We Grow Tarragon. Sowing, Leaving, Breeding Tarragon. Photo

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We Grow Tarragon. Sowing, Leaving, Breeding Tarragon. Photo
We Grow Tarragon. Sowing, Leaving, Breeding Tarragon. Photo

Video: We Grow Tarragon. Sowing, Leaving, Breeding Tarragon. Photo

Video: We Grow Tarragon. Sowing, Leaving, Breeding Tarragon. Photo
Video: How to Grow Tarragon, Seed to Kitchen! Cuttings, Care, Dishes, and More! 2024, March
Anonim

Tarragon with wormwood belong to the same genus and the external structure emphasizes this relationship. Tarragon leaves are elongated-oblong, lanceolate, reminiscent of wormwood leaves. Unlike wormwood, the tip of the leaf is forked in tarragon, like the tongue of fairy dragons. Hence the Latin specific name of the plant "dragon" - dracunculus.

Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

The homeland of tarragon (tarragon) is called Asia, but the plant is widespread in the wild from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. It is ubiquitous in China, Pakistan, Mongolia, India. Tarragon has occupied a certain niche in many states of America. In Russia, tarragon occupies significant areas, both in the European and Asian parts.

Tarragon lives in open places on dry steppe slopes, sometimes like a weed in the fields.

Content:

  • Brief description of tarragon
  • Varieties of tarragon for growing in the country
  • Growing tarragon
  • Planting tarragon seedlings
  • Tarragon care
  • Reproduction of tarragon
  • The use and useful properties of tarragon
  • Tarragon varieties for growing in the country
  • Tarragon protection from pests and diseases

Brief description of tarragon

Tarragon, or tarragon, is a bush-shaped perennial herb. In summer cottages, they are widely distributed in the wild and domesticated form.

Tarragon roots are tough with multiple lateral shoots. Over time - woody. For the bizarrely wriggling shape, the French call tarragon snake grass.

Tarragon stems are straight, glabrous, yellowish-brown, young ones are greenish, 30-150 cm high.

The type of leaves located at the base and in the upper part of the stems have a different marginal shape. Tarragon leaves without cuttings. The lower ones are slightly indented along the edge of the leaf blade, at the apex they are incised, as if bifurcated, like a serpentine tongue. The upper stems are entire, lanceolate, elongate-lanceolate, pointed at the end. The color scheme of tarragon leaves is green, often dark green, sometimes gray-silver.

Tarragon leaves are rich in essential oils with a slight anise scent. They are pleasant to the taste, do not have wormwood bitterness.

The tarragon peduncle is located at the top of the stem, narrowly paniculate in shape. The flowers are small, light yellow, greenish. Bloom in August-September.

At the end of October, the fruits ripen - an oblong achene (does not have a tuft). Tarragon seeds are very small, dark brown or brownish brown. Plants are capable of self-propagation.

Varieties of tarragon for growing in the country

Tarragon is subdivided into several varieties. In some breeding works, experts consider them to be separate types:

  • Russian tarragon - has a rich aroma. They are mainly used for fresh food. A distinctive feature - the flowers are pale green in color, and the stem and leaves are large.
  • French tarragon - is used by culinary experts as a spicy-flavoring herb for a light, piquant aroma. It features a thin stem and small leaves.
  • Common tarragon - has an unpleasant aroma that repels insects. A large plant is characterized by an irregular leaf blade shape. It has a bitter taste.
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

Growing tarragon

Tarragon environmental requirements

Tarragon belongs to the group of frost-resistant plants and easily tolerates frosts of -30 ° C. Photophilous. But it can grow in partial shade. Does not tolerate damp, low, dark places. For normal growth and development, it is demanding on the moisture content in the soil, but without prolonged flooding of the root system. The optimum temperature during the growing season is +18.. + 25 ° С. In one place, tarragon grows up to 15 years, but for food use it is grown for 4-6 years in the form of a separate clump of 3-5 bushes.

Soil preparation

For normal growth and development, tarragon prefers light soils, well-drained, neutral reaction. Sandy loam soil is optimal; on heavy soil it grows very slowly. Acidic soils are neutralized with chalk or dolomite flour, and then a glass of ash is poured under the bush every year.

