Asparagus Is A Delicacy And Medicine

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

The ancient vegetable and medicinal plant “asparagus” also grew in our summer cottages. But many owners of the plant did not even know about its nutritional and medicinal qualities, using only light feathery greens of the plant to decorate flower bouquets

Dessert vegetable

Like artichoke, asparagus is not a by-product, which includes different greens: onions, dill, lettuce, spinach and others. Asparagus is served as a special independent dish, distinguished by its exquisite taste, and is considered a delicacy in many cuisines of the world.

Fresh young shoots of the plant, which did not have time to come out to the soil surface, act as a vegetable. They have a delicate taste and are very useful for the human body.

Asparagus is served boiled or stewed on the table. It can be a stand-alone dish or a side dish for a meat dish. Broths are boiled from asparagus, canned for future use.

Asparagus medicinal

For medicinal purposes, seeds, young shoots and asparagus roots are used.

From young shoots and seeds, infusions are prepared, from the roots - decoctions. Infusions and decoctions treat heart ailments, kidney disease, rheumatism. They have a blood-purifying and diuretic effect. They are used in the treatment of skin diseases: rashes, acne, scrofula.

Ornamental plant

Perennial asparagus bushes will easily fit into any flower garden. They are suitable for rabatki, mixborders, flower beds. In one place, asparagus can grow up to 15 years. For this, male plants are chosen, because asparagus is a dioecious plant, that is, it has both male and female plants. By the way, male plants give more tasty and powerful shoots. Therefore, they are used for laying perennial plantings in the spring of next year. The planting site is prepared in the fall by deeply digging the soil and enriching it with humus or compost, additionally moistening it with a solution of mineral fertilizers.

The asparagus stems are decorated with small leaves, similar to larch needles, and small bright red berries. Female plants adorn themselves with red berries. Female plants are used for decorative purposes and for forcing shoots in greenhouses. The elegant look of the stems persists for a long time, and therefore they are adorned with autumn bouquets.

Planting asparagus

Male plants selected for perennial plantings are planted in spring in a place prepared in autumn. To do this, make landing holes up to 30 centimeters wide and deep, leaving 50 centimeters between the holes. From humus or compost, mounds are made at the bottom of the hole, on which seedlings are planted, distributing the roots over the mound evenly. The roots are covered with compost with a layer of up to 6 centimeters. Freshly planted asparagus is gently watered from a watering can.

Plant care

The first year you need to take care of the asparagus. She loves good watering, nitrogen fertilization, does not tolerate the neighborhood with weeds, and therefore it is required to loosen the soil around the plant with special care.

In the fall, plantings are carefully examined to remove weak and diseased plants. Then a layer of humus or compost is poured another eight centimeters.

The next year, they continue to add humus or compost to the holes, bringing its level to the level of the soil surface by autumn, after removing the dead parts. So that in the spring you do not have to conduct a long search, it is better to mark the holes with pegs.

The third year is the harvest year. First, in the spring, the holes are turned into mounds, adding compost or humus to a height of 25 centimeters. The mounds are lightly tamped and leveled. When the soil on the surface of the mounds begins to crack or rise slightly, this is a sign that the asparagus is ready to delight you with its harvest.

Harvesting

Harvesting is not an easy operation. After all, it is necessary to cut off the shoots at the very base, while not damaging the ones that have not yet grown to the surface. There are special knives for this procedure. Some growers carefully dig up the shoots with their hands to the very base.

Sealing landings

During the first two years of growing asparagus, the row spacing can be filled with vegetables with a short growing season. You can grow early potatoes, spinach, lettuce, radishes, beans.