When to sow lupins? Lupine care for many years.

Lupine (Lupinus) or wolf beans is a plant from the legume family.

Origin

In nature, perennial and annual species Lupines are found in the Mediterranean and North America. Just over 200 species of this plant are known. In culture, lupine has been grown for about 40 centuries, which indicates the undoubted benefits of the plant, and its high decorative qualities.

Description

Lupine is a powerful tall plant co rod system, going into the ground for a meter or more. Like other members of the legume family, lupine has the ability to form nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria on the roots. Thanks to bacteria, nitrogen from the air passes into the soil, into a state available for plant nutrition. This is valuable quality have been used for a long time, planting lupine on poor soils as a crop - green manure. Lupins are also planted for livestock feed, juicy and vitamin-rich greens are used for the production of silage.

The stems of the plant are covered with palmate bright green leaves. Lupine flowers are collected in apical inflorescences - brushes of the most different shades(white, blue, blue, yellow, purple, pink). rich color palette lupine makes it one of the most popular garden flowers. Seeds - beans ripen in autumn. Often the plant spreads self-seeding, and without control, can capture large areas. To prevent this from happening, faded lupine shoots are cut off.

You can appreciate the bright beauty of the lupine fields by looking at the photo of the plant.

Types and varieties of lupine

In our country, perennial lupine and its annual variety are successfully cultivated.

The Englishman D. Russell's lupine hybrids are very much appreciated by gardeners: Burg Freulin (snow-white flowers), Schlossfrau (pale pink flowers), Chamdeles (lemon-yellow inflorescences) and undersized mixture of multi-colored perennial lupins Lilu.

Choosing a place for planting lupine

This plant loves well-lit areas; in the shade, flowering will not be so plentiful.
Any soil is suitable, but it is important that they are well-drained. Stagnation of moisture lupine does not tolerate. A slightly acidic soil reaction is preferred. Alkaline soils are corrected by adding peat, and excessively acidic soils are corrected by liming (up to 5 kg of lime flour per 1 sq. meter).

Lupine is not picky about soil fertility. On the contrary, it is recommended to plant it on lands poor in humus, over time, the fertility of these soils increases.

Sowing seeds

You can sow lupine before winter (in October, followed by mulching the beds with a layer of peat), in spring (in April-May), and for seedlings in mid-March. For lupine seeds, soil is prepared from a mixture garden soil, sand and peat.

Little secret. In order for the seeds to sprout better, you need to break their dense shell a little. For example, rub the seeds between pieces of sandpaper.

Seeds are placed at a depth of 0.5 - 1 cm in moist soil. Between the seeds, a distance of 10 cm is observed (it is convenient to sow lupins immediately in separate peat pots). Seeds germinate at a temperature of +20 +22 degrees. When the seedlings grow 3-4 true leaves, it is time to plant them in open ground. More late disembarkation seedlings threatens to damage the root system. Lupins are planted according to the scheme 30 by 30 cm, or 30 by 50 cm. Lupines planted from seeds at the end of summer or the next year will bloom.

Important! At seed propagation, the shade of the flowers of the mother plant is not always inherited. Most often, lupine flowers will be blue or purple, but almost never white.

Vegetative propagation

You can get a lupine plant that exactly repeats the mother plant only by using vegetative propagation.

Kidney Pack. At the base of the stem of a perennial lupine are renewal buds from which a new plant can be grown. In early spring, they rake a little earth from the base of the stem, and look - if the buds are swollen, they with the sharpest knife cut out, along with a piece of the root collar. The cut on the stem is covered with garden pitch or sprinkled with charcoal. The kidney is immersed in a pot with sandy moist soil. It takes about 30 - 35 days to form roots, after which the division can be planted in the ground.

Lupine cuttings. Good planting material are side shoots lupine growing from leaf axils. At the beginning of summer, cuttings are cut from an adult plant (at least 3 years old) into the right amount, and planted for rooting in fertile soil. It is useful to water immediately after planting with any growth stimulator.

