Spinach New Zealand tetragonia - photo and cultivation
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Growing tetragonia or New Zealand spinach
Choosing seeds for planting in the country last spring in the store, I saw a bag with a strange inscription - tetragonia. To my question, what is it, the saleswoman replied that this is New Zealand spinach. So I bought a new product, expecting to grow one of the varieties of spinach. But in reality, tetragonia turned out to be a completely different culture.
Reference by topic: Planting spinach
Tetragonia - what is this plant
Spinach, as I later found out, belongs to the amaranth family, and tetragonia belongs to the Aiza family. What unites them is that both plants belong to leafy greens.
In the wild, tetragonia grows in South America, Africa, Australia, as well as in New Zealand, from where it landed in Western Europe. For Russian gardeners, this is still exotic. But, given the unpretentiousness and high taste qualities of the tetragonium, I think that this culture will soon become very popular with us.
The plant is a one-year-old up to 60 cm in height with a diamond-shaped juicy edible leaves, which are suitable for eating as early as 1,5 months. after sowing the culture. Cut greens from bushes can be repeated.
Flowers tetragonia with small yellowish flowers. Of these, fruit-boxes with 2-8 seeds are then formed. The taste of greenery due to flowering plants does not deteriorate.
In early spring and late autumn, the culture is grown in greenhouses. And in the summer - in the open ground, harvesting greens until the first frost.
Eating New Zealand spinach
The leaves and young shoots of the plant have a gentle pleasant taste. They are suitable for preparation as fresh salads, and for soups, side dishes, mashed potatoes.
In the green of tetragonia, there is a lot of vitamin C, iodine, iron, calcium, potassium, carotene, protein. It is considered useful for the stomach and pancreas.
Terminate the green mass from the bushes 1-2 times a week, because the old foliage becomes rough. Shoots are cut to 1-3 leaves. In their place quickly grow new, with fresh pi-flows. The taste of greenery is spoiled and with a lack of watering.
Soil preparation for sowing
Plant the plant preferably in a sunlit place, where the culture can grow in the shade of trees. The soil of tetragonics is required fertile, loose, so the beds under it from the fall dig over the 1,5 bayonet bayonet. Pipette in the bucket of compost, according to 1 art. l. lime, potash fertilizers and superphosphate at 1 sq. m. m.
If the soil in your site is heavy clay, then also make an 1 bucket of sand and 200 g small sawdust on 1 square. m clod to make the soil more porous. In the spring, under the tetragonia, another 1 tsp is added. urea at 1 sq. m. m.
Reference by topic: Sorrel (photo) - growing stock and recipes
Planting tetragonia
Sow culture can be in the open ground, and at home on seedlings. With a seedling growing method, the seeds are pre-soaked for 2 days in warm water, which must be changed 3-4 times a day so that mold does not appear. Then they are sown in a liter glass on 3 pcs, deepening to 3 see. The soil is moistened and covered with jars. Through 2-3 weeks, the emerged seedlings are thinned, leaving in each glass one of the strongest plants.
In general, culture rises well. I even planted it in the garden for the winter experiment, and in the spring she gave me a friendly seasoned sprout.
New Zealand Spinach - Care
In open ground, seedlings can be relocated at the end of May. And in greenhouses or hotbeds - even earlier. Leave up to 40 cm between plants, and up to 60 cm between rows, since the leaves of tetragonia are widely spread on the ground. Try not to deepen the base of the stems.
Plants regularly water, weed, loosen under them the soil. Feed the 1 culture once every 2 weeks with nitrofosque solution (1 tbsp per 10-liter bucket of water), sprinkle the soil around the shoots with ashes from slugs. When shoots reach 15 cm, pinch their tops.
Still I wish to warn, that it is not necessary to plant large plantations of tetragony. I, for example, plant only 10 plants, and my family of 5 people is quite enough.
© Elena Moskvina, Volgograd region
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Neighbors on the site told me about the zhminde, it is also called strawberry spinach or spinach-raspberry. It is a small one-year-old bush, and very unpretentious. It luxuriantly blooms and gives berries that taste like mulberry.
I sowed the seeds of Zhminda in the spring - 3-4 pcs. into the hole. Then removed the excess. He fed with mullein diluted with water (1: 4). After 1,5-2 weeks he added complex mineral fertilizers to irrigation water: 150 g per 5 l of water.
When the bushes were grown, they tied each wire to prevent the stems from lying to the ground. The harvest was excellent!
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Spinach on the seeds
Spinach planted early this year -
even at the end of the d prelie allocated a corner for him in the greenhouse. It quickly sprouted, and already in 3 weeks after that we tore off the first green leaves. However, soon the plants began to stretch before the eyes and went into the shooter.
It turns out spinach does not like greenhouse heat. If the temperature rises above 25 °, the plant throws an arrow. I had to snatch the flowered spinach. However, we decided to leave a couple of plants - for seeds. After they matured, they pulled the spinach from the ground and put it under a canopy on paper. You can also tie it into bundles and hang it for 2 weeks. The dried seeds are easily separated, and we quickly threshed them. Having selected the largest ones, they poured into paper bags. Let's see how they will rise next year.