Planting mustard - How to grow mustard
Growing mustards are something that many gardeners may not be familiar with, but this spicy green is quick and easy to grow. Planting mustard in your garden will help you add healthy and tasty food to your garden crop. Read on to learn how to plant mustard and the steps for growing mustard.
How to plant mustard?
Planting mustard is done from seed or seedlings. Since growing mustard from seeds is so easy, this is the most common way to plant mustard. However, the young seedlings will work just as well.
If you will be growing seed mustard, you can start them outdoors three weeks before your last frost date. If you want a more consistent harvest, plant green mustard seeds about every three weeks to give yourself a later harvest. Mustard greens won't grow well in the summer, so you should stop planting seeds a little before the end of spring and start planting mustard seeds again in mid-summer for a fall harvest.
When planting mustard seeds, plant each seed just below the soil about half an inch (1.5 cm) apart. After the seeds sprout, thin the seedlings 3 inches (7.5 cm) apart.
If you are planting seedlings, plant them 3-5 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) apart starting three weeks before the last frost date. When planting mustard seeds, you can plant new seedlings every three weeks for a later harvest.
How to grow mustard?
Mustard greens growing in your garden need little maintenance. Give the plants plenty of sun or partial shade, and keep in mind that mustard greens love cool weather and grow quickly. You can fertilize with a balanced fertilizer, but often these vegetables don't need it when in well-modified garden soil.
Mustard greens need 2 inches (5 cm) of water per week. If you don't get that much rainfall per week while growing mustard, you can water it further.
Keep your mustard bed weed free, especially when they are small seedlings. The less competition they have from weeds, the better they will grow.
Harvesting of green mustard
You should harvest mustard greens while they are still young and tender. Older leaves will get tough and bitter as they get older. Discard any yellow leaves that may appear on the plant.
Mustard greens are harvested in two ways. You can harvest single leaves and let the plant grow more, or the whole plant can be cut to collect all the leaves at once.
Mustard is considered a green fertilizer. This means that it is a fertilizing plant. The main property of mustard is that it saturates the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus.
You can plant mustard so that it fertilizes the garden
Mustard also has other beneficial properties:
Cleans the soil from harmful microorganisms, scab and phytophthora, helps fight pests - snails, moths, wireworms.
Mustard grows rapidly, inhibits the growth of weeds.
Improve the soil structure.
With its help, you can stop the leaching process of the garden soil.
With the first frosts, mustard turns into the best refuge for the earth. Not only does it protect it from freezing, it also retains moisture in the soil until spring.
Mustard is an excellent honey plant, if you have an apiary, plant the neighboring crops of this plant.
Mustard is considered a companion plant. It coexists well with potatoes, beans, grapes and other garden and vegetable plants. You can plant this spice around fruit trees, it interacts particularly well with apple and pear trees. Mustard protects its neighbors from pests and makes them grow more actively.
HOW TO PLANT THE MUSTARD PROPERLY?
You can sow mustard in both spring and autumn. In the spring, this is done a month before planting potatoes, in the fall, immediately after harvesting. Seedlings appear in 3-4 days. If you want to get the most benefit from mustard in your garden, it's best to start growing it in the spring. Mustard is a light-loving plant, so it's best to sow it in sunny areas of the garden. The optimal amount of seeds per hundred square meters is 120-150 g.
After sowing the spices, you need to roll up the soil a little
If you want more seeds to sprout, it is best to prepare the soil in advance. Loosen the soil with a flat cutter or cultivator. Apply fertilizer: any formulation with effective soil microorganisms.
In about a month the mustard will reach 15-20 cm. After that, it must be watered with a solution of the EM preparation and cut with a flat cutter or cultivator. Water the mustard abundantly as it loves moisture, especially during the germination period.
Now that you know how to plant mustard, grow this spice every year. After the first planting, you will notice how the quality of the soil in the garden has improved.
How is it useful?
Due to the deeply penetrating roots into the soil, mustard is able to loosen, structure and drain the soil well. The substance secreted by the root system has a detrimental effect on the wireworm. The pest avoids areas planted with white mustard.
During the mowing period, when the green mass of the plant enters the soil, a large number of microorganisms descend for its processing, which enrich the soil. White mustard is capable of suppressing weed growth.
Promotes cultivation and easier assimilation of hard-to-dissolve nutrients - phosphates from other plants. The dense mustard shell prevents wind and water erosion in spring and autumn. In winter, mustard peels prevent the soil from freezing too much. The essential oils contained in all parts of the plant prevent the accumulation of parasites and fungi in the soil.
How and when to plant
Preparation for planting white mustard includes the same measures as planting spring cereals. You can sow this crop throughout the garden season, that is, with the arrival of spring until the beginning of September. In the southern regions until mid-late September. Some gardeners sow even before winter, but in this case it is necessary to wait for the cold so that the culture does not have time to rise. As a fertilizer, mustard sowing is done twice a year: 30 days before planting any horticultural crops and in early autumn, when harvesting will take place.
Sowing after harvest helps retain moisture in the soil. At the same time, you can sow mustard in two ways:
- in rows with a distance of 15 cm, while the seeds are embedded in the soil to a depth of 1.5-2 cm;
- evenly distribute the seeds on the prepared surface and level them from above with a rake.
Mustard does not require special care, if the soil is very dry, it is necessary to water it and that's it. After a month and a half, when the plant reaches a height of 20 cm, it must be mowed, flattened and buried. Experienced gardeners water the planted leaves of the plant with preparations such as "Baikal", "Shining" and "Rinaissance" and cover them with black film or cover material. So, by the fall, you can get a loose, healthy and enriched soil with all the substances necessary for plant growth.