Sorrel

The plant is perennial, unpretentious, grows on acidic soils, can grow in partial shade.

The most popular varieties are Shirokolistny, Odessa, Belleville. On the plot it is better to grow spinach sorrel( Avdeevsky or Nikolsky), rather than the usual one. It has larger leaves and not such a sour taste, but twice as much vitamin C and carotene. He grows very quickly, over the summer you can do a few cuts. This sorrel has leaves of a different form than the usual ones, they are elliptical, large.

Sorrel gives good greens on soils rich in organic, but even on scanty soils it gives it enough. In one place it can grow 3-5 years, but usually in the fourth year it grows smaller. It is better to sow seeds every second or every two years in August to update the bushes.

The plant is cold-resistant and frost-resistant. In the spring, leaves start to grow early, and if in early April, cover the planting of sorrel lutrasilom or put over them arched film shelter, by May 1, you can shoot the first crop.

In spring, you can feed sorrel with any nitrogen fertilizer( 3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water), consuming 1 liter of solution per meter of planting. After each cut, the nitrogen fertilizing should be repeated, but we can use weed infusion instead of mineral fertilizer. At the end of August, you can give fertilizer with any potassium fertilizer, but do not use ash, as it neutralizes the soil, and sorrel prefers acidic soils. Phosphoric top dressing should not be given, since phosphorus causes the flowering of sorrel. If the soil was well seasoned with organic material before planting, then mineral fertilizers can not be made at all. Sorrel should not so much water, how much to loosen.

Sorrel can be transplanted and planted, dividing the old bushes, but the plants that grew out of the seeds are more delicious, since they have more tender leaves.

Sorrel contains apple and citric acid, which give it an acidic taste. In addition, it contains ascorbic acid( vitamin C).It has a lot of potassium and iron and quite a lot of protein.

Sorrel contains oxalic acid, which has an unpleasant taste. This acid is harmful, because it binds calcium in our body, thereby reducing its content, which leads to all sorts of diseases. Young leaves process it during growth completely, but there are a lot of old leaves, so do not use them for food and for blanks. Young ones can be used all summer and autumn, so regularly cut the sorrel, so that all the time growing young leaves that do not contain oxalic acid. Over the summer, two cuts are usually done.

Sorrel is used in salads, especially in a mixture with fresh salad and spinach, cooked from it cold and hot vegetable soups. It is harvested for future use. But the most delicious - this is the first spring pie with sorrel, which resemble pies with apples. Sorrel is contraindicated in people with metabolic disorders, diseased kidneys or heart.