To grow vitamin-rich greens in your garden or windowsill, it is not at all necessary to use complex agricultural techniques. Dill sprouts well, even if you sow dry seeds into the soil without prior preparation. But still, pre-sowing soaking allows you to get more friendly shoots and bring the first harvest closer. So, how to soak dill seeds before planting? The rules are quite simple and apply to any other greens - parsley, cilantro, lettuce, anise.
If the question is fundamental: whether it is necessary to soak dill seeds, then it is better to tinker with this procedure, although many summer residents make do with self-sowing. The meaning of soaking is explained by the fact that the seed coat of dill has a certain amount of essential oils on its surface. They play a protective role for the seed. Soaking in water or special solutions washes away the esters, stimulates the embryo and thereby facilitates germination.
Soaking of planting material must be done immediately before planting. And they do this only in spring or summer. If you are going to grow herbs on a windowsill, then this method will also be advisable. But before autumn sowing in open ground there is no need to soak dill!
You don’t have to worry about preparing the liquid and use regular tap water. However, many experienced gardeners still recommend using thawed, key or.
Today, there are several ready-made growth stimulants that can be purchased in the store:
All of them are of plant origin and are designed to accelerate not only the growth of plants, but also the germination of germs.
In the absence of ready-made drugs, you can use home remedies. They are prepared from raw materials of medicinal plants in the form of strong infusions and decoctions. The following can be used as a basis for preparing the solution:
As you know, this simple fertilizer is an excellent source of microelements. They are exactly what is needed at the moment when the first sprout gains strength. To prepare the solution, wood ash is poured with water in a proportion of 2 tablespoons per liter of water. Leave for two days and then filter through cheesecloth. The filtrate is used to soak the seeds.
At first glance, it seems wasteful to use honey for agricultural purposes, but you will need a little of it, so for the sake of a faster harvest, you can allocate a little. To soak the seeds you will need 1 teaspoon per glass of water. Honey is a source of a large amount of microelements and biologically active substances that have a beneficial effect on the growth of the embryo.
You can also speed up the germination of parsley and dill seeds using a complex composition. To prepare it, you need an ash solution prepared according to the above recipe, as well as an infusion of onion peels. It is made at the rate of a handful per 500 ml of water. An infusion of ash is also taken half a liter. Add 0.5 g of potassium permanganate, 0.1 g of boric acid and 2.5 g of baking soda. Exposure of seeds in such a solution can be reduced to 10 hours.
I hope you don't mind if I make a slight digression from the topic. If you consider yourself a caring summer resident, then you may be interested not only in the issue of preparing seeds, but also in the problem of arranging the entire site. After all, often a garden is not just a platform for growing beds, it is a place where the whole family relaxes. And in order to turn your garden into a “paradise for the soul,” you need to plan everything competently and beautifully.
There is a lot of information on this issue both on the Internet and in magazines, but most often it is fragmentary and unsystematic. I want to recommend you a video course that does not have these shortcomings. It's called "18 steps to the garden of your dreams". It presents a detailed step-by-step algorithm on how to make everything beautiful and convenient on your site without having the skills of a landscape designer. If you are interested in this topic, you can read the details at the link. I can only add that the works of the course authors have long been in demand in gardening circles.
And in conclusion, I also want to say a few words about soaking seeds. Although the given instructions for pre-sowing seed soaking apply to dill, they can be safely used for other crops. It is not suitable only for plant seeds that require additional procedures for germination (for example, scarification or stratification). But most garden plants (parsley, lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes, cabbage, etc.) do not fall into this category, so you can safely use this scheme for them.
Have a rich harvest! Nadezhda Goryunova
Dill is a healthy and affordable seasoning grown in country houses and gardens, balconies and window sills. But the crop has a long germination period, so after sowing the first greens have to wait about three weeks. However, experienced gardeners know ways to quickly germinate dill seeds. Today we will reveal these secrets.
Dill seeds contain a large amount of essential oils. It is these substances that prevent moisture from entering the seed, slowing down the biological processes of development. Therefore, when sowing dill with dry seeds, seedlings appear only after 15-20 days. To speed up the germination of seeds, they are germinated.
There are several ways to germinate dill seeds. They are soaked in water, potassium permanganate solution, vodka, herbal infusions, and growth stimulants.
