Secrets of growing dill on a windowsill from seeds

Choosing and preparing planting material

Growing dill at home starts with choosing a variety. Almost any variety of seeds will sprout and produce greenery in an apartment or on a balcony, but the time between sowing and getting the greens will be different. If you choose an early-ripening variety, for example, "Gribovsky", "Grenadier", then in 1 - 1.5 months, cheerful greens will flaunt on the windowsill. The most unpretentious of them is "Gribovsky", it is enough to germinate its seeds in fertile soil, make sure that weeds do not appear, and moisten it in time. He is not sick, he grows well.

From mid-season, the Richelieu variety, with its bluish-green leaves, is perfect for growing on a balcony or in an apartment. Late-ripening varieties have their advantages: the plants bush richer, which means they give more greenery, ripen longer, that is, more time passes before the seeds appear, the greens grow longer. If you choose seeds of bushy varieties, there will be even more greenery, its abundance will look great on a windowsill or balcony. You can choose one of the well-known varieties "Kibray", "Amazon", "Dill", "Buyan", "Salute". Growing dill on the windowsill, in addition to its utilitarian function, also has a decorative one - it wonderfully decorates the interior.

Seeds should be prepared before sowing. They are soaked in warm water for at least 8 hours, and the water is changed several times. Some growers prefer to soak even for a whole day. After that, for a few more hours (3 - 5), you need to soak the seeds for disinfection in a weak, pale pink in color solution of potassium permanganate. Swollen prepared seeds are dried on a cloth or cotton pads before planting. Seeds that did not sink to the bottom when soaked will not grow anything, they can be thrown away immediately.

How to plant seedlings

Containers for growing can be boxes made of wood or plastic, ordinary flower pots with a volume of not 1 - 2 liters. They must have holes for the drain of excess water. Broken brick, any small stones, pebbles or expanded clay are placed at the bottom for the drainage layer. From above they are sprinkled with sand, and soil is already poured onto it. The soil must be nutritious and neutral. You can buy a special composition, or mix garden soil with compost, peat.

Planting can be done in any order for those who like rows and grooves - shallow grooves can be made, but this is not necessary. It is enough to put the required amount of seeds in random order on the surface of the moistened earth, sprinkle with dry earth or peat. A few centimeters should be left between the seedlings so that future plants can grow comfortably, so that they do not shade each other. Pots (or boxes) with sowing are covered with cling film to create the effect of a greenhouse, placed in a warm place, some advise a dark place, but this does not play a key role - non-sprouted seeds are dark under a layer of earth, and sprouted seeds already require sunlight. The temperature suits them perfectly + 18 degrees. A week later, shoots will begin to appear, all the seedlings will crawl out of the ground in 10 - 12 days.

It is possible to plant dill in an apartment or on a balcony all year round, so there is no specific time frame.Sunlight plays an important role, the duration of daylight hours is very different in summer and winter, so from April to September the whole process of providing yourself with greenery growing at home will be easier and easier.

Planting Practical Tips Video

How-to information video.

Growing features

Caring for dill grown on a balcony or windowsill consists of watering, spraying, timely weed removal. You need to water it with settled clean water, as needed - dill grows well in moist soil, but you cannot pour too much water, this is fraught with mold on the soil. In a dry room, it is advisable to spray greens more often. Rotate the pots 180 degrees daily to ensure they grow beautifully and not stretch too much.

Plants can stretch out with a lack of light. Usually there is no such problem in summer, but in winter you need to provide dill with a long daylight hours, that is, artificial lighting. It is enough to install a fluorescent lamp above the plants at a height of 50-60 cm and turn it on for several hours. In winter, when there is the shortest daylight hours, dill on the windowsill should be turned on for 5 hours in the morning. And if the plants are far from the window, in the back of the room, you will have to turn on the llama for 15 hours - to ensure full daylight hours. If this is not done, then long, thin stems with very sparse leaves will grow.

Once every 2 - 3 weeks, you can feed the plants with complex fertilizers. Some owners simply add vermicompost periodically. If the sowing was carried out in fertile fertilized soil, then fertilizing will be required after massive additional planting, and not immediately.

At temperatures above + 20 degrees and a lack of light, the dill can stretch out, the plantings will not be very beautiful - pale and long, not thick. It is very important to provide plenty of light and long daylight hours. If the room is hot, you will have to spray the plantings daily. The higher the air temperature, the more moisture is required for the roots and leaves.

How to track the first shoots

After sprouts have appeared from all the seeds, the film must be removed, the container must be placed on the lightest window sill or balcony on the south side. Dill loves a lot of sunlight, the optimal temperature for growing should be 18 - 20 degrees, but it is quite capable of surviving a decrease in it. The higher the temperature, the more light should be. If it is warm, but dark, the dill will stretch and become thinner. Every day you need to turn the pots 180 degrees so that the branches grow straight up, and not lean towards the light, this will save them from falling and make them decorate the windowsill. Regular watering should not be excessive; young greens should be sprayed with clean, settled water.

For the first week after germination, it would be good to lower the temperature at night so that the plants do not rush to grow up, but gain strength. You can take it outside or open a window - it all depends on the time of year and the weather outside the window. After 1 - 1.5 months, you can remove the greens, if you cut the branches at the root, new ones will no longer grow, so it is better to cut the plants and plant new ones. Usually, dill is grown in an apartment not for sale, but for oneself, so you can gradually cut the plants as needed and plant new ones.

Video "Home garden on the windowsill"

Demonstration video with a home garden on the windowsill.