Rules planting Chinese Schizandra and care for him

Chinese lemongrass is well known in our country. The plant has high decorative qualities and numerous useful properties. In spring, the culture will delight the eye with its snow-white flowers, and in the summer and autumn months it will generously bestow a rich harvest. In addition, due to the high content of substances such as malic and ascorbic acid, schizadrin and essential oils, not only berries, but also leaves, seeds and bark of a plant are of particular value.

Despite the fact that areas of the Far East are the birthplace of Schizandra, the culture has spread widely across the globe and has found wide application in many sectors of the food industry. Chinese Schizandra, often called Far Eastern or Manchurian, is a deciduous vine reaching a length of 15 m. However, in the conditions of the Siberian climate, the shrub rarely grows longer than 4 meters. The stem of the plant is covered with brown bark, which in adults acquires a scaly structure and begins to peel. The bark of the lateral processes and young shoots has a light yellow tint and a smooth texture. The leaves of the bush differ in elliptical shape and reach 10 cm in length, and their width varies from 3 to 5 cm.

The Manchurian lemongrass belongs to monoecious plants and has dioecious flowers, but in particularly lean years one tree can be covered only with male inflorescences. Lemongrass flower exudes a unique aroma and is characterized by a bright white color. However, in the process of flowering, the inflorescences turn pink, which gives them a very unusual appearance and significantly increases the decorative value of the shrub.

To date, 23 species of plants are known, but only some of them are most common.

• "Garden-1" is a highly productive, self-pollinating variety, which is distinguished by good winter-resistance and is able to withstand external aggressive impacts of a sharply continental climate. The plant has quite lush forms, and some lateral stems grow up to 10 m. Juicy fruits have a characteristic lemon scent and are distinguished by spherical shapes and red color. In the brush of the plant is usually 22-25 berries, and its length is 10 cm. The variety has a very high yield, which allows you to collect up to 6 kg of berries from each plant per season.

• Volgar also tolerates frosty winters and is the most drought-resistant of all varieties. Culture is absolutely not susceptible to most of the diseases characteristic of this species, and is well resistant to the invasion of pests. The plant belongs to late-ripening varieties and is presented in the form of a monoecious liana with large red fruits. Harvest ripening begins in early September, however, in cold climates, the dates may slightly shift. On one adult plant, 15 fruits are usually formed, so that its yield can reach 7-8 kg.

• "Mountain" also applies to frost-resistant varieties and has an average aging time. The first crop ripens in late August. The plant is quite resistant to many diseases and is not susceptible to attacks of pests. The crop grows to a length of 9 cm and consists of 15 berries with a tart bitter-sour taste. The yield of the variety is very low and amounts to only 2 kg of berries per season.

• "Firstborn" is a breeding variety and is characterized by high resistance to attacks of pests and excellent immunity. Culture tolerates frosty winters and is resistant to pests. The fruit of the plant has a sour specific taste and a pronounced lemon scent. The length of the brushes reaches 12 cm, and the weight ranges from 8 to 12 grams. The variety belongs to the category of monoecious and is characterized by low bushes of medium spreading.

• "Myth" It is among those varieties whose authentic origin is unknown. The plant has a small brush with 15 fruits on it. The taste of berries is very pleasant, without a pronounced bitter taste.

• Oltis It is also quite frost-resistant variety and has a good yield. Under favorable conditions and proper care from one bush it is possible to collect up to 5 kg of fruits. The plant is distinguished by small scarlet berries, the number of which in one brush can reach 30 pieces.

• "Purple" It was bred more than 30 years ago and is one of the oldest varieties. The plant is a high-yielding species that allows you to collect from 4-5 kg ​​of fruits from each bush. The culture is mid-season, so you can harvest the first crop in late August.

There are no clear dates for planting Chinese Schizandra. The landing time is completely dependent on the climatic conditions of the area and the likelihood of return frosts. Thus, in the central part of the country, as well as in the regions located to the south of the Leningrad Region, landing is carried out in the last days of April. However, these terms cannot be considered final, and if the spring is sufficiently cold and the earth has not yet fully thawed out, then the event is transferred to the first decade of May.

In the southern districts, lemongrass is planted in the fall. The best time for landing will be the first decade of October. Before the onset of winter, plants have time to firmly root and easily tolerate cold. In the Urals and Siberia, they are more often oriented not on the calendar month, but on the temperature of the soil. Planting lemongrass can only be carried out if the ground has warmed to 10 degrees. However, planting work is desirable to produce before the first growth buds. During the summer months, young vines have time to form a powerful root system and optimally prepare for the upcoming cold weather.