Important! Before soaking, dill seeds are washed for 2-3 minutes in hot water (55–60 °C). At the same time, some of the oils are washed out from the seeds, which contributes to their faster germination.
Preparation of planting material begins a week before planting. Treatment is carried out for rapid germination and disinfection to get rid of pathogens of viral and fungal diseases.
Let's look at what the seeds are soaked in before planting.
Place a cotton cloth or gauze on the bottom of the plate, sprinkle seeds and fill with filtered water. The liquid temperature for heat-loving varieties should be 20–25 °C, for others - 15–20 °C.
The water must be changed every 4 hours. During soaking, the seeds should just swell. Once 1–1.5% of the seed material has hatched, the process is complete. Shoots from such seeds appear 2-3 days earlier than when sowing dry ones.
For soaking, products containing magnesium, iron, copper, boron, molybdenum, zinc and cobalt are used. Stimulants promote the growth process and awaken the embryos. Disinfected and heated seeds are soaked in a solution, then dried, but not washed, and planted.
The most commonly used growth stimulants:
40% vodka not only dissolves essential oils, which promotes rapid germination, but also disinfects seeds. To do this, planting material is placed in cotton cloth and dipped in vodka for 15 minutes, no more.
The action of the solution is based on the high content of microelements, in particular potassium and calcium. Before soaking, prepare a solution: 2 tbsp. l. ash is poured into 1 liter of water and left for 2 days, stirring occasionally. Dill seeds are placed in the strained solution in a fabric bag for 4-5 hours.
Pour 1 tsp into a cup. chamomile, pour boiling water (90–95 °C), cool to 50 °C and soak the seeds for half an hour. You can also use aloe juice: dilute with water 1:1 and place the planting material in the infusion for a day.
After soaking, the seeds must be pickled:
After treatment with fungicides and stimulants, the seeds are washed and dried until they flow.
Before planting, the bed is watered. Dill is sown in furrows 2 cm deep, the distance between the furrows is 15–20 cm, the distance between the seeds is 1–2 cm. The furrows are covered with loose soil mixed with humus and watered.
The first sprouts of dill, the seeds of which have been germinated, appear after 7-10 days.
Let's look at how to speed up germination. There are several factors influencing the process of seed germination:
To ensure that your garden has its own dill all summer, experienced gardeners recommend planting it in stages.
The first sowing can be done in April, after the snow has melted, on beds prepared in the fall (with added organic and mineral fertilizers). In the northern regions a little later, in May. These seeds do not need to be germinated; washing is sufficient. If seedlings emerge too early, they will suffer from spring frosts.
The second planting is carried out in August with seeds with preliminary soaking so that the dill has time to reach commercial ripeness.
Starting from the first spring planting, every 3 weeks a new batch of dill is sown with sprouted seeds. When one batch enters the flowering phase, the other begins to gain green mass, and so on until autumn.
In November, dill is planted before winter. Seeds for winter planting are not germinated or watered after planting. Winter dill produces its first harvest 1-2 weeks earlier than the first spring sowing.
Dill seeds are germinated in order to speed up their germination. There are several methods that do not require special skills or additional financial costs. By following the technology, you can get the harvest much earlier than expected.
These methods are good for those who are late in planting, and for those who want to have fresh greens all summer.
Dill is cultivated in all European countries, and in Russia it has become very widespread in culture in almost all regions.
Dill is a well-known aromatic fragrant herb, which is used in cooking as a very popular spice for most dishes. This green crop belongs to a monotypic genus of annual herbaceous plants from the Apiaceae family. Most gardeners know very well what dill seeds and plants look like. On a single, upright, branched or almost simple stem, large double umbrellas are formed, the diameter of which can reach 15-25 cm.
“Anethum” flowers are collected in small umbels with a diameter of 20–90 mm. The fruits are represented by lichens. Dill seeds have an ovoid or wide elliptical shape. As a rule, the length of the seed does not exceed 0.5 cm. In the conditions of home garden vegetable growing, the peak flowering of dill occurs in June–July, and ripening is observed from July to September.
