Tarragon (photo) properties and cultivation
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The use of tarragon and its cultivation. Care of the plant.
A plant nicknamed the Queen
In Georgia, the tarragon is called the Queen of greenery. It is a spicy-taste perennial herbaceous plant of the Astro family (Compositae).
Growth tarragon shrubs up to 100-150 cm. The bush consists of a large number of stems with narrow linear-lanceolate leaves and an overgrown rhizome. The food goes all overhead, which has a sharp taste and intense spicy odor. Tarragon leaves are long, very delicate, dark green in color, with a strong pleasant aroma.
On the palate, the leaves are slightly bitter, have a unique thin anise flavor. This is a very healthy greens - tarragon leaves contain a lot of vitamin C, as well as essential oils, carotene and rutin. The pleasant spicy aroma of tarragon is explained by the content of essential oil in its fresh leaves and stems (0,1-0,5%).
Proven tarragon variety - Gribovsky. These are plants that grow to a height of up to 100-135 cm, leaves are lanceolate, green, juicy, fleshy, fragrant, pronounced spicy taste. Also, recently lovers of herbs are growing Russian and French varieties.
Tarragon: benefit
Physicians are advised to use tarragon to improve appetite. This plant contributes to the proper process of digestion and good metabolism. In addition, tarragon perfectly removes unpleasant odor from the mouth. This plant cleanses the blood and is an indispensable remedy for scurvy, caries and periodontitis.
Tarragon has a diuretic effect, in folk medicine it is successfully used as an anthelmintic (anthelmintic) remedy. Estragon is recommended for insomnia.
See also: Spicy herbs in the country and the garden - growing and grooming
The use of tarragon in cooking
Finely chopped tarragon leaves are used as a component of vinaigrette. Very tasty tarragon in green salads, combined with other fragrant greens and fresh cucumber. Tarragon is added as a seasoning when pickling tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as sour cabbage. This seasoning is indispensable in the preparation of marinades.
Tarragon gives cucumbers strength and delicate aroma - such pickled and pickled cucumbers will be appreciated by the most demanding gourmets. This spice is used for salting and pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, sauerkraut and soaking apples.
Fresh and dry tarragon leaves are also an excellent spice for borsch and other soups, cold okroshka and beetroot soup.
When preserving vegetables and meat (for example, cooking homemade stew), tarragon is used in both fresh and dried form. To spice has not lost flavor and aromatic properties, it should be added at the very end of cooking.
Tarragon in cooking is often used for cooking medicinal vodka, as well as balms, wines and tinctures, drinking water.
This spice is excellent in the preparation of sauces and mixtures of seasonings for fish, vegetable, mushroom, and meat dishes. Sprigs and sliced leaves will enrich the taste of meat and become a side dish to seafood. Often used in dishes from by-products.
The first greens of tarragon are used in raw form in salads and borscht. In July-August tarragon is best used for canning, pickling and pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, zucchini and squash. Do not do without tarragon when pickling watermelons.
Planting tarragona
Tarragon is a cold-resistant plant, and they plant it as soon as the snow comes down. On the same site, this perennial plant can grow up to 10 years. But its leaves remain useful only 3-5 years. In the old plantation, the yield of green mass and the content of essential oil are sharply reduced. This perennial plant is well bush and easily tolerates autumn and spring frosts. Relatively easy to survive the winter.
Tarragon, unlike most spicy plants, is not too demanding for light. It can grow both in bright sun and in a semi-darkened corner. The shadow should not be thick.
It is necessary to water tarragon plentifully, but not too often - once every 10-12 days.
Tarragon grows well on very different soils with acidity close to neutral (pH 6-7). On very fertile soils, tarragon builds up a large green mass, but the content of essential oils in its leaves becomes less. Every spring it is recommended to feed tarragon bushes with compost or humus (3-4 kg) and 2-3 st. l. wood ash and 1 art. l. any complex mineral fertilizer (nitroammophoska, nitrofosca, etc.).
Tarragon can not be grown on soils with a high nitrogen content. It is not recommended to abuse nitrogen fertilizers.
In the autumn, beds under tarragon are deeply dug, in the spring they are loosened and dug shovels half the bayonet. If organic fertilizers were not applied under the previous culture, organic matter should be added - 3-4 kg per square meter. Mineral fertilizers are applied in the spring for digging: 20 g of ammonium sulfate, 40 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potassium salt per 1 sq. Km. m
Under the tarragon, it is necessary to select a site that would be clean from wheat grass.
How to Grow Tarragon
Methods of propagation of tarragon - seed and vegetative (root offspring, stem cuttings, division of the bush).
