home is considered to be a temperature of about 20 degrees.
When solid stable shoots appear and grow up to 3 leaves, carry out the thinning procedure. Gently remove excess plants from the ground. Before this, water the seedlings so as not to damage the root system of the remaining seedlings when thinning.
The video below shows how to grow parsley from seeds at home in pots:
Caring for parsley at home
To get lush parsley and use it for a long time, you will need to make a lot of effort:
- Water the greens in time with settled water at room temperature. It is optimal to do this 2-3 times a week.
- In addition, spray greens with spray water at high air temperature and low humidity.
- After moistening the soil, loosen the soil in the pots. This will provide airflow to the root system.
- Fertilize with fertilizers every 2 weeks from the appearance of a thick green rosette of parsley.
- In the summer, move the containers with greenery to the east or west window, or shade during the day so that direct sunlight does not burn the leaves.
- Parsley will stretch to the window, in order to avoid one-sided development and stretching the trunk towards the light, turn the pots. So the mass will grow symmetrically, forming beautiful straight bushes.
In winter, when the daylight hours are short, or during cloudy days, you cannot do without the use of phytolamps or fluorescent lamps. Parsley needs light at least 12 hours a day.
Parsley cultivation in open ground from seeds
To grow rich parsley in the open field, some work should be done to prepare the materials, and after planting, provide an optimal set of agrotechnical care measures.
Seed preparation for sowing
Prepare for seeds only in case of spring planting. If you sow them in the fall, no additional preparation is required. Several methods are used to influence parsley seeds, which accelerate their germination:
- Soak seeds in water for 12-14 hours before planting. First, rinse them with hot water (not boiling water) to wash off the layer of essential oils, and then transfer the seeds to cheesecloth in a saucer and cover with water at room temperature. You can add wood ash to the water at the rate of 1 tbsp. per liter.
- Place the seeds in vodka for 20 minutes... The alcohol will dissolve the essential oil on the surface of the seeds, so do not lengthen the soak time to avoid burning them. After the procedure, rinse the gauze with seeds in clean water. Dry the seeds before planting until they become free-flowing. This method of seed preparation speeds up the emergence of seedlings by 2 times.
- Instillation of seeds. Collect the seeds in a cloth bag and 2 weeks before planting, bury them in the ground to a depth of 25-30 cm. The damp cold earth will harden them, and moisture will swell. Before sowing, remove the bag, carefully sprinkle the seeds and dry them before sprinkling. After that, immediately sow in the beds.
- Soaking in an ash infusion.2 tbsp. dilute wood ash with 1 liter of water, leave for 2 days, stirring occasionally. Put the seeds on several layers of cheesecloth, move them in a saucer and pour the infusion of ash. Or put the seeds in a cloth bag and lower them into a container with infusion. Leave on for 4-5 hours.
- Cover the crops in the garden with foil,after moistening the soil with a spray, and repeating the procedure daily.
- Use of growth stimulants.You can use drugs from a specialty store or cook in folk ways. Potato juice, aloe, onion husk tincture are natural growth stimulants. "Zircon", "Epit" and others. - Preparations containing trace elements and substances that affect the speed of emergence of seedlings.
- Air bubbling. Pour seeds into warm water, connect a compressor to the aquarium and leave the seeds for 12-15 hours to bathe in an air-water mixture. Their saturation with oxygen increases germination, reduces the time of emergence. During this process, growth promoters can be added to the water.
- Vernalization.This is a short-term effect of cold on the seeds, which has the effect of hardening and encouraging early shoots. For the procedure, soak the seeds in water, leave in a warm place until the water evaporates. Cover with damp gauze and, periodically moistening it, let the seeds swell.
Thus, this period of action of heat lasts 4-6 days. Remove swollen seeds for 10 days in the refrigerator, put on ice or snow.
Spring vernalization can be carried out only at positive temperatures, otherwise the seeds will become unsuitable for sowing.
Landing scheme
It is generally accepted that the ideal pattern for planting parsley is one where the row spacing is 20 cm. But often you have to change this rule, adjusting to the capabilities of your garden.
With small areas allocated for sowing greens, choose a zigzag method of sowing. In this case, the slanting between the bushes can be from 10 cm or less. The zigzag arrangement of parsley in rows makes it possible to save space so that the bushes do not interfere with each other.
In order not to thin out the seedlings in a straight-line planting, you can immediately maintain a distance between the seeds of 7-15 cm.The seeding depth remains unchanged for any type of seeding, and is 1.5-2 cm.
Landing dates
Planting dates depend on weather conditions and seed preparation. For seed germination, warm weather with an air temperature of 20-24 ° C is needed. Therefore, the gardener has two choices:
- Wait for the right season and stable weather with acceptable temperatures.