Today, a huge number of varieties of dill, or Anethum graveolens L., are known, which were bred by foreign and domestic breeders. In home gardening in our country, five zoned varieties of this green crop are most widespread: “Gribovsky”, “Uzbek 243”, “Armenian 269”, “Superducat” And "Kaskelensky".
Planting dill seeds is not difficult, but it is necessary to take into account some features of this garden crop, including preliminary preparation of seed material and sowing time.
The optimal way to destroy the ethereal film is to use bubbling. For this purpose, dill seeds should be placed in a container of sufficient size filled with water at room temperature. Then you need to turn on the aquarium compressor.
Under the influence of water and air bubbles, the seed material is effectively cleaned of oils, but is not damaged. The entire process of this treatment lasts about 18-20 hours, after which the sprouted seeds must be sown almost immediately.
To remove essential oils from seeds, the bubbling process can be replaced by a soaking procedure. For this purpose, you need to fill the prepared seeds with clean water at room temperature. It is very important to know that you need to soak dill seeds for about two days, but you should definitely change the water every 5-6 hours.
Dill is grown in accordance with agrotechnical requirements. Planting seeds can be done after the snow has melted and the soil has warmed to a depth of 10 cm. Dill seeds germinate at a temperature of 3 to 5 °C, but if the plantings are covered with covering material, the seedlings will appear much earlier.
It is recommended to sow dill in areas with neutral and loose soils. When planting on heavy soils, the germination rates, growth and development of garden crops are significantly reduced. The standard technology for sowing dill is as follows:
After the seeds are sprinkled with soil, watering is not recommended, since such an event provokes deep penetration of the seeds and reduces germination.
To get the highest possible yield, you should adhere to the following rules for cultivating dill:
To get a conveyor supply of fresh herbs, it is recommended to sow dill every two weeks. Under conditions of a sufficiently high level of agricultural technology, average yields can be more than 15 c/ha. However, the yield largely depends on the cultivated variety.
The category of the most productive in terms of seed material includes mid-season varieties. To collect the maximum number of seeds It is recommended to plant varieties such as “Kibray”, “Uzory”, “Richelieu”, “Lesnogorodsky”, “Borey” And "Umbrella".
Harvesting dill fruits should begin at the stage of yellowing of the lower leaves of the plant and when the fruits of the central umbrella turn brown. High-quality raw materials are ripe, dried dill fruits with a peculiar “dill” aroma, sweetish-spicy and slightly pungent taste. The average content of essential oils in finished raw materials is 2.5% or more.
Late varieties of dill fully ripen after two or two and a half months and are capable of growing a significant amount of green mass, and are also suitable for harvesting umbrellas. The most popular early varieties of dill include “Grenadier”, “Gribovsky” and “Umbrella”. They ripen about a month after the appearance of mass shoots, but are characterized by short stature and lower yields, and also enter the flowering phase early.
In accordance with the rules for storing essential oil raw materials, the standard shelf life of collected dill seeds does not exceed three years. As a rule, seed material, after drying, retains its viability well when stored in paper bags. However, experienced vegetable growers and gardeners recommend storing dill seeds in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid.
Dill provides vitamin-rich greens for salads and fragrant umbrellas for home canning for the winter. Dill seeds often sow by themselves, and plants grow in beds, or even right in furrows, anywhere. Most of this “harvest” has to be pulled out so that the dill does not interfere with the growth of other crops. Therefore it is best plant dill seeds in open ground organized, in a specially designated place.
Dill seeds contain essential oils that delay their germination. They emerge dry only after 20 - 25 days. Shoots will appear faster if soak dill seeds before planting in one of the solutions:
You don’t have to soak the dill seeds before planting, but put them in a fabric bag and bury them in the soil to a depth of a spade. The ground should be damp and unheated. This is done 2 weeks before planting. Then the seeds are dug up, taken out of the bag and dried. After this you can sow immediately. It is believed that seeds prepared in this way germinate within 4-5 days.
Most summer residents are not worried about Do you need to soak dill seeds before planting?. If you want to enjoy aromatic, vitamin-rich greens earlier, then it’s better not to be lazy and soak them. Dill seeds are also planted before winter. With this planting method, earlier seedlings can also be achieved.
