Sorrel before winter is usually sown in regions with a temperate climate on sandy soils. In the case of warm regions, sowing can be done in spring and summer.
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Seed collection
To collect seeds from plants in mid-May, trim off all the leaves from the bushes, while leaving the stems. After one and a half to two weeks after setting the seeds, the stems should turn brown. When this happens, you need to cut them off and dry them in a cool place.
Sorrel planting time before winter
Different gardeners choose different sowing times for sorrel. It can be early spring, when the soil temperature is up to 3 degrees, summer or autumn. The advantage of sowing in early spring is that you can harvest in the same season.
If you sow sorrel in June-July, you need to understand that you will have to monitor the humidity regime. Seeds germinate for a long time, and if the soil dries up, then only next year it will be possible to harvest.
Many people choose to sow sorrel in November. With this method, it is important that the seeds do not have time to sprout before the onset of stable frosts. The disadvantage of such sowing is a reduced yield due to uneven germination of seeds. In general, do not save on the amount of seed.
Sowing site selection and soil preparation
The best conditions for sorrel are fertile soil such as loam and drained peat and shaded areas. It is undesirable for the spring to be too damp. Groundwater should not be closer than 1 m from the soil surface. Before sowing, it is important to rid the area of wheatgrass.
You should also fertilize the soil, for 1 m2 you need:
- Humus - 10 kg.
- Potassium chloride - 15 g.
- Ammonium nitrate - 15 g.
- Superphosphate - 30 g
The zone for the beds must be dug up, the depth of the furrows is slightly deeper, compared to spring sowing, approximately 2-3 cm. After that, cover the beds with polyethylene to protect the grooves from precipitation. Then you need to prepare about 3 buckets of dry earth or sand and keep in a place free of moisture, a barn will do.
Sowing sorrel seeds
Sowing sorrel seeds falls in November, sometimes at the beginning of December, just during the arrival of constant frosts. It is important to sow in cold weather, otherwise the seeds will sprout and the sprouts will die.
If you are sowing after snow has fallen, shake it off the film, open the ridges prepared in advance, and pour a layer of 1 cm into the grooves of dry soil. Make sure that the distance between the mature plants in the row is about 5 cm. We remind you that you need to take into account the percentage of seedling death and sprinkle seeds without regret.
In the spring, it will not be superfluous to thin out the sorrel. Next, sprinkle the seeds with a previously prepared dry substrate or sand and cover the beds with fallen leaves and snow.
In addition, sorrel should not be grown in the same place for more than 4 years, this leads to a worse formation of green mass and a decrease in its nutritional properties. Therefore, the planting of the plant must be renewed every 2-3 years.
Thus, we have created comfortable conditions for the seeds in which they can safely overwinter and finally emerge in the spring.
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