2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Forcing green onions or parsley in indoor conditions today will surprise few people. Getting these crops to vegetate in the middle of a cold winter is a simple matter, and the result, as a rule, pleases with its generous harvest. But you can diversify your winter diet with other vitamin products. For example, why not try growing succulent rhubarb stalks? Balconies and loggias of apartments in high-rise buildings will be quite a suitable place for this
Planting material for forcing rhubarb
Leaving for a dormant period, rhubarb stores a large amount of nutrients in its rhizomes. And this reserve can be used for forcing perennial greens in the winter months. As in the summer period, during winter forcing, we are primarily interested in juicy tight petioles, which taste like apples and citrus fruits. And not in vain, because in addition to vitamins, they contain malic, citric, oxalic acids.
For forcing under indoor conditions, the rhizomes can be divided. In this case, the incision is made so that not a single section is deprived of the main value of your planting material: a reddish bud at the top.
On average, petioles can be obtained in 4-5 weeks from the day of planting for distillation. To speed up this process, the rhizome should be prepared in a special way. To do this, after digging it, it is kept in the cold for at least 10 days, at a temperature of about 0 ° C.
How to arrange rhubarb beds
It is better not to skimp on the food area for rhubarb. This is a fairly large plant, and unlike onions, a small jar will not be enough for it. One rhizome will require at least a large pot. If you have suitable forcing boxes, one can hold up to three plants.
An important condition for forcing is that the planting container should be deep enough to provide the plant with a soil layer of about 20 cm. It is not necessary to plant the entire supply of roots for forcing at once. If there is not enough space or suitable containers, the workpieces can be dug in the cellar and taken from there during the winter for distillation.
Indoor rhubarb distillation technology
When the rhizomes are planted, and the container with the planting material will be installed in the house, the plantings need to be warmed up. The pots are watered with warm water and kept at a temperature of about + 20 ° C for the first 5 days.
The agrotechnics of forcing rhubarb has its own characteristics when grown indoors with good lighting or in the dark. The nuance is that when grown in the light, the buds should be left open. When the container is installed in a dark basement, the rhizomes must be completely hidden under a five-centimeter layer of humus. It will not affect product quality negatively. On the contrary, it was noticed that when forcing in the absence of light, the petioles acquire a more interesting color.
Another advantage of forcing rhubarb is its ability to produce crops in conditions where other crops cannot be grown. For example, on cold and poorly lit balconies that face the north side, where even with warming, the air temperature does not rise above + 15 ° C, other crops refuse to give greens. However, this microclimate will not hinder the development of rhubarb.
Rhubarb planting care
However, there are factors that will greatly affect the future harvest. In particular, overheating is difficult for the plant. In addition, he will not be very comfortable in dry air and dry land. Therefore, the soil must be regularly moistened.
Among other things, it will be useful to carry out top dressing. The yield will increase markedly with a double application of nitrogen fertilizers. It can be urea or ammonium nitrate solution.
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