The soil for planting dill is prepared in the same way as for other crops, nothing special. The soil should be dug up, loose, moderately fertilized and moist. In the garden bed, grooves are cut 2-3 cm deep. And the distance between the grooves must be kept at 15-20 cm. The seeds are lowered into the ground at a distance of 1-2 cm from each other, sprinkled with earth and lightly watered.
Dill is a fairly unpretentious plant that tolerates cold and even frost well. But due to lack of moisture, the leaves grow coarse and small. It is convenient to grow dill in free places that are not convenient for growing other crops: on the edge of greenhouses and hotbeds, on the unoccupied “tail” of the bed. The proximity of dill to cabbage and cucumbers is favorable. In one of the reference books we found the following scheme for creating a mixed bed:
This placement of crops makes it possible to achieve optimal crop density and high yields.
It is possible to sow at several times, including in spring and before winter. In the latter case, the vitamin-rich, aromatic greens will ripen earlier.
The first shoots will appear in about 2 weeks.
Sources of information: reference book “Seeds” (
Dill is a spicy herb rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential oils. In cooking it is used for cooking, in folk medicine - to cure ailments. Planting and care in open ground is carried out in early spring. But there are ways to plant dill in the winter to get fresh herbs all year round.
The culture is unpretentious, it can be sown all year round, in winter - in a greenhouse or at home, placing containers with the plant on the windowsill. Growing dill has several features, and to get a harvest you need to know them.
When to plant dill seeds depends on the time of year:
For planting you need an open place, or at least partial shade. The crop does not tolerate waterlogging, so it should not be sown near groundwater or where water stagnates. Suitable predecessors are potatoes, garlic, cucumbers, cabbage, and onions. It is advisable not to plant after carrots, parsley, parsnips, caraway seeds.
Soils that are neutral in acidity are needed; on others, the greens turn either red (acidic) or yellow (alkaline). In order to get a harvest of greens, you need to know how to grow dill in soil that is not suitable for it. The soil can be deoxidized by adding additives such as chalk, dolomite flour, lime at least 2 weeks before sowing.
Before growing dill in open ground, you should remove the remains of previous plants in the fall. If the organic matter is not damaged by pests and is not externally infected with anything, it can be burned and the ash can be used as fertilizer or left for compost.
Before winter, add urea, potassium chloride, and superphosphate to the soil. Until spring, harmful substances are neutralized, the soil is enriched with nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Organic fertilizers (manure, humus, wood ash) are also applied to the beds in the fall.
Dill loves light, loose soil rich in nutrients. If it is severe, it will grow slowly, get sick, and the harvest will be small. To change the structure of heavy soil, you can use river sand (1 bucket per 1 m²). Along with it, add compost to the soil, which will increase looseness and increase fertility.
Before planting dill in the country, the soil must be dug up to 25-30 cm, having previously scattered fertilizer over the surface of the future beds. Turn over large lumps and break them up. For dill, which is planned to be planted in open ground with seeds in the spring, such preparation is carried out 2 weeks before winter sowing or as the beds are cleared of plants growing on them.
How to grow good dill - choose a variety suitable for given climatic conditions and time of year. Varieties differ in the time of cultivation and sowing, external characteristics, and area of application. There are 3 groups:
To grow dill from seeds in open ground before winter, early varieties are used. They are very unpretentious and will sprout quickly. The first harvest will be 2 weeks earlier than that sown in early spring, but the yield of dill is low, as it blooms quickly and stops producing new branches.
On a note! The shelf life of dill seeds for planting is only 2-3 years; it is better to store no more than one year. Good seeds have a strong odor and feel cool and moist to the touch.
Bush varieties are grown in greenhouses in winter. They can be used to grow dill from seeds on the windowsill. Late-ripening ones are more demanding to care for, so they give a good harvest at home. A large branchy bush grows on the window, producing new leaves.
To obtain a good harvest of dill in open ground, you must follow the rules of cultivation and care. It is important to choose a suitable place (light, not flooded), pre-prepare the soil (dig, fertilize), and water it abundantly.
In some cases, first prepare seeds for planting, for example, for growing in a greenhouse or on a windowsill, accelerating the ripening of plants planted in summer, and obtaining an early harvest. But untreated seeds withstand weather changes better.
To sow dill in spring in open ground, seed preparation is not necessary.