Care

The plant does not require watering. Needs moisture only during periods of heat and drought. In a normal summer middle lane, lupine has enough natural rainfall. Each watering is accompanied by loosening, the flow of air to the roots is vital for the plant.

Tall varieties of lupins must be tied to supports and the base of the stem should be spudded, otherwise, under gusts of wind, the plant risks breaking off.

Lupine needs pruning of faded shoots. This procedure will prevent self-seeding and save the plant's strength for re-flowering.

Perennial lupins are fed once a year, in the spring, introducing a complete mineral fertilizer containing no nitrogen.

In one place, perennial lupine is left to grow up to 5 years. Then the landings must be updated in a new place. The best predecessor crops for lupine are cereals.

Lupine is prone to fusarium, gray mold, mosaic and rust. Of the pests, the sprout fly also annoys the plant. It is necessary to regularly inspect the plants and apply insecticide treatment in time.

For the winter above-ground part plants are cut almost flush with the ground. The bush is covered with a layer of sawdust, shavings or peat. Lupine is an unpretentious winter-hardy plant, and winters well in our latitudes.

Lupine in garden decoration

Large bright lupine candles are visible from afar. The plant looks spectacular, planted in groups in the background, and arranged in rows along the paths.

In joint compositions with other plants, lupine is planted in the background of a flower garden. The flower goes well with such plants: phloxes, poppies,.

Lupine as a green man

As " green manure»use annual species of lupine, as they grow faster and are more unpretentious. These are yellow lupine, white lupine, narrow-leaved lupine.

The benefits of lupine for the soil are not only in the presence nodule bacteria on the roots, enriching the soil with nitrogen. By themselves, powerful roots that go deep into the ground perfectly loosen it and saturate it with oxygen. In addition, lupine repels the wireworm, which is especially important for areas where potatoes are cultivated.

The technology for growing lupine as green manure is simple. In the spring, plant seeds are sown on prepared soil according to a 12 by 30 cm pattern. As lupine grows, the field is cleared of weeds, and the plantings are watered if necessary. After 50 - 60 days, the lupine greens are mowed and the soil is covered. It is more convenient to do this using a walk-behind tractor or a tractor. The greens quickly rot, in the fall it is already possible to carry out winter sowing on the site.

See also video

Almost every gardener, closer to spring, thinks about how to decorate his site this year. And in fact, the choice of attractive flowering plants so big it makes your head spin. Even in ordinary flower shop you can find the most different types showy seeds horticultural crops. An excellent choice for growing can be perennial lupine, let's clarify how it is planted, and what care this plant needs in open field, also consider growing lupine from seeds at home.

Lupine is actually a member of the legume family. It deserves to take its place in the garden, as it has bright and attractive flowers and is completely unpretentious. This plant can be annual or biennial, and its stems can reach fifty centimeters in height. Lupine flowering usually lasts one month, colorful flowers appear on it. flower candles, which may have the most different colors- they are yellow, white, red, pink, cream, purple, etc.

In the photo, perennial lupine

Growing perennial lupins is possible from seed, and it's not difficult at all. At the same time, it must be remembered that with this reproduction option, the plant does not inherit color and other characteristics from the mother flowers. Sowing flower seeds can be carried out directly in open ground, it is also possible seedling method breeding.

In the event that you prefer sowing in open ground, you can do it in April, immediately after the snow melts (in this case, the site must be prepared in the fall). You can also sow perennial lupine seeds before winter, around the end of October.

Planting material is scattered along the grooves, two centimeters deep, then sprinkled with soil. When sowing before winter, a plot with planting flowers must be mulched with peat. And with spring sowing, you just need to water the crops.

Of course, readers of "Popular about Health" need to choose the right place for growing lupins. Such flowers feel best on slightly acidic or slightly alkaline soils. It is better that the soil is loamy or sandy loam. In the open field, perennial lupine grows very well in sunny and semi-shaded places.

To prepare the site, it is necessary to lime acidic soils with dolomite or lime flour since autumn. On the square meter area you need to use five kilograms of the selected substance. Such a measure will be sufficient for three to four years. As for too alkaline soils, you need to dig them with peat - while five kilograms of peat are taken per square meter.