Propagation by seed is the most difficult way. Tarragon seeds are very small in size (about 5 thousand seeds in one gram). They are usually sown in containers for seedlings in February and March. Then the seedlings will be ready for planting in open ground at the end of March. Seeds after sowing need only a little cover with soil. Sow them in rows. Between the rows you need to leave about 10-15 cm. Tarragon seedlings are not afraid of low temperatures.
Reproduction by dividing the bush: tarragon bushes of three to five years of age are dug up in early spring and divided into several parts. In each part there should be 3-5 shoots. The most effective and reliable way to propagate this plant is with the help of root offspring. 2-3-year-old bushes are necessary, from which in the early spring, during the period of regrowth, several offspring are separated. They land in moist soil. It is recommended for the first time, while the offsprings take root, cover them with paper from direct sunlight. The scheme for planting root offspring on a bed is 50 x 50 or 60 x 60 cm.
Tarragon - care
Care tarragon is not complicated.
The ridges must be loosened and weeded, so that the soil between the rows is always clean from weeds and loose. In the year of planting, tarragon is not fed, and later in the early spring mineral fertilizers are introduced: 10 g of urea, as much as superphosphate (depending on the soil composition, the amount can be increased to 20 g per mg) and potassium salt at 1 sq. m.
Cut carefully
In the year of planting, the tarragon harvest can be cut only in the autumn, and it is necessary to cut off not too much greenery of the plant, so as not to weaken it. Since the second year of life, the greens of tarragon can be cut off all summer long.
Most of the greens of tarragon are removed in August, when the plant blooms. The green mass per square meter of estragon plantation can be obtained on average for a season of about one and a half kilograms.
The more often tarragon is cut off, the more splendid it will grow, acquiring the appearance of a lush bush. But during the summer tarragon can be cut no more than 4-5 times. Cut branches is recommended not lower than 12-15 cm from the ground. The fragrant tarragon leaves for winter should be dried in natural conditions, spreading the leaves on the newspaper. To preserve the strong aroma that tarragon will give to dishes, the dried leaves are sealed in jars, other glass or ceramic containers, the necks of which are tied with gauze.
See also: Growing spicy herbs in the garden - table
Tarragon properties - a great video about the use of the plant
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Tarragon has not only a special taste, similar to the familiar from childhood drink "Tarhun", but also bactericidal properties.
My mother, generously adding this greens to cans with pickles, said: "You can not spoil tomatoes with tarragon." And the tomatoes were well preserved!
Tarragon likes bright areas. I found a place for him near the barn, next to the dog rose: since there are no winds, the high stems of the tarragon, which sometimes reach 1 m, do not break. To the plant did not grab neighboring beds, I dug up an old bucket without a bottom and planted a piece into it. The soil likes the soil to be sandy loam, fertile so heavy soils need to be diluted with organic and sand.
In one place tarragon can grow long enough. But it seems to me that its flavoring qualities deteriorate with time, as the leaves get tougher from year to year. Therefore, I update the tarragon planting once in 3-4. Time-
You can multiply it by dividing the bush - it is better to do this in August or early spring. You can also try the seed method of reproduction - it should be sown before winter or early spring.
Easy care - watering, loosening the soil and removing weeds. In the 2nd year of life, I feed with liquid mullein or herbal infusion. After some time, I water with an aqueous solution of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (according to the instructions).
I cut off tarragon before flowering, dry like mint in a place protected from the sun, in a well-ventilated area. Then I put them in containers with a tight-fitting lid - this will save the flavor of the spice. Tarragon can be harvested in the first year after planting.
Before the onset of winter, I cut off the aerial part of the plant and sprinkle it with humus. But, even if this is not done, tarragon will not die - it has excellent winter hardiness.
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Tarragon - in the garden and at home
A lot of tarragon grows in my garden, since I can not imagine my life without this greenery. In addition, the fragrant plant is undemanding to the soil, but prefers loose and fertile plants. It is most convenient to multiply it by dividing the bush. Care consists in weeding, loosening of row spacing, watering in dry weather and fertilizing. For winter I slightly cover tarragon (for example, straw), in spring I remove all dry shoots, feed and loosen the soil.
I use greens of tarragon in fresh form, and I also add cucumbers and cabbage to the preparations. I can not do without tarragon and when soaking apples and pears. Green gives 9 vegetables and fruits a strong and delicate aroma.
And I add tarragon to vinegar. In a liter bottle of vinegar put 100 g estragon, pieces of apples and 2-3 laurel leaves. Tightly cork and leave for 15 days. After that, I strain through gauze and use it.
I cut fresh greens from mid-spring to autumn. And I get the winter-spring crop by distillation from the rhizomes of adult plants. To do this, in the spring I plant parts of the bushes on the beds with a continuous ribbon. In the autumn, I cut off the aerial part of the plants, and cover the bed with peat so that the soil does not freeze. In winter I take off my shelter, dig out the bushes, put them in a cool room (temperature should be 18 °) and plant them in a box close to each other.