- Prepare the seeds, harden them and sow them in the ground in early spring, covering the crops with foil. Moisten the soil as necessary, lift the film for a short time, ventilating the shelter.
Another option for planting parsley is sowing seeds in the winter. It requires more attention and strength. Sowing of parsley is carried out from October until the first frost. They are covered with a film, or they are insulated from above with a mixture of peat and humus. Re-heating, the composition emits heat, but, when snow falls, it is still worth insulating the beds, covering them with a white winter blanket.
Hardened in such conditions, the seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of + 4 degrees. Due to the instability of the weather in early spring, it is advisable to cover young seedlings with foil.
Growing parsley in open ground from root crops
You can grow parsley for greens by planting root crops or roots of an ordinary leafy variety in open ground. This is a good opportunity to use one plant throughout the year. Move the root crop grown in the tank in the spring to the open ground, and in the fall transplant it again into the pot.
Planting parsley in the ground
For planting, select only healthy roots. They should be up to 5 cm thick, light, smooth, without leaves. If the root is long, carefully trim it with a sharp knife to a length of 8-10 cm. Powder the cut with wood ash or charcoal. Before planting root crops in the ground, it is recommended to keep them in sand at an air temperature of +2 ° C.
When and how to plant?
The favorable period for planting root crops is long - from mid-spring to early summer.
Choose a planting site given that parsley grows in sandy, well-ventilated soils. Avoid shady sides and places where plants will be disturbed by drafts.
Make small furrows in the area of the bed. Laying the roots at an angle of 45 °, sprinkle them with earth, leaving the top at a surface of about 2 cm. Between the roots, maintain a distance of at least 5 cm, and the spacing between them should have at least 20 cm of space. After planting, compact the soil and water abundantly.
Outdoor parsley care
Agrotechnical measures for the care of parsley in the open field and their frequency depend largely on weather conditions.
Watering and loosening
Consider the following when watering:
- The plant grows well and grows with good soil moisture, but does not tolerate waterlogging. Irrigate according to weather conditions and soil type. So, on sandy soils in hot weather, daily soil moisture is allowed. On chernozem parsley, watering is enough every other day.
- Moisturizing water should not be cold.
- Watering under the roots of the plant, not pouring on the leaves. The collected rainwater settled in tanks is ideal.
- The optimal watering time is early morning or late evening. This is due to the fact that drops falling on parsley leaves let in sunlight, and the green part of the plant can get a burn from the prism effect.
- After moistening the soil, it is good to make mulch from a thin layer of humus. This is an additional nutrition for parsley and protection against moisture evaporation.
Loosening the soil in the parsley beds is a must. It will provide air access to the root system, and will help to keep water in the ground for a longer time. When loosening, be extremely careful not to damage the roots of parsley. Avoid dry crust on the ground.
Disease treatment and prevention
Parsley, like all garden plants, is susceptible to various diseases that can not only spoil the appearance of the plant, but also completely destroy the crop. Disease prevention takes a special place in preventing infection. But, if there are signs of the disease, it is urgent to take measures to combat it.
The most common parsley diseases include:
- Powdery mildew. It is characterized by the appearance of a white coating on the surface of the entire plant, which darkens over time. Along with it, parsley also disappears. Leaves and stems become stiff, and even with little impact they crumble.
Since the disease is fungal in nature and spreads by spores, it is worth removing the infected plant and burning it in the initial stages of the disease. Treat the bed with a fungicidal solution. - Stolbur. The causative agent of the disease - Phytoplasma - is carried by cicadas.The direction and probability of the spread of the disease depends on their movement and weather conditions. The incubation period of the post is about a month.
Signs of the disease include the appearance of red-brown spots on the leaves. The infected plant blooms in the first year of growth, but its seeds are not suitable for sowing. Control and prevention measures include weed control, insect repellent, and treatment of plants with special compounds. - Rust.A fungal disease affects the plant from below. First, brown spots form on the lower surface of the leaf plates, they sink to the root, and gradually cover the entire bush. Parsley dries, the root rots and dies.
If detected at an early stage, it is recommended to treat with 1% Bordeaux liquid every 10-14 days, and at subsequent stages only the destruction of plants, treatment of the territory. This is due to the fact that the affected plant is not eaten due to the loss of taste. - Septoria.It is characterized by the appearance of whitish spots over the entire surface of the bush. Towards the end of summer, longitudinal brown spots are visible on the parsley stalks, and on the leaves they remain dirty white with a brown frame. Spread by wind, rain, watering. The disease also affects seeds. Control and prevention measures include crop rotation, weed control, treatment with 1% Bordeaux fluid.
- Fomoz. With this disease, the plant suffers from the appearance of gray-brown spots over the entire surface. Roots and seeds are affected. Parsley becomes fragile, dries. It spreads through the remaining parts of plants, with the help of wind and rain. Crop rotation, weeding and loosening, treatment with fungicides will help cope with the disease.