It should be borne in mind that perennial lupins grow rather slowly. In the first year of cultivation, it is worth filling the gaps between shoots with some flowering annuals.

Features of caring for perennial lupine

In fact, some special care for flowers is not needed. In the first year of growing flowers, you need to periodically loosen the soil around the plants and eliminate weeds. It will not be superfluous to spud grown lupins, since over time their root neck begins to be exposed, and side rosettes also stand apart. After five or six years of growth of perennial lupine in one place, you need to eliminate the old plants. After all, the middle area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe bush is already beginning to die off, which leads to a noticeable deterioration in the quality of flowering.

Tall lupins need supports to help their stems stay intact and not break from the winds. In order to prolong the flowering of plants until the very frosts, it is worth eliminating fading inflorescences so that they do not have time to dry out. This will help the lupins bloom twice in a season.

As for watering, in open ground, flowers need moderate moisture. However, on initial stage growing season they need an abundant supply of water. Also in the spring it is necessary to feed the lupins. Fertilizers are used starting from the second year of growth, with preference being given to compounds that do not contain nitrogen. For each square meter, about twenty grams of superphosphate and five grams of calcium chloride are used.

After the perennial lupins have faded (somewhere in early October), it is necessary to remove the leaves and flower stalks. You can collect seeds from them if necessary. Next, you need to spud the bushes, covering the root neck with soil. After the site, you need to sprinkle thicker with sawdust to protect the plants from frost.

How to grow perennial lupine from seeds at home?

Many gardeners grow perennial lupine at home for seedlings. This can be done as early as March. For seedlings, you can use a small seedling box and fill it with a loose soil mixture consisting of one part of soddy soil, the same amount of peat and half a part of sand.

Before sowing flowers at home planting material it is desirable to mix with the powder obtained from the nodules of the roots of old plants. Such a simple event will accelerate the growth of nitrogen-absorbing bacteria. The first seedlings should appear after one to two weeks. They need periodic watering and adequate lighting.

The grown seedlings must be planted in the ground with an interval of thirty to fifty centimeters. The best time for this - the end of April - the beginning of May.

So, perennial lupins are great for growing in the garden. These unpretentious flowers can be easily grown even by novice flower growers.

Lupine is a genus belonging to the legume family. It includes and annual plants and perennials, herbs, shrubs and shrubs. Another name for lupine is "wolf bean", it comes from the Latin Lupus - wolf.

General information

Lupins have a large tap root, which sometimes reaches two meters. This plant, like most legumes, has bulbs on the rhizome that contain nitrogen and favorably affect the soil. Thanks to this, lupine is an excellent green manure.

Shoots, depending on the species, woody or herbaceous. Branches can spread or grow straight. The inflorescence is formed from many flowers. In some cases, it reaches a meter size.

Varieties and types

Or blue grows up to half a meter tall. The foliage is slightly pubescent, palmately divided. Inflorescences are odorless, can be white, pink or purple.

A cold tolerant species that is excellent for growing in our climate. It grows a little over a meter, the shoots are straight, the foliage is palmate, below it is slightly covered with fluff. Inflorescences about 35 cm in size are blue.

An annual species with a small amount of palmate foliage. The flowers are yellow, reseda-like.

Grows up to half a meter. The shoot is straight, branches at the top. The foliage is palmate, strongly pubescent below, the top of the sheet is smooth. Flowers are white, pale pink or light blue.

Also popular species are lupins. perennial , volatile , many-leaved , treelike . But most often it is the perennial lupine that is grown.

Lupine planting and care in the open field

Caring for a lupine is not at all difficult. When growing this plant, it will sometimes be necessary to loosen the soil and destroy the weeds. Perennial species will need to be hilled from time to time, as the root neck will become visible with aging.

When aging up to five years, lupins are destroyed, due to the fact that the middle of the bush dies by this time, and flowering becomes an order of magnitude worse.

It is also important to make supports for the plants in order to maintain the stems of the inflorescences. Sluggish, drying inflorescences need to be cut off to continue flowering.

