2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Gone are the days when people had to eat quinoa bread. Today, the plant is used by gardeners to decorate their flower beds and summer cottages
Genus quinoa
More than two hundred herbaceous plants, dwarf shrubs and shrubs represent the genus Quinoa (Atriplex).
The stems and leaves of plants are often covered with a white powdery coating, to which, according to one version, they owe their name.
Varieties
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Salt quinoa (Atriplex halimus) is a perennial shrub that grows to a height of 2.5 meters. In the coastal regions, hedges are made from it. The silvery-gray foliage of the saline quinoa looks like shiny porcelain, giving the bush the appearance of a porcelain decorative sculpture. Quinoa roots well absorb salt from the soil, thereby cultivating the soil.
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Garden quinoa (Atriplex hortensis) is a herbaceous annual, the leaves of which people use for food, adding young foliage to salads. The bush growing up to two meters is covered with green leaves. There are varieties that have reddish leaves, for example, garden red quinoa. Variety "Orach Red" is distinguished by leaves, which have a purple reverse side. And the variety "Red feather" has ovoid-rounded small fruits of a reddish color.
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Lenticular quinoa (Atriplex lentiformis) is a perennial shrub that grows up to three meters in height. Its erect stem with spreading shoots is covered with silvery leaves, the shape of which can vary from oblong to ovoid. Quinoa lenticular is a dioecious plant, that is, in order to grow your own seeds, you need to have two bushes: female and male.
Growing
They make hedges from quinoa, planting bushes at a distance of 40 cm from each other, and also grow it in single and group plantings. Quinoa is a thermophilic plant, and therefore it is more comfortable for it to grow in mild climates. But it is also grown in more northern regions, cutting off the aerial part of the plant damaged by winter frosts under the root in early spring. The roots overwintered in the soil release new shoots, continuing the life of the perennial quinoa.
The quinoa is planted in open ground in colder areas in the spring, and in warmer climates in the fall. The quinoa loves loose soil. Salt quinoa can grow on saline soil, being its healer, cleansing the soil from salt contamination. By accumulating absorbed salts in its leaves, quinoa turns into a natural fertilizer. The leaves are dried and used as nitrogen fertilizer, grinding them into powder and fertilizing the soil for plants that need nitrogen.
At the beginning of the growing season, ornamental quinoa is fed with complex fertilizer at the rate of 30 grams per 1 square meter. For the garden quinoa, the leaves of which are eaten, organic feeding is also needed. For example, fertilizing with manure per 1 square meter of land requires 4-5 kilograms of manure.
The landing site for the quinoa is sunny. The plant is resistant to high temperatures, but from frost, as already noted, the aboveground part dies off, but living roots remain, which resume vegetation in the spring.
In the spring-summer period, the swan requires regular watering, especially during prolonged drought.
Maintaining appearance
To maintain the appearance of the plant, it is necessary to promptly remove heavily damaged and dried shoots.
Reproduction
Quinoa can be propagated by seeds, cuttings from shoots, shoots.
Reproduction by sowing seeds is rarely used. More often, at the end of spring, cuttings from shoots are cut and planted in clean sand or light sandy loam soil. Until roots are formed on the cuttings, the soil is kept moist. Cuttings with roots are planted in open ground in a chosen place.
If the plant develops shoots with their own roots, they are separated from the mother plant and planted in a permanent place.
Enemies of the swan
Subject to the rules of growing quinoa, it rarely succumbs to diseases and pests. But when growing a plant on heavy soil or when there is an excess of moisture in the soil, the roots of the plant rot.
The next enemy is frost, which damages the above-ground part of the plant, and in case of snowless, severe frosts, the roots can also freeze out.
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