Prevention measures against fungal and other diseases most often boil down to several actions:
- Crop rotation. Changing the sowing location will not allow the disease to spread to new areas.
- Weed weeding. This measure will help to avoid infection from weeds, in addition to strengthen the immune system by increased penetration of oxygen into the soil.
- Correct preparation of the beds before planting. Cleaning the area from all plant debris, processing and digging will help protect against last year's diseases.
- Seed dressing. A light pink solution of manganese in water will prepare the seeds before planting and reduce the chance of infection.
How and when to feed?
Nitrogen fertilizers are favorites for parsley, but superphosphate and organics are also beneficial. Fertilization of the soil takes place in several stages:
- The first nitrogen top dressing is carried out a week after the full germination of seeds.
- The second nitrogen feeding is 7-10 days after the first.
- For the third time, fertilize the ground with fertilizer containing phosphorus and potassium, when the parsley begins to cluster.
Ammonium nitrate can be used as nitrogen additives. The application rate of 4-6 g per 1 square. m beds. It is used dry and diluted with water. It is preferable to eat in a liquid form, since it will sooner reach the root system and have a positive effect.
Dry granules, in close proximity to the green part of the parsley, can cause a burn. Therefore, make sure that when spreading over the area, nitrate does not fall on the plants, and after distributing it, water the beds well.
For the third feeding, use superphosphate. It contains the optimal proportions of nitrogen and phosphorus. The fertilizer distribution rate is 1 tsp. Potash salt (1 tsp / sq. M) or wood ash are suitable for enriching the soil with potassium. Distribute the ash at a rate of 200 g / sq. m on the surface of the beds and sprinkle with mulch or just with soil.
Pests and methods of dealing with them
Pests often spoil the appearance of parsley, and with active reproduction they destroy crops. Such insects include:
- Carrot beetle.The adult insect is white-green, the larvae are yellow-green. They feed on parsley juice, from which the plant lacks nutrients, and it begins to wither and dry out. The leaves curl inward.
The treatment of coniferous nearby plants with the drug "Karbofos" in the calculation of dilution of 60 g per bucket of water is considered to be measures of control and prevention. Processing of parsley in May and June with Iskra, Iskra Bio and Fitoverm preparations. - Carrot fly.The insect is black-green in color, with light legs and wings. Prefers to live in particularly wet areas. It feeds on parsley juice, and its larvae carry out their vital activity in the roots and root crops, causing irreparable harm to the plant. Parsley heals, the root crop is not subject to storage.
Fly control measures involve the use of crop rotation, planting onions next to parsley, spilling the row spacing with ash or naphthalene. Larvae of a carrot fly die from hypothermia after chaffinch plowing. - Stem nematode.A parasite in the form of a microscopic worm. The adult and larvae live inside the parsley and feed on its juice. The plant is stunted and dies due to lack of nutrition. And the nematodes go into the soil and look for new objects of attack. Crop rotation, disinfection of seeds and plots will help to cope with the pest.
- Gourd aphids.Very small insects from green to black. Their larvae are lighter than adults. Settled in colonies on the underside of the parsley leaf plate, arriving from weeds. They feed on parsley juice, harming it. With an increase in numbers, they can destroy an entire plantation. Transfer viral and bacterial infections.
Cope with aphids will help regular processing of parsley with the preparation “Karbofos”, a decoction of onion husks, an infusion of ash with laundry soap. In case of general infection, the effect can be achieved only by the use of Decis, Intavir chemicals.
The insects that feed on them make an invaluable contribution to the fight against aphids: ladybugs, lacewings, female flies and others. Some plants (garlic, mustard, fennel, nasturtium, etc.) do not like aphids, which can be planted near parsley to repel pests.
Causes of poor seed germination
Even experienced gardeners are not immune from such a problem as poor sprouting. This happens for several reasons:
- High acidity of the soil.The solution to this problem is the introduction of limestone, chalk and ash.
- Too dense soil.In such soil, it is difficult for weak shoots to break through, therefore, lighten the soil by adding sand, sawdust, humus, peat to it when digging.
- Little sunshine.In the shady beds parsley sprouts poorly, the plant lags in growth, weak, light shade. Aroma and taste are practically absent.
- Expired seed. Suitable for sowing material up to 3 years of storage. With a longer germination period, there may not be at all.
- Preservation of the shell of essential oils on the surface of the seed.In the absence of a sufficient amount of moisture, such a layer is not washed off and the seedlings are deposited.
Adhering to all the rules for preparing seeds and soil for sowing parsley, performing timely agricultural measures and preventive measures to combat diseases and pests, obtaining a rich harvest of greens is guaranteed. Parsley will delight you with its beautiful appearance, pleasant aroma and its nutritional qualities all year round.