In terms of watering, lupine is not particularly demanding, but in the spring, flowers need to be watered more strongly.

From the second year, lupins need to be fertilized. Do it in the spring using mineral supplements without nitrogen. You need to make 20 g of superphosphate and 7 g of calcium chloride per square meter.

You need to fertilize the flowers until they are old and you plant new ones. At the end of flowering, somewhere in the middle of autumn, foliage and flower stalks are cut off and seeds are collected.

Perennial bushes are spudded, and the site should be tightly covered with sawdust, otherwise the plants may freeze.

Lupine perennial growing from seeds

If you want to propagate lupine seeds, then you will need to sow them in a loose substrate of peat, soddy soil and sand (1: 1: 0.5). Before sowing the material, it must be mixed with powdered roots of old lupins: this will increase the growth rate of nitrogen-consuming bacteria.

Seeds germinate in about 15 days. After the formation of a pair of true leaves, transplant the flowers to permanent place, keeping the distance between the bushes from 30 to 50 cm, depending on the species. Remember that when propagating by seeds, the varietal characteristics of the parents may be lost.

It is best to sow the seeds in early spring, and if you want to sow them directly into the soil, then this is done in April, but for this it will be necessary to prepare the planting site in the fall.

It is also good practice to sow for the winter. Before the beginning of November, you need to sow seeds to a two-centimeter depth, cover the area with peat.

In matters of soil, lupins prefer loams or sandy loams with weak acidity or alkalinity. And as mentioned, in order to sow seeds in the spring, in the fall you will need to prepare the soil and extinguish or oxidize it if it is too acidic or alkaline.

If lupins grew in the ground before, then for three years it is advisable not to grow them in this place anymore. The best predecessors for lupins are cereals.

Reproduction of lupine cuttings

To propagate lupine by cuttings, you need to cut off the recovery bud with a piece of the root collar and plant it in a sandy substrate. After a month and cuttings, roots are already forming, and they can be transplanted to the site.

When cuttings in spring, it is better to take basal rosettes, and in spring - side stems that appear in the leaf axils. This method of reproduction is preferable to seed, as it allows you to save varietal characteristics.

Diseases and pests

The main pests of lupine are aphids, growth flies and nodule weevils. They are destroyed with the help of insecticides.

Among the diseases there are fusarium, rot, spotting, rust and some others. But you don’t have to be afraid of them if you follow all the rules for caring for a flower.

There are more than two hundred species of such an unpretentious plant as perennial lupine. He is very fond of gardeners, using the plant for flower arrangements in their areas. Lupine flowers can be dark red, white, pink, red, blue colors. Sometimes even tricolor plants can come across.

As perennial plant most often grown lupine is multi-leaved and tree-like.

Tap root system of lupine goes deep almost two meters. Its seeds vary in color, size and shape, depending on the type of plant. American lupine beans are smaller than Mediterranean species. Drying, they crack, scattering seeds around them. To prevent this, the seeds should be harvested when the yellow beans are just beginning to dry. It will be necessary to do this in several stages, selectively.

Seeds should be sown in April, when the snow melts. The place and soil for this must be prepared in the fall. Seeds before planting are recommended to be treated with a fifty percent solution of foundationol. In about a year, you can see the first flowering of the plant.

You can sow lupins in the fall. Then in the spring, after the snow melts, the plant will already sprout and bloom in early August. Late October or early November put the seeds in the soil to a depth of two centimeters, covering the top with a small amount of dry peat. If the site has sandy soil, then the sowing depth can reach up to eight centimeters.

For growing lupine, slightly alkaline or slightly acidic soil is most suitable. In order for the plant to bloom for a long time, a place for planting is chosen where there is partial shade. The soil is prepared in advance. If the plant will be planted in the spring, then in the autumn the alkaline soil should be dug up with peat. Five kilograms of peat are added per square meter. Acidic soil is limed from the same calculation of calcareous or dolomite flour. Enough for four years.