An important condition for growing a beautiful and healthy plant is a competent choice of seedlings. The best option for planting material will be three-year healthy bushes with developed roots of at least 25 cm in length and devoid of visible damage. It is advisable to choose those plants that are sold with a lump of mother earth. This will ensure a better survival rate and reduce the stress of seedlings from falling into an unfamiliar environment. Also need to pay attention to the bark. It should be smooth and smooth to the touch, without pronounced damage and shriveling. The presence of these defects indicates a violation of the storage conditions of the shoots and poor watering during their cultivation.

To transport purchased seedlings, their rhizomes must be wrapped with a damp cloth and put in a plastic bag. After the shoots have been delivered to the landing site, they should be placed in a bucket of water for 10-12 hours. This will saturate all root processes with moisture and prevent them breaking off during planting. “Epin” and “Zircon” are usually added to a container with water, which stimulate root formation and help restore the plant's life processes after planting. It is possible to plant Far Eastern Schizandra with seeds, but their use as a planting material is more often practiced in large nurseries.

Manchurian lemongrass is best planted in sunny, windproof areas. If the plant is located on the south side of the house, then it is necessary to create moderate shading. This is to ensure that the sun's rays do not burn the young shoot. Planting from the eastern and western sides is also allowed, however, with such a placement of the vine, on the contrary, it is necessary to ensure free access of sunlight, which it will receive half of the daylight hours.In addition, when locating bushes near the house, it is necessary to take care of the organization of the catchment system and not allow water from the roof to flow directly onto the plants.

In addition to the conditions of insolation, you should pay attention to the type of soil. This requirement is due to the fact that lemongrass is rather picky about their quality and structure. Thus, lime is necessary in acidic and strongly acidified soils, and a mixture of clay and organic fertilizers is added to peaty and sandy soils. If the area is dominated by heavy loamy soils, which will impede the flow of fluid to the roots of vines, it is recommended to introduce a sand-humus mixture, which will significantly increase the porosity of the soil and provide the plants with the necessary organic elements.

In addition, before planting shoots, it is recommended to equip the drainage system, which will take away excess moisture from the roots. As a drainage material fit small pebbles, crushed stone or river pebbles, placed at the bottom of the landing holes.

Planting Chinese Schizandra can be done in two ways. The first is the sowing of seeds and independent cultivation of seedlings, and the second is the process of planting ready-made shoots.

The seeds of the Manchurian schisandra can either be purchased in specialized stores, or collected independently. The collection of seed material is made from fully matured fruits of beautiful and healthy plants. When choosing a parent, you need to pay attention to the abundance and quality of the harvested crop, and if you plan to grow lemongrass for beauty, then to the decorative qualities of vines. After the plant is selected, and the seeds are collected, it is required to evaluate and reject the seed. To do this, the seeds are placed in a shallow container and left for 7-10 days. After 2-3 days, some of the seeds will float to the surface. Such seedlings will not germinate and should be removed. The remaining seeds remain in the water until the end of the specified period.

The second stage of seed preparation will be stratification. Before performing this mandatory procedure, it is necessary to prepare fine river sand and place it in the oven for disinfection. Then the sand should be cooled and mixed with seeds at the rate of 3: 1. Next, the mixture is poured into wooden boxes and cleaned into a room with a temperature of 18-20 degrees. During the whole of the following month, the sand-seed mixture is watered, and the watering regime depends entirely on the humidity of the air in the room and at normal rates of 40-60% is every two days.

The next step will be hardening the seeds with snow. To do this, the boxes with the sand-seed mixture are covered with a thick layer of snow and exposed to frost for 25-30 days. If it is impossible to get the snow, you can put boxes in a cold basement for up to 2 months. After the seeds harden, you can start planting them in the ground. To this end, furrows are made in the earth, one and a half centimeters deep, seeds are placed there and covered with earth from the greenhouse. Then the beds are watered and mulched with peat. Planted in this way Chinese lemongrass grown for 1.5-2 years, after which it can be transplanted to any other place.

