The best tips for the care and planting of calendula

Calendula is considered more medicinal than an ornamental plant. However, orange-yellow, bright flowers on a lush green background look more than attractive. A blooming calendula will look equally good both in a group, and in a single planting, in the center of the compositions or as a frame.

Sowing seeds for seedlings

Growing marigold by planting seeds for seedlings is more difficult than in open ground, but with this method, the plant blooms earlier.

Sowing seeds for seedlings is effective if you want to grow low varieties.

Optimal sowing time

Sowing seeds for seedlings takes place at different times. For early sowing in the ground - at the end of March-April, before the winter - at the end of autumn.Sowing under the winter is preferable if you expect early shoots and flowering.

Soil: preparation and care

Calendula when planting, and in the further care, does not cause the cottagers much trouble. The most convenient way to use for planting containers with drainage holes.

The soil can be bought ready (for flowering herbaceous plants) or you can prepare it yourself. In the latter case, take one part of sod land, one - sand, three parts of leaf and humus. This light blend is best suited to calendula.

Calendula seeds are sunk into the soil by three centimeters. Containers should be covered with foil. To maintain soil moisture requires regular watering, which can be supplemented by spraying.

Feeding of young shoots is performed using soluble complex fertilizers for seedlings, with a frequency of once every two weeks.

Temperature conditions

Containers with seedlings should be stored in a room at a temperature not lower than + 15 ° C. Shoots appear about a week after sowing, but do not forget to ensure that there is no temperature difference and drafts in the room.

Sowing seeds in open ground

Calendula - is a hardy plant that is resistant to low temperatures. It is not afraid of frosts (up to -5 ° C), and feels equally good both in the garden and in the garden.

Optimal sowing time

As for a specific time, when it is better to plant a calendula seeds in open ground, then you can determine it yourself, based on personal convenience.

When spring planting seeds are sown in April, and in the autumn - in the winter, in October. In the spring, you can check the readiness of the soil for planting in the following way: hold a lump of earth in your palm and drop it from a meter height. If someone is easily crumbled, you can start landing.

Choosing a place to plant

The best place for calendula will be sunny or slightly shaded areas with fertile, drained soil. In full shade, the stems of the plant are strongly drawn out, and the flowers become smaller.In addition, the chosen location should be protected from the winds, which can break thin stems.

Soil: preparation and care

The soil is prepared in autumn: humus (half a bucket per m²) and 20 g of superphosphate and potassium chloride are introduced. In the spring, before the landing itself, urea is additionally added (30 g / m²).

You can replace urea with fertilizer from the store, or dilute the humus with superphosphate and potassium sulfate (a tablespoon). After applying the fertilizer, they dig up the earth and rake it.

Scheme and depth of landing

Before planting calendula seeds, determine the shape of the planting.

For the landing, they make furrows two centimeters deep. Between rows and plants leave a distance of about 40 cm for a single planting.

Calendula is planted by sowing seeds into the soil by three to four centimeters. Too deep planting can reduce seed germination.

For medicinal sowing the scheme is different: 10 cm between plants and 40 cm between rows.

Calendula care

Care for the nails is no more difficult than for other plants. Regular attention and the implementation of all the necessary plant procedures will help to decorate your garden and garden with small "suns".

Watering: all the nuances

Calendula - a plant that loves moisture very much, so she needs regular watering. But there are some nuances: freshly planted marigold seedlings are watered three to four times a week, but adult plants need such watering only during the drought period.

Under normal conditions, with normal rainfall, you can water twice a week. Simultaneously with irrigation, it is necessary to loosen the soil and remove weeds.

Fertilizer and dressing

Feed the calendula need every 12-14 days. Commonly used complex fertilizers: Ammophos (20-30 g / m²) or Nitrophoska (70-80 g / m²), but should not be carried away by them, since their frequent use can lead to plant diseases.

If you use nitrogen fertilizers, also be careful: because of the excess of this substance, the inflorescences become small and pale.

Removal of flowering inflorescences

For greater pomp and flowering calendula pinch. Removing faded inflorescences will prolong the flowering of calendula until the end of the season; in addition, fresh inflorescences will be larger and brighter. Do not rush to throw away the removed parts, they will be useful as a medicinal composition.

Collecting and storing seeds

A month after the emergence of seedlings calendula begins to bloom. Collect inflorescences with seeds in dry weather, removing the extreme boxes, which are in a horizontal position.

If the seeds are not collected in August, they will sift themselves. Flowers with boxes dried to the state of decay. Seeds are carefully picked, folded into fabric bags and stored in a dry, dark, ventilated and warm place.

The combination of calendula with other plants

The height of calendula (up to 60 cm) allows you to plant it as a living curb or mini fence, bordering lower plants. It will look good next to the evergreen ornamental shrubs.

The color scheme of calendula (from cream to golden) will decorate the Moorish lawn and alpine hill.The plant is able to make a bright sunny touch in planting with dark flowers: blue, blueberry-purple, burgundy, and short-growing calendula will look beautifully from pots, hanging baskets and pots.

Successful, and most importantly useful will be planting in the garden next to the vegetable and herbaceous crops. Calendula works as an antiseptic for the soil in which it grows.

It disinfects the soil from diseases (root rot) and parasites. The plant is suitable in the fight against aphids, raspberry flies, ants and cabbage moths. It boosts immunity in other plants.

Pests and diseases of calendula: prevention and treatment

Calendula is rarely sick, and its most common diseases are black spot and powdery mildew. The first affects the leaves with black or dark brown spots, and calendula ceases to develop from the white plaque throughout the aboveground part of the plant left by powdery mildew and dies with time.

If you notice a defeat late and you need to take urgent measures, use fungicides: Fundazin, Topsin, Topaz.

Although it is best not to heal, but to take preventive measures — remove weeds in a timely manner, clean the soil in the fall, do not overfeed with nitrogen, and observe crop rotation.

You should not grow in one place the same culture for more than three years. A diseased plant that cannot be helped needs to be removed and burned.

Pest marigold scares, the exception is aphid. Her calendula, as if collecting for themselves the benefit of neighbors. To free the plant from the parasite, try spraying it with Karbofos, Aktellik or Antitlin.

In the Middle Ages, Calendula was eaten - it served as a filling for pies, it was added to salads and cereals, main dishes, and puddings were prepared.

Most of all, it was valued as a seasoning, since it was the calendula that replaced saffron, which is still not cheap, and at that time, brought from overseas, it was available only to very rich people.

For medicinal purposes, Calendula was used by such luminaries of ancient medicine as Galen, Avicenna, Amirdovlat, Amasiats and herbalist Kulpeper.