When umbels form and seeds ripen, the plant can disperse throughout the garden by self-sowing. It is undesirable to allow this, since it does not get along well with all plants, and may even harm some. In addition, there will not be a high yield from the spice itself. To get a good harvest, you need to know how to plant dill correctly.
Before planting dill, the seed material should be prepared. This will help speed up the appearance of the first shoots and reduce the time until the first greenery is obtained. This is especially important for bush varieties. They require more time to develop and are more demanding of growing conditions.
Seed preparation is also necessary in cases where it is necessary for dill to sprout faster. The seed coat contains essential oils that prevent it from opening and protect it from external influences. During preliminary preparation, the oils are washed off and the seeds germinate faster. Accelerated germination is not required when sowing dill before winter.
The easiest way to prepare seeds for planting so that they sprout quickly is soaking. They can be laid out on a plate and filled with water or placed in a gauze bag and placed in water. Water temperature 20-25°C, change every 4 hours, stir occasionally. You can use water at a temperature of about 50°C for disinfection. The duration of soaking is 3 days; the beginning of pecking of some seeds can also serve as a guide. Next, you should dry the seed material for about 30 minutes. and sow. If you soak the seeds before planting, seedlings will emerge earlier than if you use dry seed.
Important! Seeds suitable for sowing sink to the bottom when soaked. The ones that float up should be removed immediately; they will not produce a harvest.
To speed up germination and disinfect the seeds, another soaking method is used. Fill with water for 3-4 hours, periodically draining and pouring new water, then immerse for 2-3 hours in a strong solution of potassium permanganate. Rinse and dry before sowing.
For the same purpose, soaking dill seeds in hydrogen peroxide is used. To do this, place the washed seeds in 3% peroxide for 6 minutes, then rinse and dry. You can also use an infusion of wood ash. 2 tbsp. l. pour dry matter with warm water and leave for 2 days. Stir occasionally. Drain the infusion, place a bag of seeds in it, and leave in the solution for 4-5 hours.
Before planting dill in open ground, the seeds can be soaked, but they cannot be germinated, as this reduces the survival rate of the sprouts. The soil must also be prepared in advance. Many varieties do not require any preparatory measures, but preliminary fertilization and digging of the soil significantly increase the yield.
First, the soil should be watered abundantly and left for 1-2 days. Make furrows 5 cm wide and water. Instead of water, you can use a hot solution of potassium permanganate to disinfect the soil. Sow dill along the furrow in a zigzag pattern to a depth of 2 cm. The distance between future plants is 3-4 cm, and between rows 15-20 cm. Sprinkle the top with a thin layer of loose soil or humus. Do not water, otherwise the seeds will go deep into the ground.
After planting, dill sprouts in 2-2.5 weeks. There is no need to apply additional fertilizers at this stage; the crop grows quickly. If the leaves change color to yellow-green during development, this may be a signal that there is not enough nitrogen in the soil. Applying suitable fertilizer will correct the situation.
Important! You cannot add large amounts of nitrogen-containing fertilizers to the soil - the spice accumulates nitrates. Instead, the sown dill can be watered with nettle infusion fermented for 5 days.
In order for dill to sprout quickly in the spring, you need to sow it before winter. You can also prepare the soil in the fall, and in winter clear a small area of snow, sow seeds, and cover the top with compost or humus.
It can be planted in autumn or winter, grown in a greenhouse or on a windowsill. In autumn, seeds should be planted in open ground. It is advisable to do this no earlier than 2 weeks before frost, so that it does not have time to sprout. Seed consumption is 1.5-2 times more than during spring planting. Do not soak the seeds, plant them to a depth of 3 cm. Mulch the soil on top to retain moisture and protect the crops from frost. For pre-winter planting of dill, use early varieties.
To plant spices in winter, you need to prepare the soil in the fall. To do this, dig up the beds and add fertilizer. Remove the remains of previous crops. In winter, clear the area of snow and scatter the seeds over the surface without burying them. Cover the top with a layer of humus or loose soil with manure; you can additionally cover it with film. This method, just like the previous one, is used to obtain an early harvest of greens. The amount of seed material is 2 times greater than the spring consumption. Do not prepare seeds for planting; sow them dry.