When planting it is necessary to remember that lemongrass tolerates transplantation rather poorly, therefore, it is necessary to plant the plant immediately to a permanent place.In order to plant a seedling, you need to dig a planting hole 50 cm deep, the width of the recess is determined depending on the type of soil, but generally is 40-50 cm. The bottom of the pit is covered with broken bricks, rubble or river pebbles. Then, a fertile soil layer is removed from the area of ​​one square meter in the garden and mixed with 65 kg of humus, two buckets of sand, 50 g of nitrogen-containing preparation and 150 g of phosphoric fertilizer. The prepared mixture is poured into the wells equipped with a drainage layer and placed in the form of high slides.

Then take the seedlings and cut them into 3 buds, the roots are also shortened, leaving about 20 cm. Next, the root system is coated with clay and placed in the wells over the cone-shaped hills formed from the prepared mixture. After the roots are laid out, they begin to fall asleep and tamp the prepared soil. When all the plants are planted, they plentifully shed, pouring 3-4 buckets of water under each bush. Planting single plants is not recommended. This will slow down the process of pollination and will have a negative impact on crop yields. It is better to plant vines of three or more seedlings, leaving a distance of about a meter between them.

To improve the survival rate of seedlings in the clay substrate, which is treated roots before planting, you must add a solution of mullein. To do this, 1 liter of dung infusion is diluted in a bucket of water and the resulting mixture is poured into a clay "mash". At the end of the planting, the root zone of each plant is mulched using peat, humus, straw, or sawdust. Mulching delays the evaporation of moisture and contributes to the creation of a favorable microclimate in the root zone.

In order to grow healthy and strong plants, they must be properly maintained. In general, the care of vines is simple and includes watering, feeding, pruning and weeding.

Watering plants should be as needed, but given their Far Eastern origin, where they have always been in conditions of very high humidity, the plants should be sprayed with water from time to time. Young shoots, which can dry out without sufficient moisture, are especially acute in need of regular watering. In particularly dry seasons, it is necessary to increase the intensity of irrigation during the growing season, spending 6-7 buckets of warm water for each plant. In addition, each dressing must be accompanied by abundant watering. Otherwise, the root system may simply burn from the effects of certain fertilizers without proper moisture.

Lemongrass feeding is an important agrotechnical event and is carried out in several stages. The first time the plants are fed in early spring, before bud break. As a fertilizer used compounds of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, taken in equal quantities. Moreover, in the first two years of the plant's life, the preparations are introduced in a dry form, scattering them on the mulch layer, slightly mixing and shedding it with warm water. As soon as the vine reaches three years of age, they begin to use nitrophoska, taken at the rate of 50 g / m2.

The second feeding is carried out after the plant has faded and forms fruit ovaries. During this period, it is necessary to apply complex fertilizers containing organic substances and minerals. The third time fertilizer magnolia produce after harvest, using drugs with a high content of phosphorus and potassium and watering the plant with a solution of mullein. In order to prepare this solution, it is necessary to fill the bucket by one third with cow dung and fill it up to the top with water.

Then you need to remove the bucket in a dark place and leave it there for 30 days. After this period, the resulting mixture is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 20 and produce watering plants at the root. The use of fresh manure to fertilize lemongrass is unacceptable.Leaked to the roots of the substance will begin to sweep and burn horse knots.

In addition to three annual supplements, it is recommended to bring in compost once every 2-3 years. For its preparation, a hole is dug at the edge of the plot and mown grass, fallen leaves, weeds and potato tops are dumped into it. In the hot period, the contents of the compost pile should be slightly dampened and occasionally turned over. Otherwise, the compost will heat up over 60 degrees and the necessary bacteria will die.

Covering a bunch of need to straw. The use of plastic film is unacceptable, as this may block the access of oxygen and the contents will start to rot. After 6-8 months, when the compost becomes suitable for use, it is scattered in the root zone and the soil is carefully dug up, going down by 6-8 cm. This is quite enough for useful substances to penetrate deep into the soil and begin to nourish the plant. .

Loosening and removing weeds should be done as needed. However, in the first two years of life lemongrass must be very careful. The fact is that the plant has a fibrous root system located very close to the surface of the earth, and quite often the upper root processes are located at a depth of 8-10 cm. Therefore, loosening during this period should be done very carefully, not going deeper into more than 4 -5 cm

Pruning lianas is performed in the autumn and is to remove dried and weakened shoots. When growing lemongrass as an ornamental shrub in the same period is the formation of the crown and pruning overgrown lashes.

