How and when to sow parsley correctly before winter and is it possible

Beds for greenery occupy large areas of vegetable gardens. Already in the spring you want to have fresh aromatic herbs on the table. To do this, you need to sow parsley before winter, then in the spring you can pick bunches of the fragrant herb and add it to salads and various hot dishes. There are certain rules growing parsleywhen it is sown in the fall.

Features of planting in the cold season

Many vegetables are planted between autumn and winter.If you sow the seeds of aromatic-spicy parsley in time, they will be covered with snow and they will not freeze on frosty days. And as soon as the snow begins to melt, the grass seedlings will begin to actively develop and begin to grow. And already in the spring you can collect bunches of parsley, fragrant, soft green.

When the seeds successfully overwinter, they become resistant to low temperatures. And after harvesting, you can replant the bed with greens for harvest in October. After planting parsley for the winter, the grass:

• It will be better to tolerate spring frosts;
• will accelerate in development by a month;
• disease resistant;
• ready to eat fresh.

To sow before winter, you need to know what period of autumn is most suitable for this. The period will vary depending on the region. So, in Siberia, planting is carried out earlier than in the Moscow region. Climate and weather conditions play a big role in the timing and rules of sowing parsley in the cold season.

Popular varieties for winter cultivation

Not all vegetable varieties are suitable for planting before winter. The most common greens with early and medium ripening periods are:

• root parsley Russian size with snow-white flesh and a sweetish taste of the underground part of the plant;
• the Eagle variety, unpretentious in care, with a lush leaf rosette;
• Common leaf parsley, frost-resistant, with lush greenery;
• Italian giant of mid-season appearance, quickly growing large green leaves;
• variety of curly parsley Esmeralda.

Varieties are selected in accordance with the purpose of the vegetable crop, resistance to low temperatures and diseases.

The best time to plant parsley before winter

You need to sow parsley in the fall at a certain time.When sown early, the spice will begin to sprout quickly, and due to the onset of frost, the tender seedlings will die.

It is necessary to choose the timing of sowing so that the seeds only swell, but do not begin to germinate. Therefore, they choose the time for sowing in October-November, depending on the region and the timing of winter.

Vegetables are sown when the temperature drops below zero at night and reaches 2-3 degrees Celsius during the day. It is best when the weather is clear and slightly frosty on the day of planting parsley. After all, the vegetable is not afraid of the cold and tolerates soil temperatures of 0 degrees.

If the onset of winter shifts and heavy rains begin, the sowing dates are postponed for some time.

Preparing seeds for planting in open ground

Preparation of parsley seeds is necessary to eliminate low germination of low-quality and affected specimens.

A few days before planting, selected seeds are soaked in a one percent solution of potassium permanganate. It is enough to put them in a gauze bag for 20-30 minutes. Instead of potassium permanganate, solutions of boric acid or copper sulfate are used.

Bubbling, saturating the seed material with oxygen, will increase its resistance to diseases and pests.

More seeds are prepared for winter sowing than in spring. Therefore, procedures with them are carried out more often before planting. Can't do without:

• vernalization, aging in ice;
• panning, enveloping in a mixture of humus, peat, mineral fertilizers;
• hardening with alternate placement in warm and cold water.

Having gone through all stages of preparation, the seeds will show resistance during wintering and will actively begin to germinate after warming up in the sun.

How to choose the right place for autumn planting parsley

After harvesting the vegetables from the garden, they begin to prepare a plot in the dacha for parsley.Vegetable crops need fertile soil with neutral acidity, although a slightly acidic option is also suitable. A vegetable bed is prepared where groundwater does not come close to the surface. Otherwise, when the snow melts, the area will be flooded and the seeds may die.

In order for grass seeds to successfully overwinter, the bed must be in an open place with a lot of snow. For the spring harvest you need more sun than in the shaded corners of your summer cottage.

A place for planting parsley in the fall will be ideal if it has previously harvested potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and cabbage.

You need to know that after collecting the grass, it is better to sow the beds with greens. It is difficult for vegetables to grow after parsley.