The secrets of growing dill in open ground after seedlings have germinated are watering, fertilizing, and removing weeds. The seedlings can withstand temperatures down to -4°C, so periodic drops in temperature are not a problem. It is advisable to cover the top with film if the frost lasts longer or the temperature drops below the permissible level.
How to sow dill in a greenhouse:
In order for dill to grow in a greenhouse all year round, you need to use bush varieties. Sow new seeds every 20 days. There should be a distance of 15-30 cm between the rows. Fertilize the soil as necessary and water moderately. Thin out dill seedlings and remove weeds. Make sure there are no pests or diseases on the crop.
Depending on the variety, dill grows from 30 to 65 days. Green twigs can be plucked before an umbrella with seeds grows. This period also lasts for different times depending on the variety. Caring for the plant consists of watering, fertilizing, loosening the soil, and removing weeds.
Watering regime for dill - as needed. Usually 1-2 times a week is enough, but in hot, dry summers daily watering in the evening may be necessary. Avoid stagnation of water and drying out of the soil.
Fertilizers for dill are applied 2 weeks before planting. If the location is chosen correctly, additional feeding will not be required. During plant growth, organic fertilizers can be added if necessary. For example, yellowing of the leaves indicates a lack of nitrogen, redness indicates an excess of potassium or waterlogging. Early flowering begins when there is insufficient nutrients in the soil.
How to feed dill in the garden: urea (1 tsp per 1 bucket of water), mullein (1:10), fermented nettle infusion.
The infusion is prepared as follows: pour water over the nettle in a ratio of 1:8, add kvass or yeast. Place in the sun for 1 week, stir occasionally. The infusion is ready when there are no bubbles and the color of the liquid is dark. Dilute with water 1:10, can be used once every 2 weeks.
Caring for dill in open ground differs from greenhouse cultivation in the need to remove weeds more often and protect the crops from diseases and pests. Weeding is of great importance at an early stage of growth, so that weeds do not interfere with their development; carry it out once a week.
When you cut off the branches, others do not grow back, but in the case of bush dill, you can cut off the leaves, new ones will continue to grow. For further growth of the plant you need to leave a few leaves. If the peduncle is not needed for pickling or other purposes, you can remove it; the plant will not die from this and will not waste energy on developing an umbrella.
You can protect your greenery from aphids by planting several thyme bushes nearby. Spraying with ethyl crude alcohol with fragrance is used (2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water). Fallen aphids should be covered with soil.
A plant affected by powdery mildew (white fungal coating) should be destroyed; at the first signs of the disease, it can be sprayed with a sulfur suspension. Fomoz (dark spots throughout the plant) cannot be treated, diseased specimens are removed, sowing in this area can be resumed only after 4 years. Spraying with copper oxychloride or copper sulfate helps against downy mildew (light to purple oily spots on the leaves).
Dill can be grown on a windowsill in winter. The container for sowing must be chosen of a suitable size to allow the root system to develop well. Place a layer of expanded clay or pebbles on the bottom and sprinkle a little coarse sand on top. The main content of the container is garden soil mixed with neutral soil. You can use a special soil mixture for dill or mix turf, humus and peat; hydroponics is also suitable.
Pre-prepared seeds should be used for planting. There are no special features in preparing dill for sowing on the windowsill; you can use any of the methods described above. Seeds must be disinfected.
Sow dill on prepared soil in any desired order; you can make small holes or grooves and place the seeds in them. Sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top (up to 2 cm). Lightly moisten the surface with a spray bottle, cover with film to create a greenhouse effect, leave for 2 weeks at a temperature of 20°C.
After sowing, the first shoots will sprout in 7-10 days. Remove the film after all the sprouts appear. Once a day, the container should be rotated so that the greens grow upwards rather than sideways. It is necessary to arrange lighting for at least 10 hours. If there is not enough light, the sprouts will stretch out instead of forming leaves. In winter and on cloudy days, it is useful to illuminate the boxes with a phytolamp.
Growing dill on a windowsill is the best way to grow herbs in winter. Doesn't require a lot of work, the only difficulty can arise with lighting. Watering once a week is enough, more often if necessary. It is advisable to fertilize with mineral fertilizers 2 times a month. Every 15-20 days you can sow new seeds.