The first pruning is done 2-3 years after planting. It was during this period that the root system, as a rule, was already formed and all the forces of the plant are spent on active growth of green mass. At this time, a large number of young shoots appear on the vine, of which no more than six strongest stems are recommended to be left. The rest of the processes are cut off as close as possible to the base of the bush. Pruning adult lemongrass is to remove the old 15-year-old branches, which already bear little fruit and only draw off a large amount of nutrients, so necessary for the development of young shoots.

Tying lianas is also a necessary event. Otherwise, the plants will lose their decorative effect and will look like a short shrub. In addition, the yield of non-affiliated bushes is markedly reduced, which is explained by the poor illumination of the plants, resulting from their shading by higher species or buildings. Tied bushes, in contrast, are distinguished by large fruits and high yields. Garter Schisandra is performed using trellis, which is recommended to install in the second year after planting. In the first year, their role is performed by wooden stakes neatly stuck near each plant.

A classic tapestry is metal poles dug into the ground with a wire stretched between them. As the pillars can be used metal profiles or pipes whose height must be at least 2.5 meters. Dredging into the ground should be done not less than 0.6 m, which is caused by a fairly serious weight and a large number of lashes of adult schisandra.

The wire is usually tensioned in three rows, the lower of which should be at a distance of 50 cm from the surface of the earth. Two subsequent rows are stretched with an interval of 70 cm, which is usually quite enough to intercept growing rods in the process of plant development.

There are several ways of breeding lemongrass. The seed method is quite laborious, and there is no guarantee that the varietal characteristics of the parents will be fully transmitted to the offspring. Therefore, the vegetative method is considered more effective and widespread. The reproduction of Chinese magnolia vine in a vegetative way is carried out with the help of shoots, cuttings and cuttings.

The propagation of basal shoots is the simplest method and consists in digging up the soil in the basal zone and separating the offspring from the parent. The success of this breeding is the immediate landing of the now independent plant on a new place. In warm regions, the event is held in early spring or immediately after harvest. In temperate and northern latitudes, the procedure is carried out in early March, without waiting for the appearance of growth buds.

Reproduction root cuttings is as follows: the root is cut into pieces the size of 10 cm, so that each segment is located at least three points of growth. Then the pieces are wrapped in a cloth moistened with a biostimulator, and kept for two or three days, after which they are planted in a greenhouse or open ground in a horizontal position, keeping a distance of 10-15 cm between cuttings. ground, then sprinkle with a layer of humus 3 cm thick. Then the cuttings are left alone, and, by watering regularly, wait for germination. Sprouted cuttings in the spring are transplanted to a permanent place.

Reproduction by layings is made with use of the not wooden green escapes which reached 2-year age. The event is the same as in the previous case, is made in the autumn period. To do this, the young branch is bent to the ground and secured with special brackets. Then whip sprinkle with humus and well shed. In the spring, you can observe the emergence of a new layer, which over the summer becomes strong enough and ready for independent living. In the fall, it is carefully separated from the maternal specimen and transplanted to a permanent place.

Sometimes it is necessary to get several new vines at once. In this case, all the lashes of the bush are separated, bend down to the ground, fall asleep with humus and water, and in the spring one young shoots appear from each. Using this method, from one bush you can get from 5 to 7 shoots. However, it is not worth expecting that all seven young processes will be strong and strong. Usually they turn out not so powerful and developed, as the sprout which grew from one bush in the single copy.

Far Eastern lemongrass does not like transplants, therefore it is recommended to plant seedlings immediately to a permanent place. This is due to the instant weakening of the plant, even with the slightest drying of the roots. Therefore, before transplanting the vine, it is recommended to fully prepare the seat, and finding the rhizome in the open air should be minimal.

Preparing a seat is not much different from preparing a well for planting a young seedling, with the only difference being that it must be bigger and deeper for an adult plant. It is necessary to dig out the transplanted bush very carefully, having previously moistened the soil. The rhizome should be removed from the soil with a lump of mother earth. This will contribute to a better survival of the plant and will not allow the roots to dry out in the process of moving from one place to another.

Far Eastern lemongrass is a valuable medicinal plant and is used in both traditional and traditional medicine. Due to its high decorative properties, it is often used as an independent element of landscape design, and also as a indoor plant for decorating winter gardens and terraces.

About the Schizandra Chinese: planting, care, cultivation in the garden and in the country, see the following video.