Growing a pike turfy in the garden

This plant today can often be seen in flowerbeds of parks, gardens, garden plots. But before that, the attitude was unequivocal - weeds. Its name speaks for itself: the pike is soddy, or the meadow is soddy.

Botanical description

This perennial plant belongs to the genus Lugovikov family Cereal.

Speaking about the description of the pike soddy, first of all, it should be noted that it has evergreen leaves, due to which it draws special attention to itself. It is her leaves that form rather neat bumps of almost round form up to 30 cm high. Not wide leaves up to 3 mm, but rather thick and tough, can grow a little less than half a meter in length.They are almost flat from below, and their upper part is covered with parallel longitudinal grooves and barely noticeable spines. To touch the leaf is rough. The leaves on the stems are not so much, so the stems look smooth.

The inflorescence of the pike soddy is a panicle of many spikelets. Beautiful silvery spikelets are quite motley-looking, they have a peculiar light shine. The spikelets are very small in size, it is even difficult to see them. All this gives a lugovik to a turfy, unusually decorative. Flowers on this herbaceous plant begin to appear at the end of June, as they ripen, they tend to change their color. When a shchukhara goes down, its broomstick has a drooping appearance and some compactness, when it blooms, it becomes slightly friable, fluffy, like a cloud. Constantly staying in the sun, the meadow turfy can grow to a height of more than half a meter. In the autumn, it acquires straw shades and preserves them until it is covered with snow.

This plant is suitable for almost any climatic conditions, except for excessive heat and drought - it still loves moisture.

Growing varieties

Varieties of pike soddy are not always easily distinguishable. They have different lengths of leaves, height, various shades of spikelets.

'Bronzeschleier' - one of the tallest varieties (up to 170 cm), characterized by high resistance and beautiful views. Panicles can be both green at the time of disclosure of color, and brown with a bronze tint and are able to maintain a decorative appearance almost until early spring.

'Fairy's Joke' - variety, which is characterized by unusual rather than attractive appearance. This self-propagating variety, it gives instead of seeds miniature young plants ready for breeding. Up to 90 cm in diameter - up to 60 cm

'Goldgehänge' - a variety with yellow panicles with a golden hue. Height up to 130 cm, diameter - up to 60 cm

'Goldschleier' - one of the highest grades (up to 175 cm), upright and slender, but its decoration can lose quite quickly - in a month and a half.

'Goldstaub' - A variety up to 75 cm in height with very dark leaves and light panicles in yellow tones.

'Goldtau' - a variety whose height is up to 1 m has foliage that is quite interesting with dark red tips.It grows relatively slowly, so it is convenient for use in decorative compositions.

'Ladywood Gold' - a grade up to 90 cm in height with golden-yellow foliage.

'Northen Lights' - undersized variety (up to 25 cm), having leaves with longitudinal stripes of white with a cream shade of color, in cool weather they can turn pink. Grows slowly enough, it blooms infrequently. Leaves may show signs of rust.

'Schottland' - powerful upright variety more than a meter in height with dark green leaves and slightly greenish panicles, eventually turning yellow.

'Tardiflora' - Late flowering variety that feels best in a cool and shady place, because it is rusting at high temperatures.

'Tauträger' - A variety with a height of up to one meter, which blooms worse than all the others, has, when blooming, quickly turning yellow panicles with a blue tint.

'Waldschatt' - the least heat-affected variety up to 90 cm high, which is recommended for cultivation in the southern climate.

Where to plant

Pike soddy can be found everywhere: on meadows with a sufficient level of moisture, on the roadsides, in forest glades, near reservoirs and marshes, on pastures.

Lighting and location

The plant is very picky: it will grow in the sun and in the shady area, although it blooms much better in a bright sunny place. Preference nevertheless gives wet places. The pike turfy feels rather well in any light, only in a sunny, bright place it blooms better, and it is more comfortable to grow in a cool shady one. The optimum temperature for it is +25 ° C. Very high temperatures may adversely affect the plant.

Soil for pike

Lugovik turfy is able to grow in almost any soil: in clayey, acidic, sandy, neutral, alkaline, depleted. But, of course, he feels best in fertile soil and therefore grows faster. For planting a pike turfy, they dig a hole of such a size so that it can fit there with a whole bump and be sufficiently deep. Then it will no longer need to replant and rejuvenate. After that, you need to plant and soil abundantly water. The first two weeks, especially if there is no rain or sandy soil, it is necessary to water frequently [/ url].In general, the plant requires regular watering, especially in a dry pore or when grown in sandy soil. In spring, a turfy grassland will not interfere with top dressing with a universal nutrient or nitrogen fertilizer.

How the plant multiplies

Pike soddy reproduces both with the help of seeds without growing seedlings, and when dividing the bush. Seeds are planted in the open soil before winter. Seeds germinate well, without difficulty and quickly. It should be noted that adult plants give self-sowing, then it becomes difficult to distinguish varieties, so if such a process is undesirable, then the inflorescences need to be cut off when they are flourishing in time. During vegetative reproduction, the pike bush is divided in early spring or in autumn. Old unsightly bumps can be dug, cut with a shovel, keeping the roots, into several separate parts with a diameter of a little more than ten centimeters. They are planted at a distance of a meter and a half, not forgetting to water abundantly.

If an adult plant has not lost its decorative value, then it is possible to separate one or two pieces from its hummocks with the same shovel without harming the donor.The hole formed near it must be covered with earth, watered and compacted. Both methods are fairly simple and guarantee the success of the breeding process.

Features agrotehnika

Lugovik soddy very early after the winter starts to grow, because of this, as soon as possible it is necessary to cut its stems and foliage "under the hedgehog" with shears.

Over time, the young foliage will completely cover last year’s, but the leaves that have survived after wintering are very vulnerable as a result of the effects of heat and the appearance of rust on them. No need to spare the remaining green leaves after winter, because after pruning new young will grow very quickly, and for decorative purposes they will occasionally have to be trimmed more than once. In summer, the pike is soddy until it stops growing until the autumn, but it is still necessary to water it. Before winter, plants can be pruned, it is not necessary to cover them specifically.

The use of decorative properties

For agriculture, the grassy grassland is a harmful weed, but for landscape design it is one of the most ornamental grasses, the magnificence of which is emphasized in the mass of other plants.

In early spring, you need to remember to cut it very shortly, so that after a certain period its appearance will become even better. There are many varieties of this herb with different hues of coloring of the spikelets, and almost all of them look good in the general landscape design. Long leaves and charming air clouds of inflorescences contribute to the extraordinary popularity of the pike in a variety of decorative compositions. The most successful combination of pike with plants that have other shapes and sizes of foliage and inflorescences, for example, irises, roses, lilies. It can be grown as an accent on lawns, then its self-seeding will be most welcome. Impressively this plant looks when covered with hoarfrost or dew.

Of interest is the straw coloring pike soddy in the autumn.

Moreover, it is not difficult to grow it.

Medicinal properties

The grass pike is soddy has poorly nourished, hard leaves, therefore it is of no particular interest for domestic animals, except for its young foliage; for farmers it is a malicious weed,after which it is necessary to fertilize the soil; but not many people know the healing properties that scientists have discovered in this plant.

Pike soddy, or soddy meadow - is an interesting and rather controversial plant. But with skillful use, it will not bring any inconvenience, but only benefit.