You can plant sorrel on the beds both in spring and in autumn. Many gardeners prefer the second option. Knowing all the features of planting in the winter, you can get an excellent harvest and provide yourself with sorrel seeds of the desired variety for many years to come.
Preparing for the winter landing
Before the winter planting of sorrel, the first thing they choose is a place for a bed. Sorrel is unpretentious in this regard, but on fertile soil and with proper care, the yield will be much larger.
Sorrel grows best on sandy or loamy areas, in partial shade from trees.
As a perennial plant, sorrel needs weed-free space for normal development, so cleanliness from such pests must be taken care of in advance. The bed should not be adjacent to groundwater, although the plant itself is quite hygrophilous.
The soil for planting needs loose, easily permeable to water, so the bed is dug deep and all other plants are removed from the soil. Then fertilizers are applied (per 1 sq. M):
- 1 bucket of compost or light humus;
- half a bucket of peat;
- 30 g of superphosphate;
- 20 g of potassium chloride;
- 10 g of ammonium nitrate.
Peat is added to increase the acidity of the soil - sorrel prefers a low pH.
Furrows with a depth of about 3 cm with a distance of 20-30 cm between rows are formed on the bed along or across. Before sowing, the finished bed, in order to avoid violations, is covered with a film. To fill the furrows after sowing, you need loose soil mixed with humus, dry foliage or other analogues of materials for mulch.
Sorrel seeds before planting can be prepared by soaking and soaking them for two days in gauze. Processing with a special nutritional composition is also possible to increase the likelihood of a larger crop. The seeds for a two-year shelf life are considered optimal for sowing.
Grade selection
For sorrel planting in the winter, use proven varieties that stably produce high yields and are resistant to low temperatures. These varieties include:
- Broadleaf. A fairly new, but already managed to gain the trust of gardeners variety. Ripens early, differs in large oval leaves on high petioles and a reduced level of oxalic acid, which makes it an optimal variety for various vitamin salads. The minus of the variety is the frequent appearance of arrows with a lack of moisture in the summer.
- Emerald snow. High-yielding, mid-season, has a high content of substances useful to the human body. Long does not give arrows. The taste is very pleasant, which leads to widespread use in cooking.
- Belleville. The variety has long been known to gardeners. Well resistant to frost, rich in vitamins. Due to the large size of the leaves, with 1 square. m beds can collect up to 7 kg of crop per season.
- Malachite. It also stands out for its resistance to low temperatures and the ripening of greenery. A distinctive feature of this sorrel is the leaves of special beauty, which is not typical for other varieties.
- Odessa Ripens early, often used to make soups and salads. The leaves are dark green in color and are collected in rosettes of loose appearance, growing at right angles.
Seeds of these varieties of sorrel are excellent for sowing in the winter, have high quality and taste indicators.
We recommend reading this article, which will tell you about growing some of the varieties of sorrel in the greenhouse.
Sowing terms and conditions
Sorrel is a cold-resistant crop, so it is planted in the fall after stable night frosts are established - usually this is the end of October or the beginning of November, a lot depends on the region. When calculating the time of sorrel planting, it is worth considering that at + 2 ° C it can begin to hatch.
In the northern regions of the country, the average time for autumn sorrel sowing falls in mid-late October, for the middle lane it is the end of October and mid-November, for the southern regions - until mid-December.
Sorrel is planted in cold or already frozen ground, so it is important to prepare the beds in advance, while it is still warm.
Features of planting in the fall
When planting, sorrel seeds must be completely dried. The film is removed from the bed, often a layer of snow already lies on it, and they begin to sow.
The bottom (prepared in advance furrows) is covered with mulch 1 cm deep, seeds are laid on it. For winter sowing, more seeds are taken than for crops at any other time of the year - by a quarter / third. The optimal distance for seeds is 4 cm, this figure is taken into account the probability of seedlings falling, if necessary in the spring the sorrel will be easy to thin out.
The bed is filled with mulch; in dry weather, the plant does not need more protection. In the presence of rain, the sorrel is covered with a film. This planting provides the plant with all the conditions for normal development in the spring.
Although sorrel is a perennial plant, it is better to change the place for a bed with it every couple of years. So its leaves will not become small and retain a high level of vitamins.
Care and growing
In the spring, when the first sprouts of sorrel appear, the bed needs to be thinned out - just leave 5 cm between adult plants. After 2 weeks, the procedure is repeated - now the distance is increased by 2-3 times. Between the rows they weed and loosen, promptly removing flower-bearing shoots - enough to leave a couple of shoots to get seeds.
Water sorrel abundantly, but infrequently. Proper watering is very important for this plant, the taste of sorrel leaves depends on it - with a lack of moisture in the leaves a lot of oxalic acid is formed, which makes them too acidic, and they coarse.
By autumn, bare rhizomes require mulching - per 1 square. m beds make about 5 kg of humus or compost.
In the second spring, the sorrel needs to be fed - 30 g of superphosphate, 20 g of urea and 15 g of potassium chloride will be enough.
When is the crop harvested?
Sorrel is collected when 4-5 leaves of a standard size for its variety are formed on the plant. The season for sorrel is May-July; during this period, you can harvest up to 4 times. The best time of the day to collect is morning or late evening, ripened leaves are cut with a knife, leaving about 4 cm from the garden in the petiole.
The soil after each harvest of sorrel must be fed, mulched and watered.
Planting sorrel in the fall is a simple matter, especially considering the unpretentiousness of this plant. Subject to the simple rules of sowing, care and harvesting, a rich harvest will not take long. It remains only to choose the desired variety and make all the necessary preparations - then anyone can enjoy the full taste of sorrel.