Preparing the soil for planting

To plant greenery in the fall, you need soil in the selected bed:

• thoroughly cleanse of plant waste remaining from cultivated crops;

• loosen;
• nourish with organic and mineral fertilizers;
• moisturize well.

To prevent parsley from being attacked by pathogenic microorganisms or pest larvae during spring germination, all vegetation is raked from the area and destroyed.. Loosening the soil will allow you to cope with eggs and pupae of parasitic insects overwintering in the soil. You can pour boiling water or a solution of potassium permanganate over the area.

From organic fertilizers, compost or vermicompost is applied to the garden bed, up to 5 kilograms per 1 square meter. It is also necessary to feed with granules of superphosphate and potassium salt, 20 grams of each substance. The same amount of fertilizer containing nitrogen is added. To improve the permeability of the soil, coarse river sand or fine-grained crushed stone is mixed into it.

The grooves for planting seeds are made in advance with a depth of 5 centimeters, covering them with film so that rain does not damage the integrity of the bed.

Sowing parsley seeds

Having chosen a suitable day for sowing parsley before winter, remove the film material. A thin layer of dry sand is poured into the grooves. They take a third more seeds than usual. This will avoid a lack of seedlings in April.

Having placed the seeds in the grooves, sprinkle dry soil, nutritious and loose, on top, and lightly compact them.

All that remains is to protect the plantings from frost and retain moisture and nutrients in the furrows. For this purpose, cover the bed with a layer of mulch consisting of peat, humus or chopped straw, and dry leaves.

If the weather is rainy, without reducing the air temperature, you can cover the beds with film. The material will save parsley from moisture getting into the soil and premature germination of seeds.

After the spring sun begins to heat up, the parsley seeds become active and grow, receiving enough moisture.

Proper plant care

Before the onset of winter, it is better to cover the beds with parsley if they are located in places where little snow accumulates. For shelter, leaves are raked over the area or straw is laid. During a snowy winter, you can engage in snow retention by installing special shields.

In April, after the snow melts, spicy grass shoots appear. Now they need watering several times a week. Moisten parsley seedlings with warm water in the evening.

After the sprouts become larger, they need to be thinned out, leaving large, healthy specimens. After the third thinning, the distance between the parsley stems should be within 10 centimeters.

Greens need feeding. Fertilizers are applied in the form of organic matter, using mullein diluted in a ratio of 1:6, or bird droppings in a solution with a concentration of 1:15.

Of the mineral fertilizers for growing greenery, you need nitrogen contained in ammonium nitrate, as well as potassium and phosphorus. The vegetable plant will extract the last element from wood ash. The solution is prepared from 100 grams of ash per 10 liters of water. Fertilizing is applied every 2 weeks, the first before the grass leaves begin to bloom..

It is important that you need to feed plants in moderation. Excess fertilizer can make herbs tough and tasteless. But it makes no sense to abandon them when the soil is severely depleted in nutrients.

Seedlings must be protected from weeds. They are removed as they appear, since weeds become a source of infection with fungal infections and parasite larvae.

Harvesting

Parsley is grown before winter for fresh consumption. Therefore, as soon as the leaves and stems reach maturity, they are cut off. To use for a long time, you should immediately put the herb in the refrigerator, in bags, providing the greens with air access. Don’t forget to sort out the shoots and dry them before planting.

To ensure juiciness of parsley leaves, it is necessary to water the bushes more abundantly before cutting. If root varieties of the plant are grown, then dig out the white fragrant roots in May-June. They are cut and placed in the freezer.

The stems of herbs are cut at the root, rather than plucked out at the tops. This will allow young shoots to grow, and then the grass will actively develop until autumn. It is better to take several stalks of grass for salad from the outside of the bush without violating its integrity.

When the curly leaves of the plant begin to turn yellow, the shoots are completely cut off to be stored and used for cooking.

If you follow the rules for growing parsley before winter and carefully care for the plantings, you can achieve a high yield of greenery. It will provide summer residents with vitamins and beneficial microelements until the next time the herbs are cut.