For seedlings, seeds are sown in early March. soil mixture for this should be loose and consist of grain earth, peat and sand in a ratio of 1:1:0.5. To accelerate the growth of nitrogen-absorbing bacteria, the seeds are mixed with tubers of the roots of old bushes, crushed into powder. Seedlings should appear in two weeks. In order for the seeds to sprout at the same time, the crops must be kept warm by covering them with damp gauze.

Lupine seedlings are planted in a permanent place after the appearance of two true leaves. It is not worth delaying the disembarkation, as there may be problems during the transplant. Strengthened seedlings are planted at a distance of thirty to fifty centimeters from each other.

It is better to plant grown seedlings small groups in the depths of the flower bed, as in the height of summer, faded plants do not look very attractive. They should be given a place for perennials who can cover the lupins with their bright flowers and lush foliage.

match well perennial lupins in mixed landings with irises, hostas, lilies, nivyaniks, astilbes, delphiniums.

Perennial lupine care

Behind it unpretentious plant maintenance is not difficult.

Diseases and pests

Diseases such as Fusarium wilt, root and gray rot, mosaics, spotting, rust, phomopsis. A sick bush follows cut at the root. The remaining new shoots will usually be healthy. Sometimes liming of the soil and digging is required.

The plant during the budding period can be affected by aphids. The plant is affected by nodule weevils and larvae of the sprout fly in more than late time. Insecticides are used to control pests.

If you follow all agrotechnical requirements, then you will not have to deal with pests and diseases of the plant. Growing lupine in the same area is possible only after three years. It is best to plant lupins after cereals.

For summer residents, lupine is a unique green manure. The root system of the plant penetrates to a depth of soil up to two meters, loosening its structure and raising upper layer from the depth of the soil nutrients.

Nitrogen is formed in the root tubers of lupine, which perfectly enriches the soil.

If you have any difficulties or problems - you can contact a certified specialist who will definitely help!

Lupins are familiar to me since childhood, they are in in large numbers grew up in my grandmother's garden. I remember how my mother made simple blue-violet bouquets from them, which they didn’t bring home, but left on the veranda (we were told that the plant is poisonous).

Much later, I became aware that the lupine plant is not only very decorative, but has several types, shades, and has useful qualities. What are these properties and how I use them in the garden - you will learn from this article.

On the sides of the roads you can often see whole thickets of blue lupine. This perennial species has the greatest bitterness, poisonousness. However, like the entire legume family, it is an excellent green manure (enriches the earth with nitrogen, increases its fertility).

Lupine is a powerful plant, upright. The height of its varieties varies from 30 cm to a meter or more. The root system is branched, rod, goes deep into 200 centimeters.

The stems become woody as they grow, and the leaves look like a palm tree - palmate, only the width differs. Inflorescences are elongated, in the form of a brush, have multiple flowers of varying degrees of openness.

The color palette is presented widely: blue, white, red and pink, yellow and purple.

There are two hundred species of this plant in the world. They are perennial and biennial. The decorativeness is very high, I like that the lupine blooms early and looks decent in the background of the flower garden. There are flower beds where it is the basis of the composition.

Perennial lupine can flood the entire area, adjust the landings, weeding out the excess.

Advice! Dry inflorescences must be cut off to prevent spontaneous reproduction. If seeds are needed, on the contrary, I leave a few pods to extract the beans.

Cultivated varieties grow neat bush or shrub. Tall flowers with rich greenery and bright long tassels look spectacular along the fence around the perimeter of the site.

Useful properties and application

The plant contains up to 50% protein, has a large amount of green mass. On the roots of lupine there are nodules, the bacteria of which fix nitrogen from the air. The soil under the thickets is enriched with useful substances that feed other plants planted in this place.

Important and helpful! The ground component of lupine is suitable for fertilizers no less than the root part. We cut it before maturity and plow it in the right place (in greenhouses, beds). Embedment depth 20 cm.

In just one year, the soil becomes healthier and more nutritious. The regular use of lupine for the purpose of increasing the fertility of the land helps not worse than manure. The acidity of the soil decreases, it is saturated with nitrogen - indispensable element for the growth of all crops.

AT agriculture lupine is used not only as a green manure crop, but also as a forage base for livestock, poultry and fish.

