Dills are very aromatic herbs that are native so southern Russia, Western Africa and the Mediterrenean. It is a known herb usually used in different cuisines among western nations. It is green in color, with thin leaves that are around ten to twenty centimeters long. Since they have a strong, pleasant and aromatic smell, dills are also used as a finishing touch or a flavoring to dishes like different sauces, salads, or fish.
Dill is perfect for cold soups that include beets, cucumbers or yogurt. It is also good with spreads such as cream cheese and sour cream. It goes well with different flavors such as lemon, garlic, parsley, paprika, mustard and horseradish. Dill is a member of the Apiaceae or Umbelliferae family. It is “cousins” with coriander, parsley, cumin and more, all of which are aromatic plants.
Aside from this, dills are also known to have some health benefits to those who eat them, since they contain good amounts of calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, potassium, sodium, and zinc. They can even be used to treat diarrhea or back pains. This plant is very diverse, and would serve as a great addition to any garden because of the number of ways it can be used both directly and indirectly.
Due to its many beneficial qualities, growing dills is a worthwhile venture. And to make sure that your dill plant becomes as healthy and bushy as possible learning how to prune dill is an important skill.
How to Prune Dill?
Dill plants tend to grow tall and leggy, so an occasional trimming may be in order. Once your dill is about a couple of months old, use a clean pair ofgarden shears to cut the leaves close to the top of the plant. Snip them right at the spot where they meet the main branch of the plant. Snipping off the top parts of the plant lets it focus on growing lots of leaves further down the main stem.
Pruning the top parts of the plant also prevents it from seeding too soon and spreading beyond your control. This is a good way to make sure your dill plant becomes bushy instead of growing too tall.
Any part you cut off from the plant can be used one way or another. They are useful or their strong, aromatic flavor and medicinal or herbal qualities.
How to grow dill from cuttings?
Growing a plant is no easy task, since it requires patience, skill, and knowledge about the particular weather conditions and environmental conditions that are ideal of a particular plant to grow. Being able to grow plants does have its perks, since you will be contributing to the environment while improving the aesthetics of your own garden or home.
Apart from that, some parts of plants can also be used for food, medicinal, or herbal purposes. Some plants even have more than one function, which is why investing the time, money and skill to help your own plants grow can be a beneficial endeavor.
Growing dills is no exception. Learning about how to grow dill from cuttings is also part of the experience, since the first step to helping create the perfect garden is learning how certain plants grow. A lot of people have the misconception that dill cuttings can’t grow because the plant does not really do well with being transplanted. But that is not true, dill cuttings is possible to grow. As long as the right conditions are present and the plant is healthy, it can grow.
First, to grow dills, you need to pick the right pot, or container, or location in which to plant your first dill seed. Dills can grow in containers, and can grow in any kind of location, even in locations without direct sunlight, as long as it gets a minimum exposure to sunlight of six hours. Thus, dills can grow indoors. The container must be deep, however, since dill roots can grow to great lengths.
Once you have picked out a container with adequate depth, the next step is picking the right soil to place the plant in. Sometimes, if the soil is not properly fertilized, or if it is too dry, the plant will not end up growing because the conditions are not favorable to it. For dills, the soil must be rich, and one that allows the excess water to seep through and drain well.
For watering dills, this should be done regularly during the first few months that the plant starts to grow. Dill loves sunlight. So make sure that you plant it by a window or somewhere that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight each day.
Pruning dills are also very important, since this helps maintain their shape and production of leaves to harvest. To prune dills, you need to cut parts that are no longer necessary, and shape the dill according to how you want it. Cutting parts that are also attempting to bloom also prolongs the plant’s production.
If you need tips on how to grow dill, catch up with our piece on it. It is very helpful.
How to harvest dill?
Once you have chosen the right pot to use, as well as healthy soil, your dill should grow to certain lengths long enough for you to start harvesting some of its parts to use for re-planting or for herbal purposes. Learning how to harvest dill is important if you want to make use of its health and herbal benefits, or if in case you wish to replant it.
For dills, you need to have a pair of sharp scissors to cut portions of the plant, since, otherwise, without sharp scissors, you might end up cutting portions in an unclean manner, thereby damaging or wounding the plant unnecessarily. To determine whether your dill plant is ready for harvesting, you need to determine whether there are more than four leaves present. Harvesting cannot be done at anytime, and must only be done once the leaf count has reached four and above. Once it has, you can cut the leaves off with scissors.
Before harvesting the leaves, you should make sure to water the plant either a day before harvesting the leaves or right before cutting the leaves off. Leaves may be harvested as long as flowers have not yet started to appear.
How to keep dill from bolting?
Sometimes you might run into problems when you start to get into planting, since not all plants act in the same way you expect them to, or maybe maintaining the plant amidst other responsibilities has not been so easy to work with. In such instances, bolting might occur. Bolting means that flowering stems are produced on the plant before you are able to harvest the leaves that are meant for eating or herbal purposes, such as when dills start to produce flowers. Bolting is a natural part of the process of any plant, and is usually done by plants so that they can produce seeds before they die.
For those who wonder how to keep dill from bolting, one of the things you can do is nip it in the bud. This means that whenever you see a potential part of the plant that is about to bloom into a flower, you need to pinch it to prevent them from budding. This does not prevent the plant from withering or dying, but it does prolong the time in which you can harvest leaves without the dills bolting.
Dill as a Companion Plant
Did you know that dill is a good companion plant for some plants you can eat? It is good for corn, asparagus, onion, lettuce, cucumber, basil and a wide variety of veggies in the cabbage family.
Dill is a good companion plant because it attracts insects beneficial to the mentioned plants. It also discourages many pests unwanted in your garden such as aphids and spider mites
Conclusion
Dills are very useful plants to have in your garden, especially since they have a lot of uses and health benefits. You can also harvest leaves from them multiple times, and learning how to prune dills is as important as learning how to cut and grow dills from their own cuttings. Growing plants is an on-going process, and it takes a lot of time and effort to make sure that all your plants, even dills, are growing at the rate you want them to.
Of course, your efforts may be rewarded with your very own organic source of herbal spices like dills, which can definitely increase your appetite for better-tasting food. All it takes is a little patience into really learning the inner workings of each plant, since each plant may have their own types of environmental preferences. Harvesting dills can also be a pleasurable experience, since being able to see the fruits of your labor will always feel rewarding.
