Gardeners do not attach much importance to herbaceous plants that grow in the wild, preferring already popular varieties of vegetables: potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic. But in nature there is a description of other useful herbs that you can grow in your garden and receive important microelements for food all year round. Such useful herbs include a bulbous plant called Slizun.
Bow characteristics
This perennial herbaceous plant grows in the wild nature of Russia and is more often found in the Altai Territory and Siberia.In the wild it reproduces by seeds and roots. It grows on a personal plot for 5 years, after which it must be replanted.
The tops are green in the form of feathers 2 centimeters wide, the feathers reach 30 centimeters in length. It grows from cylindrical false bulbs no more than 2 centimeters wide. The taste of Slime resembles garlic feathers; the upper green part is eaten. The bulbs have no nutritional value and are not suitable for consumption.
This green mass is rich in microelements - to replenish your daily supply of vitamins and minerals, you need to eat only 30 grams of greens per day.
Onions bloom in the second year after planting with spherical umbrellas. The color of the flowers is pale pink - the flowering plant looks very beautiful in the garden. It was named slug for the slimy juice that flows out of the greenery when the stem is broken. The juice has a faint garlic smell and taste. Mild, moderately sweet and tasty onions are eaten. Used as an additive to salads, seasoning for meat and fish dishes. Feathers are dried and salted for long-term storage.
Useful properties of the plant
This herb contains a large number of useful substances:
- Vitamins of groups B1, B2, PP, C.
- Lots of microelements: potassium, zinc, iron, molybdenum, magnesium. Thanks to these elements, eating onions helps strengthen the cardiovascular system and promotes hematopoiesis.
- Phytoncides, carotene and sugars cleanse the body of harmful substances.
- Mucus helps improve digestion.
- The leaves are useful not only when eaten - the juice helps heal wounds and disinfect areas infected with microbes. This elixir also relieves pain from injuries.
When eating 30 grams of the plant daily, a person will not experience the need for vital elements - his health will improve before his eyes.
How to grow onions on the plot?
It is very easy to grow this herb in your garden. Onions are resistant to winter frosts - they do not disappear from the garden without shelter even in frosts of 40 degrees. To grow healthy grass, you need to select a small area with fertile soil, which will contain humus. In such a plot, the variety produces a harvest for up to 6 years.
The soil
For the low-maintenance Slizun, light neutral soil or loam with high moisture permeability is suitable. The site must be free of flooding and stagnant water. Water does not allow air to the roots of the plant, and it dies. To prevent stagnation, some gardeners raise the onion bed by 20 centimeters. The soil should not be acidic - in this case, the taste of the onions will deteriorate and become bitter.
To get rid of acidity, you need to add ash, chalk or dolomite flour. Before planting, in the spring, the bed is saturated with humus and dug up.
How to plant?
Onions are planted according to a 30x15 centimeter pattern, with a distance of 30 centimeters left between the rows of onions. As the roots grow, they fill the soil and thus rid the bed of weeds. She simply has no room to grow.
After four years, the onion ceases to produce a high-quality harvest due to the growth of roots; it simply does not have enough space in the garden. Therefore, it is replanted by removing excess tops. Only young green shoots with part of the root are left. After removing the onions, dig up the soil well, removing all the roots.
Plant care
Onions require the following care:
- watering;
- leaf trimming;
- loosening the beds;
- weeding if necessary.
Cut onions 4 times a season, removing only the long stems. Young shoots are left for the next cutting. You need to remove the leaves with part of the root; pruning promotes greater growth of the feathers of Slizun's onion. Also, removing old tops contributes to the formation of young, more nutritionally valuable shoots.
In order for onions to produce a high-quality harvest, starting in spring they are fed with organic and mineral fertilizers. In the second year of life, a peduncle appears on the plant, which must be removed. Otherwise, microelements will go into flower growth and seed ripening. In the case of decorative growing of plants, flowers are left on the site for beauty.
When any plant grows, it needs a good, moist environment, and Slime is no exception. Watering is carried out abundantly, especially in dry weather. Weeding and loosening the soil will prevent the development of microorganisms and weeds, which only retard growth.
Useful grass in winter: how to grow?
Usually in winter people are in dire need of vitamins and microelements, this is due to the lack of fruits and vegetables that provide the body with useful substances. Vitamins are also needed to protect the body from viruses, infections and disease. To provide yourself and your family with useful substances for the winter, onions are grown on the windowsill in the house. In order not to lose a storehouse of vitamins and microelements in the fall, the plants are transplanted into temporary containers and brought home to the windowsill. There they will produce a useful harvest all winter. Onions tolerate transplantation well; there is no need to be afraid that it will not take root in the new place.
There are only a few necessary conditions for transplanted plants. This means high-quality soil, a large pot or other container, and timely watering.
If these conditions are met, then the harvest will not take long to arrive.
You can replant plants as a whole bush, but this requires a larger container, or with young shoots into smaller containers. Place the grass in a bright, warm place without drafts; not a single plant likes drafts, and the growth of green mass requires the sun, otherwise the harvest will be meager.
Decorative function of Slime
Many summer residents use this plant for decoration. It grows like indoor ficus, with neat, even leaves, and when the plant blooms, it is very beautiful in the flowerbed. This grass has another important function: it limits the growth of roots in creeping plants. If you plant onion bushes in a circle, and other flowers in the middle, then the leaves will look like a green fence, preventing weeds from entering and protecting creeping plants from getting out. Also, onions are planted along the curbs, then the grass will not bother you, overgrowing the sidewalk. As you can see, the Slizun onion, when properly grown and cared for, is useful not only nutritionally, but also aesthetically.
Some craftsmen combine the decorative and food functions of onions, planting them in the form of a flower bed and, if necessary, harvesting them.