For forage (silage and beans), three main types of lupins are planted: yellow, white and blue narrow-leaved. They contain less bitterness and therefore are good for animals: juicy, healthy, high-calorie.

This plant is also a honey plant, it attracts bees and bumblebees to the garden, contributing to pollination.

Landing and care

Lupine will not burden you with the responsibilities of taking care of yourself.

Where is the best place to plant, what soil is suitable

It is better to grow it in bright, sunny places, small shading is also suitable. It is no coincidence that in nature lupine grows on hills and slopes - water does not stagnate there, which is deadly for the roots.

Any soil will do, preferably well-drained to drain water. Slightly acidic loams, sandy, soddy, neutral soils will be good for lupine. If necessary, peat is added (in alkaline soils) or lime (in acidic soil).

Over time, the fertility of this area will increase, and all this thanks to lupine.

Planting seeds in open ground

On the street, lupine can be planted with seeds or seedlings. Do this in early spring or after the first frost in autumn.

In April or May, we sow beans in beds made from a mixture of peat, sand and soddy soil. They need to be deepened by 3 centimeters. Flowering will occur only next year.

In October-November, we deepen the seeds into the ground in the same way. The distance between them is 20 - 50 centimeters. In the spring of next year, our lupine will bloom.

To make lupine seeds germinate easier, we will specially prepare them. They are in a thick shell, and in order to germinate more easily, it must be damaged (without touching the inner layer).

This can be done by placing the beans under temperature “stress” (put in the freezer for a while, then dip in hot water), or rub the surface sandpaper(or a sharp knife, scalpel).

Is the top shell cracked? Let's start landing.

How to sow seedlings

• Time - March or April;
• I take containers or peat tablets, pots. I do this - I immediately sow in separate cups of peat, so as not to injure the roots of the lupine when planting;
• I buy land in a store, flower substrates are specially prepared there. But you can prepare the mixture yourself;
• The depth of seeding is 0.5-1 centimeter;
• Spray the surface of the soil with a spray gun and cover with glass or film;
• We put in a warm, bright place;
• Sprouts will appear in 10-15 days, and when they become stronger, we remove the film.

We plant our plants outside as soon as the frosts go away. Bet that the lupine should have at least 4-6 leaves.

The landing pattern is as follows: 30, 40, 50 centimeters. It depends on the variety and on what density you yourself want.

Important! seedlings taken from landing tanks, plant immediately - the root system of all varieties is very sensitive.

Reproduction by cuttings

At the base of the plant (in the basal part) there is a growth point - a bud, cutting off which, you can effectively propagate lupine. The soil for these purposes should be loose and light, in partial shade. We quickly add a shoot with a kidney and water it.

The kidneys appear in the spring, respectively, the procedure is performed early in the spring.

In the same way, I plant young shoots from the axillary spaces of the leaves. This method is applied after the end of flowering.

Components of care

• We water and loosen the soil under the plant as necessary;
• Tall varieties may need a garter to protect them from the wind;
• Care also consists in pruning faded shoots. As a result, you will not have unwanted self-seeding, and the lupine can bloom a second time;
• Top dressing is applied once - after winter it is watered with special mineral (phosphorus-potassium) solutions;
• Plants are pruned in autumn. All "greenery" is buried in places that need to improve the composition of the soil;
• Landings are updated once every 4-5 years.

Species and varieties

multileaf lupine

It is a blue perennial or annual, purple. Very unpretentious, frost-resistant. Its height is a meter or more (there are also dwarfs), the inflorescence is one third of the entire bush.

On its basis, varieties with red, white-blue, dark red, cream and other colors are bred. These are varieties Minaret and Princess Juliana, Scarlet Sails and Lulu (blend), Schlossfrau, Yellow Flame.

Varietal hybrids are more demanding on conditions, but also have excellent appearance.

yellow annual

Height 80-100 centimeters, the flower is fragrant, a valuable forage crop.

White

stern annual variety, undemanding to soils. Very high (up to 2 meters), not afraid of drought.

blue angustifolia

Annual fodder lupine. Thin leaves, blue or purple flowers.