The area allotted for tarragon must be freed from rhizome weeds. Dig it up to 25-30 cm. For autumn digging, add 1 sq. m 0.5 buckets of humus or compost and 30-35 g each of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. In the spring, before sowing seeds or seedlings, rooted vegetative parts of tarragon, no more than 10-15 g of ammonium nitrate is introduced into the planting holes. More nitrogen fertilization causes increased biomass growth, but with a loss of aroma.

Sowing tarragon seeds

In open ground, tarragon seeds are sown in early spring. The plant is frost-resistant, so sowing can be carried out in the fall. For sowing, the soil is cut very carefully, since the seeds are small. So that the sowing is not heaped, the seeds are mixed with dry sand. The sowing pattern is ordinary, on wet soil, followed by dusting with soil. Tarragon shoots appear in 2-3 weeks.

The optimum temperature for seedlings is +18.. + 20 ° С. Seedlings in the phase of 2 leaves are thinned out to a distance of 10 cm. Growing tarragon with seeds is a long period and this method is not successful for all regions. Therefore, it is more often planted with seedlings.

Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

Planting tarragon seedlings

Despite its frost resistance, tarragon seeds do not germinate in the Non-Black Earth Zone. In these regions, tarragon is grown through seedlings

For seedlings, sowing tarragon seeds is carried out in the first half of March in prepared pots or plastic containers. The soil should be light, permeable, constantly moist, but not wet. Therefore, the containers are best placed on trays and watered from below. When watering from above, it is more practical to use a spray bottle.

The seed containers are placed in the greenhouse or on cool windowsills. In the phase of 2 leaves, they break through dense seedlings, leaving the strongest seedlings with an interval of at least 6-8 cm. In June, tarragon seedlings are planted in open ground, 2 pieces are possible. in one hole. Seedlings are planted in moist fertilized soil in a wide-row pattern of 30x60-70 cm. For a family, 3-6 bushes are enough.

Tarragon care

Tarragon refers to unpretentious plants and does not cause much trouble to the owners. The main care is to clean the area before sowing / planting from weeds, especially root suckers, with loosening to better provide the roots with air.

Watering is moderate. Water the plants depending on weather conditions after 2-3 weeks. Top dressing of tarragon is carried out once in the spring after the first weeding or before flowering. They are fed with infusion of mullein, which is bred before introduction with a 5-6 fold ratio to mass, or infusion of ash.

You can feed it under watering with dry ash at the rate of 1-2 glasses under a bush, depending on its age. Tarragon responds well to feeding with microelements or a mixture of fertilizers - add a spoonful of superphosphate and potassium chloride to 10 liters of water. A glass of ash can be added to this mixture, especially in poor soils.

The green mass of tarragon is harvested in different ways. You can cut off the green mass as it grows throughout the growing season, leaving hemp 12-15 cm. But it is more practical after the first selective harvesting of the green mass, to cut off all the stems at once almost near the ground and water. Tarragon grows quickly and soon new young shoots with leaves that have retained their charming aroma are cut for use as food or for drying. Leaves are usually dried.

If the tarragon bushes for unknown reasons began to turn yellow and dry, it is necessary to cut off the entire aboveground mass and remove it from the site. Treat the place with any soil biological product (from diseases and pests). With natural aging, tarragon bushes lose their properties: the aroma of the leaves decreases, their taste worsens, the foliage coarsens. Therefore, after 4-5 years, the bushes are renewed, using cuttings, layering, and rhizome division for reproduction.

The best quality greens are obtained when tarragon is cut from the third decade of April to the third decade of June. You can cut a full cut before flowering. The cut greens are dried in the shade to maintain the green color of the shoots. Dry tarragon leaves are separated from the stems by rubbing between the palms and stored like other spicy crops. After complete cutting, the bushes usually grow back in 30-40-50 days.

Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

Reproduction of tarragon

Reproduction of tarragon cuttings

In the third decade of May, cuttings are cut 15 cm in length. The lower side is dipped into a root solution or other root former. The next day, the cuttings of tarragon are planted in a mixture of sand with soil and humus 1: 1: 1, deepening them by 3-5 cm. The planted cuttings are covered with a film, imitating a mini-greenhouse. The film is regularly lifted for ventilation. The soil is kept constantly moist. After a month, the rooted cuttings are planted in a permanent place.

Reproduction of tarragon by layering

A well-developed 1-2 year old stem of tarragon is pinned in the spring, in a shallow groove or furrow dug, with a V-shaped wooden hairpin and sprinkled with soil. Several shallow cuts are made on the lower part of the stem facing the soil. During the growing season, the soil is kept moist. In the spring of next year, having cut off the rooted stem of the tarragon from the mother plant, transplanted to a permanent place.

Reproduction of tarragon rhizome

Tarragon can grow in one place, as already noted, up to 15 years, but in practice the bush grows well and develops for the first 4-5 years, and then the rhizome with roots grows and interferes with other plants, the leaves become smaller and lose their aroma. To free the site, a tarragon bush is dug up, old, crooked, diseased roots are cut off. The rhizome is divided into several parts so that each has 2-4 vegetative buds. Delenki are planted in a pre-prepared place.

Tarragon can be propagated by root suckers very quickly. At the mother bush of tarragon, in spring or autumn, they dig in several shoots with roots. The root system is carefully trimmed and planted in a new place. When planting, the root collar is buried 4-5 cm, watered abundantly and mulched. After planting, the aerial part is shortened to 15-20 cm.

The use and useful properties of tarragon

Crispy cucumbers, unusually fragrant tomatoes will be desirable dishes on the table throughout the winter if fresh tarragon leaves are added to them during winter harvesting. As a spicy-aromatic seasoning, tarragon is used in sauerkraut, making pickles, soaking apples. The slightly spicy aroma gives the salads an exquisite note of freshness. In Ukraine, Moldova, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, special salad varieties of tarragon have been bred. In Germany, fresh tarragon leaves were rubbed on meat from flies.

Properly dried (but not black branches and leaves) tarragon is constantly used for teas and drinks that are refreshing and healthy. The leaves and young shoots of tarragon are rich in vitamins, trace elements and other substances useful for the body that have a beneficial effect on the work of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, are used as an antihelminthic, in various salt-free diets and scurvy.

Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Tarragon wormwood, or tarragon, or tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

Tarragon varieties for growing in the country

Breeders recommend varieties of tarragon Monarch, Dobrynya, Aztec for home cultivation in the open field. All of these varieties have different properties. Aztec is more suitable for use in cooking, and Dobrynya is more suitable for making refreshing drinks.

Less grown, but quite interesting varieties for home cultivation:

  • Tarhun Gribovchanin (the freshness and juiciness of the leaves remains for a long time),
  • Tarhun Travnevy (good ether carrier),
  • Tarhun Tarhun Clove (recommended for cooking and as a spice for winter preparations),
  • Green valley (characterized by a long period of preservation of leaves without coarsening of the leaf blade),
  • Tarhun Zhulebinsky Semko (frost-resistant with a specific delicate aroma).

For individual regions of Russia and countries, their own types and varieties of tarragon are characteristic, with distinctive features in the structure of the bush, its shape, aroma of greenery, etc. Distinguish Tarragon Transcaucasian, Georgian, Armenian, French, Gribovsky 31 (the basis is English varietal material) and others.

Tarragon protection from pests and diseases

Tarragon is rare, but still damaged mainly by aphids, wireworms, bedbugs, and spider mites. There are no epiphytotic lesions, since the tarragon itself is a good insecticide plant.

When growing tarragon in small quantities in the country, it is better to use bioinsecticides against pests with which the soil and plants can be treated (Aktofit, Bicol, Bitoxibacillin, Nembakt, Aversectin-S and others).

Affected plants are sprayed with infusions and decoctions of herbal insecticides (yarrow, chamomile, calendula). They can also be pollinated with a mixture of tobacco and ash, or simply powder of tansy. Chemical treatments are not recommended.

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