Thyme

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Thyme (Latin Thymus) - a genus of essential oil semi-shrubs or dwarf shrubs of the Yasnotkovye family, or Lipocytes. The plant is popularly known under the names thyme, lemon scent, heather, Bogorodskaya grass, muhopal, hog pepper, zhadonik, incense, chebarka, lebyushka. Natural range - North Africa, Greenland, regions of Europe and Asia, except for the tropics. About 170 species grow on the territory of the Russian Federation alone. Thyme grows in a wide variety of ecological habitat conditions: in forest glades and edges, pine forests, in the steppes, on rocky slopes and rocks.

Characteristics of culture

Thyme - low-growing semi-shrubs or shrubs up to 35 cm high, with ascending or recumbent stems, sterile shoots and erect or erect herbaceous flowering branches. The root system is pivotal, woody. Stems are branched, woody at the base, covered with erect hairs over the entire surface, bent down. Leaves are small, rounded, ovate or linear-oblong, leathery, rigid, sessile or short-petiolate, opposite, whole-edged, less often serrated, have pronounced veins.

The flowers are medium-sized, collected in elongated, whorled or capitate inflorescences located at the ends of the branches. The calyx is narrowly bell-shaped or cylindrical, hairy on the outside. Corolla is white, pink or lilac, two-lipped. The upper lip is wide, half-lobed, the lower lip is bipartite to the base. The fruit is a capsule. Seeds are spherical or ellipsoidal, black-brown in color. Thyme blooms in June-August, fruits ripen in August-September. Thyme has a pleasant aroma and a slightly pungent and bitter taste. The plant is a good honey plant.

Growing conditions

Soils for growing thyme are preferred light to medium, fertile, drained, neutral or calcareous. Does not accept the culture of acidic, swampy and heavy clay soils. Thyme is photophilous, develops well in open sunny areas. Light shadow is not forbidden. The best predecessors are vegetable crops, under which manure was applied.

Reproduction and planting

Thyme is propagated by seeds, cuttings and dividing the bush. The third method is more efficient and simpler. To do this, the mother bush is dug up, disassembled with roots and planted in the ground in a permanent place or for growing. Cuttings are most often propagated by compact dwarf shrubs. Lilified annual cuttings 3-5 cm long are cut in the spring, after which they are planted in a greenhouse for rooting. It is important not to allow waterlogging, as this can negatively affect the planting material. Typically, cuttings take root after 2-3 weeks.

The seed method also does not cause any particular difficulties. Seeds are sown directly into the ground or into a greenhouse. Thyme seeds are very small, so the seedlings are hardly noticeable, so you need to carefully monitor their development, otherwise the weeds will drown out young plants.

Growing thyme in seedlings is not prohibited. In this case, the seeds are sown in March-April. The seedling substrate is prepared from light and moisture-permeable soil, sand and peat in a ratio of 2: 1: 1. Seeds are sown in prepared grooves. The seeding depth is 0.5-1 cm. Under optimal conditions, seedlings appear in 7-10 days. Seedlings are planted in the ground at the end of May. At the age of two months, the plants form compact bushes, some of them bloom in the first year towards the end of the season.

Care

Thyme does not need feeding; at best, horn flour or rotted compost can be added to the stem zone. Watering is rare and plentiful, increasing in drought. Watering is especially necessary during the active growth of young shoots and flowering. The crop requires pruning, which is carried out in early spring or immediately after flowering. Pruning allows you to form dense and compact bushes. Thyme is resistant to diseases and pests.